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KB, you are really asking "How do I mix a song". Its a huge topic. The goal is to cause the listener to engage emotionally in the result. Don't be tempted to think that is a trite or simplistic answer, it isn't I am deadly serious. As simple as that sounds it is one of the hardest things to do, especially if you have no grounding in the subject at all yet. So how do you go about doing this? You have to learn to listen from the perspective of a punter, whilst also listening like an analytical machine, at different times one or other view point is more imoprtant. In most songs the lead vocal is 'the song' from the point of view of the punter, and to connect with it the emotional content must pour out (even if ihat content is no more than "let's dance" the empotional impact must compel the listener to do just that). We can assume that that lead vocal must be front and centre of the soundstage then, its what we want the listener to focus on where ever they are standing in the stereo field. Apart from that music generally has a pulse, contemporary music almost always does, and that pulse is what causes peopple to move, and getting them to move is a very short step away from getting an emotional connection, so the key rhythmic foundations also need to be in the center of the soundstage. Like anything a mix is only as good as its fundamental foundations. The kick, snare and bass must be (in a contemporary mix) front and center. In a more vintage mix from the 60's stereo was first applied as literally a switch with either left right or centre, and thats why you sometimes hear old tracks, or tracks that want to sound old (Lenny Kravitz) having a different somewhat odd pan(orama), or stereo spread, with (say) drums hard left, bass and guitar hard right and vox dead centre. Unless you are after the goofy old vintage feel just avoid this, treat it as a rule that should be stuck to unless ther are utterly compelling reasons not to. We now get into a bit more of a technical area. That sound stage with two speakers generating faux stereo actually really has only three definite and fixed positions and they are Left, Right and Centre. Yes you can pan by graduations of this, but whenever you do the exact source of the panned instrument will be murky at best. This is so imortant that a very large number of major league mix engineers literally only ever pan LCR (and that style is so prevalent that it is called LCR mixing). Bearing in mind that they may well be doing a lot of tricks to make this jar less (such as panning the reverb or delay ambience from anything panned left over to the right and vice versa) it doesnt change the fact that in their mixes there is no 'just a bit more to the right', it's all the way to the rigth or left or dead centre. So why pan at all? Seperation.Seperation.Seperation..... In order to have a mix be emotive its important that it has clarity, and this is achieved by creating space for the components of the mix, and one important way to do that is panning. Anything that isnt in the holy trinity of the foundation (bass kick snare) or the lead vocal(s) needs to be moved out of the way (panned). Personally I dont stick to LCR rigidly, there are elements of any mix that I like to slip into thos elesser defined areas off centre or off hard panned (hi-hats for one, esp with other percussion to balance against them). But I do always pan anything that can compete with the vocal out of centre. Dont worry about a mix not balancing in the stereo field sometimes either, that is cool too. It can be part of the payoff of getting to the chorus for everything to be balanced then where it wasnt just before. Guitars, pan hard, double track (not more usually) and maybe send any ambience returns to the opposite side for a bigger sense of space. Try it, it sounds like every big rock mix in the last 15 to 20 years, because it works really really well. Backing vox need to be a little bit ethereal, so I like them not hard panned completely, but very nearly, then the reverb/eq/delay on them needs to place them further back behind the lead. Oh, EQ! See my recent blog on using it 'properly'. EQ is used for a couple of things. Firstly, when you bunch a load of instrumetns up together , left right or centre, they are going to competefor frequency. EQ is used to cut out holes in one instrument for another instrument to occupy. Done right you cant tell it has been done at all but suddenly you can hear the relevant parts of all the instruments involved. Win! It also helps place things front to back in the mix, closer sources are brighter, further away sources are darker, a gentle wide roll off of up to 20dB at 20KHz can really give a sense that BVs are behind the lead for instance. Then there is the balance itself, which is a matter of taste firtst, what 'feels' right to you, is right. As long as you are in a palce where what you hear you can trust so decent acoustics are mroe important than hugely expensive speakers. Learn your monitors, and you can trust your ears. Proper use of comrpession can help with some asects of the mix balance, not just levelling but shaping the envelope of the sound, you can make things easier to hear by electing which things get their transiet mroe prominent than others, and which things get their sustain more obvious, balancing intime as well as frequncy and over all level, and pan. If you do it all 'right' it sounds killer, if you aren;t used to it or you are learning a bit at a time it can sound odd in the first instance. Time and lots of proactice and questions, and reading will get you there. Watching someone who really knows their beans mix will get you there a lot quicker IME! I would really recommend [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/ZEN-Art-Mixing-Mixerman/dp/1423491505"]Zen and the Art of Mixing[/url] as a superb book on the art of mixing a song well. Its well written and will provide you with insight after insight into why you should do what to help you achieve a great mix.

[quote name='bremen' timestamp='1353339989' post='1873840'] SM57 = SM58 without the 'ball' pop filter. [/quote] Not precisely. The innards are the same, but there is a head on the sm57 too, and that is what determines the polar pattern of the 57 and changes hw much proximity effect it displays. It sounds pretty gash if that head gets damaged, as does the 58 minus its spherical windshield (due to the loikelihood of it being affected badly by pops and wind noise etc. Unfortunately you cant just buy a 58 and unscrew the head to have a 57 whenever you want. Pity really!

It wont be 0ms latency, at the very least there is ADA latency and on top of that there is the (very fast) DSP handling the modelling. But probably sub 2ms on anything decent, I would guess...

I really like the Red5 Audio kick drum, terrific mic, I got mine when they were on offer, for about £40 IIRC. Unbelievable deal! You can also use a Senn e835 on snare/toms/horns etc (I've used mine on all of thos and more, and its been fine, as well as for live vox)

[quote name='Thurbs' timestamp='1353093069' post='1871656'] All this talk about latency, what is the usual latency through a standard digital pre-amp? [/quote] Depends on the drivers, the chips yada yada.... ASIO drivers you may be looking at more than 20ms(+) for a cheapo interface, down to the RME UCX which is going to get you less than 5ms maybe even as little as 3.5ms. Using any built in kernel style stuff in Windows and the minimum possible woudl be closer to 30ms. Using the standard it gets worse too, if you use the bogstandard MS audio driver. Nothing to do with the speed of the machine either. Macs can manage slightly shorter roundtrips as a rule. All due to the Mac kernel (a FreeBSD unix variant essentially) allowing for more rigorous timing and interrupts and so on than the MS kernel does.

[quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1353325657' post='1873565'] For any Reaper Fanboi's............... Very nice looking skin here. Enjoy. [url="http://www.houseofwhitetie.com/reaper/imperial/wt_imperial.html"]http://www.houseofwh...t_imperial.html[/url] Garry [/quote] Now that is really pretty.... Dunnio if I'd use it, I dont care if it copies a desk look and feel really, I just want it to be efficient. But still, that is really nice. May give it a whirl, ta!

[quote name='MacDaddy' timestamp='1353322521' post='1873513'] +1 fellow numpty here! The lies they tell - "the software is intuitive", "the easy to use use interface", bollox not for me! [/quote] No, the software is intuitive, and the interface is easy to use. But in order for it to be intuitive and easy to use you have to have some background understanding of the mindset and the way these things got where they did. There is no such thing as an intuitive computer user interface without that background understanding of what is what, and how it may be expected to behave, any more than there is an intuitive interface for driving a car. Yet once you learn how to drive one car you can drive almost any car. Same with any really complicated piece of software that you have no background knowledge of. Just take it a step at a time and read the manual or find some tutorials. They really arent that hard to follow, and once you have learnt something you will be on the way to using the tools properly and confidently in no time.

There is some reasonably hefty learning curve in all DAWs when you learn the first one. However once you've learnt one they are all pretty similar... Download the Reaper manual, its an excellent resource. Try no tto let yourself be overwhelmed by the sheer size of it though. Tackle one subject at a time, starting at the beginning. It may take you a couple o fweeks, but the way to look at it is that you are learning a lot about how all DAWs work, and the mindset required to use them properly.

[quote name='TenLetters' timestamp='1353271795' post='1873160'] I dont post very often but I think this is a great idea so going to be giving it ago! I also have a song or two which I would be more than happy to supply stems for to see what others do with them. I will put the full tracks up [url="http://soundcloud.com/adam-wells-3"]here[/url] shortly if people are interested. [/quote] I'm sure people will be interested. May have to have a seperate thread for notifications that someone wants to add as ong for consideration? Not sure how that will work.

Crikey, we arent looking to put a poll up until January, dont feel you cant sit on it for a while if you want to....

Glad it was helpful!! Swept Mids every time on an amp for me. Better yet, all 4 bands being swept, like the MB TA503. The top and bottom are shelving but you a can change the frequency on them - lovely! Remember cut first, cut as sharp as you can, cut hard, boost gentle, boost wide. If possible. The result always sounds more natural.

[quote name='RockfordStone' timestamp='1353176192' post='1872474'] ive got a nice sounding mix of this, if i could only convince reaper to mix it down onto mp3.... [/quote] [quote name='OldG' timestamp='1353227744' post='1872743'] Have you dropped a LAME encoder into your Reaper program folder? Reaper needs this to create mp3's, but doesn't come with the install... link if you need it [url="http://free-codecs.com/lame_encoder_download.htm"]http://free-codecs.c...er_download.htm[/url] [/quote] Yup, right answer. Actually I do all my mp3 encoding in Foobar2000 (which uses LAME too), and tagging with a different program again (name escapes me and I'm not on the machine in question) that lets me embed ISRC codes into the mp3s.

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1353175112' post='1872462'] Ok, I think I've sussed this K-meter business (made interesting reading!). Si: I'm assuming here that it's as simple as... 1. Produce my mix in Reason as standard 2. Render and output it as a wav, or whatever 3. Load it up into Reaper with the SPAN plug-in enabled 4. Select 'K-14' under 'metering' in the plug-in 5. Turn down the master fader of the mix until it's peaking at 0db ... hopefully that's it (?). If so, I'm sorted. If not, please help! Paul [/quote] That will do it yup. Nice one

New Blog Post up on [url="http://blog.basschat.co.uk/equalisation/"]Equalisation[/url] Enjoy....

[quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1353096754' post='1871698'] Personally, I like seeing lots of gear behind the band My approach to my own gear though is to try and make it as easy as possible to carry my own into the venue. I've got it down to two quick trips now! Trip 1: Backpack with amp, tools and leads, two basses in one hand, pedalboard in other Trip 2: Carry 4x10 in on my own Job done! [/quote] Thats how I roll too. Its two trips for me, One for the cab, one for the bass (on my back), cable bag (on my chest), rack (left hand), pedal board (right hand). I just about fit through doors - that's not so different from when I'm completely unladen sadly....

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1353162456' post='1872273'] To echo what a couple of the previous posters have said , my approach is to take a bass that is easy to play and that I like the sound of , plug it into an amp and cab that is loud enough for people to hear me and then play the bass . In my experience everything else is pretty superfluous . The only really neccesary effect to have in your arsenal if you are a bass player is compression , and most amps have some version of that built in nowadays anyway . [/quote] Compression built into amps is at best a poor alternative to 'the real thing', and more often completely rubbish IME. Avoid at all costs....

Yeah granted its aimed more at audio than MIDI, it can do some video, but its not in any way aimed at that. As an audio workstation with reasonable MIDI but no notation its a top performing bit of software and superb value. If you need notation, serious video stuff, or very serious MIDI then its not for you.

Kinda, I am considered almost paranoid by some of the bands I work withy, but its quality kity, I literally saved for ages to buy some of the bits. I have every right to feel a bit worried. However it is all insured with Endsleigh (note to self need to redo that before the end of the month) for just over a hundred pounds a year - which really helps the sense of dread!

I do intend to get all this stuff on the recording blog, but its a huge topic and I'm doing all my own diagrams and its taking an age, and a bunch of other people want an eq blog too, I need more time....... Quick answer. There are several different types of transducer design that generate electricity from sound. [b]Dynamic[/b] This basically uses a tiny speaker and magnetic assembly These are rugged, but by mic diaphragm standards the mechanism is not the lightest and therefore is not the most accurate at reproducing transients. Not an issue for most live applications [b]Condensor[/b] The transducer is a one plate of capacitor, it can be made of a very very thin membrane covered with an conductive material. These can be rugged if made specifically for live, but they are generally not so rugged as a dynamic, they do pick up the most nuances in the sound though, having the lightest diaphragm. They require 48v phantom power to charge the the capacitor up [b]Electret[/b] Like a condensor but the capacitor is charged up and retains its charge, meaning they dont need phantom power. Over time the charge ca seep away though, degrading the mic . [b]Ribbon[/b] An old fashion form of dynamic employing a corrugated strip of aluminium as the membrane. These are delicate, prone to relewaseing the magic smoke i you accidentally put phantom power up them, they sound darker than the other mics, but take eqing very well, and can sound smooth and lovely. Not really suitable for live though as they are generally a figure of 8 polar pattern. [b]Polar Patterns[/b] There are three main types and they describe from what angle the mic picks up best. Or looking at it the otherway where they reject from the best. Live its common touse tighter mics to try and help prevent feedback [b]Omni directional[/b] These mics pick up evenly from any direction - they are in effect miniature super sensitive barometers Not really suitable for live [b]Cardiod[/b] Pick up mostly from the front, reject from the rear Useful for many live applications (ie vocals, cabinet micing, kick and poss snare) [b]Hyper-Cardiod[/b] Reject from the sides and off to one side in the rear, but not at 180 degrees. Good where you want to tighten up the pick up pattern significantly. Useful sometimes for toms, or hats or snare where you want to control spillage. Even on some vocals a tighter cardiod can work better All directional mics (not omni) show to a lesser or greater extent something called boundary effect, whereby the nearer the mic is to the source the more bass boost you get. This is why omnis are so nice for recording beautiful sounds in beautiful rooms - they sound most natural of all. Great omni condesnors can set you back several grand If a mic can be used on a tomtom it can be used on a cab, a voice, a trumpet, whatever. How nice it sounds depends on a multitude of factors, trust your ears! Kick drum mics are cardiod as a rule, dynamic and their frequency response goes down to around 40HZ. Anything marketed specifically for kick (ie AKG D112) will tend to have a more or less significant dip in the mid range. Vocal mics should have good anti handling noise characteristics ie when you move them around the mic shouldnt pick up handling noise so well. Its a good rule of thumb to use one or two condensors (one is fine for live) as an overheads on the drums - I've miced up drums live with a kick mic and a single well placed OH and had fabulous results - you need to be micing a good well tuned and played kit though. [url="http://www.red5audio.com/acatalog/Drum_Kit_Mics.html"]Red5 Audio[/url] do great cheap mic kits for live SM58 or Sennheiser e835/e845 for vocals are great starting points SM57 for guitar cabs, horns and toms

I cant cope with 23ms latency Thats the same as being about 8 meters away from your amp, which is really disconcerting to me!

Yes it will seem very quiet in the first instance. Turn your monitors up at the amp! There are very good reasons to mix at sane levels in the box (ie on a DAW). The only time you need to get it loud is when you reach the final mastering process.

Reaper $60 Win!

[quote name='RockfordStone' timestamp='1353071664' post='1871242'] thing is, i wouldnt be against paying for good software if they price it reasonably. i use an old version of cubase, if i was to buy a new version it would cost me 700 quid, unless you are a pro studio you just can't afford that [/quote] Then get a copy of Reaper. $60 for the full featured software, with support for the next 2 large version numbers (so its on version 4.30 now, you would be supported up to but not including version 6.00). Brilliant software, excellent price.

[quote name='redstriper' timestamp='1353067282' post='1871145'] Thanks again - more great advice there. I learned about the dangers of noise gates some time ago and I don't use any processing while recording now. You are absolutely right about spending time with the drums and mic placement, it can't be that hard, especially with such a small kit - we don't use any toms, just kick, snare hi hat, ride and crash. I quite like the current set up which is close mic'd snare and kick, with one overhead. But I'm far from being an audiophile and the song is always the important thing for me, rather than the recording. We also have a new drummer, (since the one on this recording) so the kit sounds quite different again and he's had to learn our live set very quickly. We spend much more time writing and arranging the songs, so the recording is almost an after thought and we treat everything as a demo. I just hit record when it feels right and hope for the best. But quite a few of these 'demos' end up on the radio and the BBC DJ said he'd play more if the quality was better. I use Cubase 5 and I put the K-meter in the output and set it to K14, but the cubase master output over rides it and I don't know how to set it to 0db. [/quote] Ok, you are doing the right thing wioth where you are putting the KMeter - slap it on the output buss insert. Then if you drop the master faders the K-meter will drop its level accordingly. Its not showing the peak level (far far from it) its showing an average level over time, so just set your master output so that the output sits where it just comes up to 0dB on the KMeter. I hasten to add this isnt how yu would normally use a KMeter, there is no issue with going over 0 on a KMeter for loud stuff normally - just avoid the red really, all I'm trying to do is find a way of getting al the mixes about the same volume, and this should be a pretty good and easily reproducable way of doing so for everyone (I hope!). If it porves too tricky we'll have to bin the idea I think...

[quote name='redstriper' timestamp='1353021557' post='1870762'] I'm struggling with this - I got the K-meter and I read the user guide, but I can't work out how to use it. Can you give some very simple instructions please. [/quote] Which version of Cubase do you run?