10 Tips for Mixing In Logic Pro X | Your Local Musician - Developer's Description

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Mixing in Logic Pro X — The Basics

 

This is simply an example, and is actually using an unfinished mix to demonstrate how you can use Match EQ to level up your music production. One of the principles in mastering is measuring.

That is, using tools to measure things such as:. The Analyzer section in MultiMeter is a real time frequency analyzer, which shows you changes in frequency as they happen.

There is no set goal for what this should look like across a mix; think about the different frequency settings on your car radio, iPod or in Spotify. For example in our mix, Hz is coming through really strong. We might use an EQ to cut a little in this area. Loudness is a contentious topic in mastering, as it has been the subject of abuse for many years now. Remember how the human ear identifies louder sounds as subjectively better?

Well, mastering engineers or more accurately the record labels that hired them learned how to use this to their advantage by using a limiter to make finished tracks louder and louder. This resulted in something called the Loudness War, which ended up sacrificing the beauty in music and its dynamic range in favour of overly compressed or squashed tracks that appeared louder.

Loudness is still an issue in contemporary music, though it has been stamped down by new limitations enforced by streaming and broadcast companies.

All the way, seeking to retain the nuance and dynamic range that makes music music. Tricky, huh? We are going to do some more comparison to our reference tracks here; load the MultiMeter onto the Stereo Output, and listen to the loudest section of your reference tracks one by one.

Note down the value it will change over time so find an average value or note down a range e. Do this for all 3 reference tracks and compare the values, this will give you an indication as to how much squash or compression is acceptable for the genre you are working in, and what the loudness level of your master should look like.

For example, heavy rock tracks will typically feature a lot more compression and therefore be a lot louder , than say, a 20 minute free form jazz odyssey,. Phase shift is a natural by-product of EQ and is something you can get away with on individual tracks, but it can cause problems for the master. Not only does the Linear EQ look great in black, it has a higher resolution than the standard EQ, giving you the ability to make finer adjustments — important in mastering.

When the track level reaches above this ceiling the threshold , the compressor will engage and compress or turn down the audio. The ratio control tells the compressor how much to compress the signal above that level. This is expressed as a ratio such as , etc. The higher the ratio, the more the compressor reacts. At a ratio of , our dB signal will be compressed to dB the difference between the threshold [db] and the signal level [dB] divided by 2.

The attack and release controls determine how fast the compressor kicks in when a signal passes the threshold attack , and how quickly the compressor disengages after the signal falls back below the threshold release. These two controls affect how much compression is applied, for how long, and greatly contribute to the sonic quality of the compression. Sometimes labelled make up gain, this control is used to match the compressed and uncompressed signal levels.

Because compressors often make things sound louder, it can be difficult to compare and accurately gauge the effect of a compressor when switching between the affected and unaffected signal.

Because the human ear naturally favours louder signals , the louder, compressed track often sounds better by comparison. Use the make up control to ensure the levels are consistent so you can judge the effect of compression more accurately.

Compression is best used to control overly dynamic instruments, for example, an inconsistent vocal recording. Use the loop control in Logic to select a section of vocals, and open up the compressor plugin. Start with a modest ratio of is generally seen as the middle ground in compression ratios.

Roll back the threshold control until the compressor starts engaging when the loud vocals kick in. The goal here is to allow the compressor to kick into gear only when the vocals get too loud, not at all times. That said, you may want to apply a little compression to the vocal tracks e.

If the compressor is acting on vocal transients too slowly, make the attack quicker. Experiment with different attack, release, threshold, and ratio settings until you find the perfect setting.

Logic, being Logic, has tonnes of built in effects that you can use to spice up your tracks, add some depth and interest, and make your productions sound just like the pros do. Imagine a ball of blue light directly in front of you.

The horizontal field left to right , is controlled by pan. Whereas the vertical up and down , represents frequency, which is dependent on the type of instrument bass guitar vs violin for example , as well as any equalization applied. The volume or level controlled by the fader as well as compression , is represented by the light becoming brighter or duller.

This is controlled using reverb. By using all four fields or spectrums stereo, dynamic, frequency and depth , you can give each instrument its own space in a mix, meaning every track can be heard clearly. Before the world of plugins, and even before outboard hardware effects, reverb was literally created in a physical space. For example, if you wanted a big chamber sound on a choir, you had to record the choir in a big chamber!

Obviously this is incredibly inconvenient, so sound engineers quickly figured out how to emulate this effect using springs and plates. Predelay The predelay parameters control the amount of time in milliseconds between the dry signal and the first reflection.

Reflectivity Have you noticed how some rooms are more reflective or noisy than others? I discovered this one later, but I love it. Because it helps a lot to see the timing on the ruler with the bars. It was a habit when I was using Pro Tools, and I was missing that feature.

I always think of the channels in groups because it helps to understand the song. For example, when you download a channels multitrack file and import it to your mixing project, it can be scary at first.

Also, you can process the same kind of sounds together if you use those bus groups. For example, I always tend to compress the drums together to get the most energy out of them.

Therefore, I have to route all of them to a bus group. Having that group from the beginning is perfect for me. The bus routings are on the second page of the buses, so your primary bus names can stay the same. You can see it below:. Set the bus groups from the beginning of a mix project, and delete the unnecessary ones.

So this is why I put a VCA type compressor on the drum bus group. You can always tweak it to your liking, and I encourage you to do so because every song is different. But if you want energetic drums, this compressor will help you a lot.

Sometimes I want a big, powerful sound from drums. When I want that, I use the Drum Crush bus. It compresses the signal to hell and adds some distortion to make it even more powerful. I put there a compressor and an overdrive plugin, but you can always use its variations.

For example, if you have something like a tape machine, you can add it with your favorite settings on every bus group, so you can always reach them with just a click.

Then, you can start mixing with those plugins bypassed, and you can open them when you need. There is a stereo out bus; why would I use a mix bus? Gain Staging 2. Balancing 3. Panning 4.

Bussing 5. Problem-solving 6. Committing 1. Gain Staging If you know me, you know I am hot pun excused on the issue of gain staging. Balancing This is the key to mixing. The sound stage is a 3-dimensional space. Mixing IS balancing. Panning This is the natural next step after fader work.

It really helps to understand the psychoacoustic nature of stereophonic sound. Bussing I like to make life as simple as possible.