mixing a whole record......individual files or one big file?

ryst · Post by **ryst** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 3:28 pm

Hey guys. if I have 11 songs that need mixed and I want the record to sound cohesive, should I just put each song in one session file so that way they all have the same basic settings on the mixer for eq, comp...... or should I make a new file for each song. What would be the easiest? I don't want to have to start each song from the ground up mixing wise. I am still on 4.6.1.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 3:42 pm

ryst--

Putting all the mixes into one project gets into a mastering setup. I tend to run out my mixes (sometimes 3 or more per track) and then load them into a separate project. 11 tunes = 11 stereo audio tracks. Alternate mixes are swapped from the Soundbites window until such time the favored mix is chosen.

This allows me to A/B everything to see what's needed. The separate tracks also allows me to add whatever processing is needed which might be unique to the needs of a particular track.

I also try not to rely on general compression for all tracks. Things tend to work best if I can get the mixes themselves as close as possible and working properly at the mix phase. I may have to go back to adjust a mix as comparisons reveal differences too great to fix during pre-mastering, but I've sort of gotten away from mastering my own tracks because by that point I really need another set of ears.

How to go about it depends on what the tracks need. I learned a lot about my mixes by sitting through mastering sessions done by someone else. It seemed the same EQ adjustments had to be made on most of the tracks, which was probably indiciative of either the characteristics of my monitors or how my monitors (and room) were tuned. Moreover, I've been able to troubleshoot these issues on subsequent projects, eliminating a lot of troublesome tweaking for the mastering engineer.

giles117 · Post by **giles117** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 3:53 pm

Mastering makes an entire album sound cohesive..... Even if different engineers mixed it.

Consistency in your mix style will dictate cohesiveness.

Separate files makes your life simpler and easier.

ryst · Post by **ryst** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 4:09 pm

Thanks guys. You are both right. Using separate projects for each song makes more sense.

daveyboy · Post by **daveyboy** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 7:17 pm

I take snapshots of the mixer using apple's snapshot feature. This is done mostly on the drums assuming the drums were recorded the same session. I then drag the inserts of each channel into a clipping window that I can open up in the next song. That way I can recreate my exact drum sound. If you have multiple fx in one channel you can shift select then all and drag. Make sure you label the clipping after it's dragged in the clipping window so you know what track it is.

wvandyck · Post by **wvandyck** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:03 pm

How about putting each song into a separate sequence within the Project. That way you'll end up with eleven chunks (sequences in the chunks window).
(Maybe that's what Frodo was referring to).

You can then easily switch between songs to compare levels and tonal balance.

If you have a plug like InspectorXL (rip) you could insert it in a VRacks to gauge the consistency of your peak and RMS values from song to song (without having any dynamics in the VRacks as you might during a mastering phase).

Astia · Post by **Astia** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 10:17 am

Just finished mixing an album, 10 songs and only 2 days. Style was industrial metal with aproximately 40 tracks per song.
I put all the songs in one session to save time. The band had recorded the material themselves with a home pc. Altough they recorded all drums in one session, all guitars in one session, the levels didnâ€˜t match between songs at all.
Glad I put all the songs in the same file since that way it was a bit easier to deal with varying levels.