How Do I Choose the Best Mixing Software?

Remix

Remixing is more than an art;

Make the mix clear: You can use high-pass and low-pass filters to precisely define the frequency range of each instrument. The free BX_Cleansweep plugin should help you a lot.

Automated processing: Almost all digital audio workstations have powerful Automation functions, so there is no reason to just turn the volume to a similar position and leave it alone. If necessary, you can fine-tune the balance of all movements, phrases, and even syllables. You can also use automated controls for send and insert effects.

Handling Pan: You can do panning on every element of your song. But there is no need to drive yourself crazy in order to find the perfect panic position or to bring them to life. Except for the extreme left, extreme right, and middle positions, the results of other positions in different systems are different. So you can boldly pan the elements of your song.

Take a proper break: Know how to relax your ears. This will help you reorganize your ideas and opinions. Mixing is hard work, so after every few hours of work, you need to stop, relax and adjust your body. Of course being disturbed or distracted does not count as a reasonable break.

Complete all editing in advance: edit all the details of the drum, choose the vocals, adjust the pitch, and match the drum with Bass. These things should be done well before entering the mix. Otherwise it will be difficult for you to maintain and develop your creative passion during the mixing phase.

Once the orchestration is too bloated, a better method is to cut the music again. Like many people, I also write songs while recording in the production room, so the feeling for songs is usually temporary and improvised. So deleting something can make the music both concise and nice, and give you a clearer idea of the overall grasp of the music.

Try to construct a song with a singer's singing or other melodic instrument instead of the rhythm part. First simply record some beats, drums, basses, and pianos to mark the beat points, then record the vocal and edit it as well as possible. At this time, when you arrange the rhythm track again, you will be very sensitive to the subtle characteristics of the human voice, so it will be very easy to feel where to strengthen the rhythm part and where to keep the rhythm part quiet .

Sequence software with digital audio functions (such as StHdio Vision from Opcode, Digital Performer from MOTU, Cubase Audio from Steinberg, Logic Atldio from Emagic, and Cakewalk Pro Audio, etc.) can allow you to Before the music texture, it was very easy to record and edit the human voice track first. Listen to the vocal to perform the orchestration, and the song you compose will be more closely attached to the vocal.

Although there are no certain principles for recording and mixing, once you develop your own mixing steps, it can at least tell you where to start mixing. Here are my mixing steps.

You spend a lot of time in the mix making various adjustments. Regarding mixing we have listed 12 (this is only the lowest number!) Main steps, and the most difficult part of mixing is the interaction between these steps. When you change the equalization setting, the level value will also change. This is because some elements in the sound are boosted or attenuated, which will affect other elements. In fact, you can think of a mix as an "audio code lock." When you tune all the numbers to the correct number, then you have completed a great mix.

Let's take a look at these 12 steps together, but you need to keep in mind that this is just one person's opinion on mixing. You will most likely need a completely different set of mixing methods that is best for you.

Some existing equipment has an automatic function, which can make fine mixing operations very convenient. Of course, some mixing engineers ignore these favorable conditions and resolutely resist the automatic mixing function. They think that these automatic operations will destroy their inspirational grasp of music. Also, there is no legal provision today that says that mixing engineers must use automatic mixing.

There is a remixer who has worked with me. He works very hard and tirelessly adjusts the level, equalization and reverberation. At the final downmix time, he can adjust the faders accurately and timely with his eyes closed s position. He uses an eight-track device for mixing, and he separates his fingers so that he can control the faders of each track separately, and can be timely and accurate. The challenge of this kind of work is obvious, but it is undeniable that the songs made in this way are lively and not dull.

But in fact few people can strictly train themselves to master the difficult techniques of this mixing. Therefore, proper use of automatic mixing becomes a good choice. Some of today's mixing devices record the actions of your faders or knobs, and then automatically control them during the mixing process. In addition, in some computer audio workstations, you can even draw precise envelopes for changes in volume or sound image. So for most operators, automixing is still the most convenient tool to implement your own mixing ideas.

In addition, using a few tricks will also make mixing easier. For example, to emphasize a sound, in addition to increasing the volume, changing the equalization settings can also get very good results. When playing solo instruments, you can try boosting the high and mid frequencies. In addition, when fading out, sometimes you can fade more quickly than other instruments by applying more reverberation to the channel of a certain instrument.

No matter how you do it, make sure your mix is lively and appealing to your audience, but it's not always easy. Even a momentary change can have a huge impact on the final playback. Don't just use it irrespective of whether it is suitable or not; use the effect is to add more changes to the sound and make the musical piece more attractive. Keep the level "dancing" all the time and don't have any fear of trying.

An excellent fade out is arguably the key to the song. Let's assume you end the song with a long instrumental performance. One option is to keep the volume of the sound at four bars, and then fade out with eight bars. Of course, a fade-out does not have to be continuous. You can let the fade out have some fluctuations, such as pulling the fader down a little every two beats.

A linear fade is not the best choice. The recessed fade-out is particularly suitable for very long sounds, which can cause the listener to desire to keep listening. The initial rapid decay tells listeners to listen carefully, and when their hearts are caught by you, you will gradually fade to the end. There is also another case, which is a raised fade. In contrast, its sound is a bit abrupt, and it feels a little overwhelmed by the feeling of music, and I don't know where you want to go.

A return-type fade-out means that when you fade out some sounds, you suddenly and loudly push the sounds up and then really fade them out completely. Such tricks can be used one or two times in the music you make, and they do bring some changes to your work. Probably the best example of applying this method is when a song fades to zero level, it suddenly restarts at the maximum volume, and then fades out completely.