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WaterFall Records Learn to Record Page

Setting up a Mixing session

by Kenneth Sutton

fter you record your song and you like what you have recorded, you need to mix your song. Mixing is very easy and is not hard at all; the trick to mixing is listening. Set back and Listen to your song. You'll then begin to hear and get an ideal of how you want it to sound.

Play with the Levels in your song, some things sound better in a mix if they are lower than others, don't be afraid to take things out and put them back in at different times.

To set up your tracks in a mix is up to you, there is no right or wrong way to mix a song.

But, to make things fatter in your mix there are some things you can do, like doubling tracks, in most software programs this is as quick as a click of the mouse. Go up to where it says Edit and click it. In your dropdown window you should see Doubling Tracks. Click that and you should get a new track. (Make sure you highlight the track you want to double.)

You can also send your tracks to an AUX track and have all your Drum parts in a mix, and still have control of all your drum parts.

Sub Mix

Here you can add EQ, Compression etc. To do this, you will need to set up a send. A send is just what it says; you are going to send your track to another track.

In your track, (lets say Guitar) click on your Send button, (or Buss) and lets call it 'Buss 1-2'.

Now open up a new track called AUX, set your fader to 00dbs, and where it says 'Input' on the Aux track click Buss 1-2.

Play your track to hear the Guitar, set your levels to your liking. (If you don't hear your Guitar or see a level in the Aux fader, go to your send and set it to 00dbs). With Aux Tracks you can do the same thing with Effects, just send the audio track to the effect.

EQ'ing

There is a lot you can do with EQ, also known as 'Coloring'. But too much can hurt a song, so don't over EQ! For more on Mixing.

Here are some settings you might want to try:

Kick Drum EQ. 4-band Gain: -20dbs Fq: -13.0 khz Gain: -2.0 dbs Fq: -4.20 khz Q: - 2.40 Gain: -3.0 dbs Fq: 160 hz Q: 1.90 Gain: 0.0 dbs Fq: 210 hz Bass Guitar Eq. 4-band Gain: 1.0 dbs Fq: 6.00 khz Gain: -1.0 dbs Fq: 620 hz Q: 2.6 Gain: -3.5 dbs Fq: 200 hz Q: 3.50 Gain: 1.5 dbs Q: 95 hz

Drum Kit Eq. 4-band Gain: 4.0 dbs Fq: 11.0 khz Gain: -3.0 dbs Fq: 4.40 khz Q: 2.60 Gain: 2.0 dbs Fq: 460 hz Q: 0.98 hz Gain: -2.0 dbs Fq: 190 hz Vocal Eq. 4-band Gain: 3.0 dbs Fq: 12.0 khz Gain: 2.5 dbs Fq: 5.20 khz Q: 0.94 Gain: -4.0 dbs Fq: 850 hz Q: 1.40 Gain: 2.0 dbs Fq: 290 hz

Also visit Ken's 'other' site at Sweet Kenny.com and listen to more of his work that's coming out of WaterFall Studios!

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