Post by MetalRenard on Jan 12, 2020 4:36:01 GMT
Recently there was a good thread on Newgrounds asking for mixing tips. In this I mentioned the benefits of mixing in mono but I thought I would go into more depth here.
Why mono?
Mixing in mono pushes all the sounds from your track into the middle meaning that any space created by the stereo image disappears. This means that EQ clashes become extremely obvious and allows for surgicle removal of troublesome sounds.
Furthermore, so many people listen on mono phone speakers these days you have to cater for this market. If not that then on those rubbish portable bluetooth speakers *cringe* (humour, don't kill me).
Here's an example of a track I'm working on right now - it has tons of instruments since it's a blend of symphonic, retro electronic and metal.
After switching to mono, I could hear the clashes more clearly:
MONO Pre-EQ
So here is an example of how I EQed my string instruments:
You would never EQ strings this way normally but in the context of the song, the low end had to go in favour of my bass guitar, the mids had to go to give space to the lead guitar and (future) vocals. Finally there was some room around 300hz so I boosted it a little there to keep the fundementals and add warmth.
I also added some tape distortion in the highs ('cause I love it) and slight compression to even out loudness differences.
I did a similar process to each orchestral instrument.
Once I'd done this I reduced some of the low-mids on the chirpy synth and cut away 3db at 1100hz in the bass guitar to provide more room. I also noticed the kick drum had too much bass so I cut away 2db at around 100hz.
Here it is EQ'ed:
MONO Post EQ
Finally back in stereo:
Post EQ
This took me less than 15 minutes.
Obviously it's not a finished product and there's not a single spec of mastering on this (so it's still very quiet etc.) but I hope this illustrates my point.
Why mono?
Mixing in mono pushes all the sounds from your track into the middle meaning that any space created by the stereo image disappears. This means that EQ clashes become extremely obvious and allows for surgicle removal of troublesome sounds.
Furthermore, so many people listen on mono phone speakers these days you have to cater for this market. If not that then on those rubbish portable bluetooth speakers *cringe* (humour, don't kill me).
Here's an example of a track I'm working on right now - it has tons of instruments since it's a blend of symphonic, retro electronic and metal.
I have just imported my strings, woodwinds, brass and piano back into the project (since 16GB of RAM wasn't enough! FML...)
Pre-Mono EQAfter switching to mono, I could hear the clashes more clearly:
MONO Pre-EQ
So here is an example of how I EQed my string instruments:
You would never EQ strings this way normally but in the context of the song, the low end had to go in favour of my bass guitar, the mids had to go to give space to the lead guitar and (future) vocals. Finally there was some room around 300hz so I boosted it a little there to keep the fundementals and add warmth.
I also added some tape distortion in the highs ('cause I love it) and slight compression to even out loudness differences.
I did a similar process to each orchestral instrument.
Once I'd done this I reduced some of the low-mids on the chirpy synth and cut away 3db at 1100hz in the bass guitar to provide more room. I also noticed the kick drum had too much bass so I cut away 2db at around 100hz.
Here it is EQ'ed:
MONO Post EQ
Finally back in stereo:
Post EQ
This took me less than 15 minutes.
Obviously it's not a finished product and there's not a single spec of mastering on this (so it's still very quiet etc.) but I hope this illustrates my point.
