after the mix has been recorded
read the recent article on the options we can use to help make our mixs sound a little bit warmer… went over compression, limiting and various other vsts available…
what is ur guys’s procedure with your mix after its been recorded? do you do anything to make it sound a little bitter? im not too happy with the way raw traktor recorded mixs have been sounding…
Sounds like you are looking to remaster your mixes after completion?
Are you looking for solutions that cost money or free? I don’t know a lot about the free options out there but if you want to spend a few bucks I cannot recommend T-Racks enough.
hmm ok thanks i will check it out… anything that can be done in ableton or logic?
Oh I am sure you could do these things in either of those programs - just need to find similar plugins (included or not - I am not sure).
When it comes down to it T-Racks is just emulating a few pieces of equipment:
Compressor
EQ
Limiter
So really anything out there plugin wise should give you similar results - now how similar is going to come down to how well the plugin is written.
EDIT: check this out http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr03/articles/logicnotes0403.asp
Salmon is a bot Time to play tattle tale…
^ Lol
Less is more imo. I make sure my gain structure is set so I have plenty of headroom. I record out of my mixer into netbook. I then give it a tiny bit compression in audacity. Trim the ends, boom, mix done.
PSP Vintagewarmer is nice for making the sound levels quite the same (limit/gain) plus adding a little bit warmth. But little is better than more. Mastering is very much about doing small adjustments.
The tunes you play have already been mixed and mastered.
I totally agree with ^^ on my final mixes I try to not do much EQing and such at all. But in my opinion a little bit of extra changes can go a long way.
EDIT: and not to mention every track is mastered differently so doing a little bit of mastering to the final mix can help even out the differences.
hey thanks very much for that link geekgod… i will definitely give it a read… when someone says plenty of headroom, is it indicated on the vumeters of my mixer? or the vu meter in traktor? and if i have plenty of headroom will my waveform once recorded look tiny? cause thats how their coming out… very small tiny waveforms compared to normal tracks…
I record my mixes in logic studio with lots of headroom. The level meter usually maxes at about half way up -2db (ish). So basically all I do post mix is try to get everything normalized (as load as possible without clipping).
My process is to start by just looking at the wave form of the entire mix. If I see one song visibly much louder or quieter than the rest of the mix, I’ll see if I can select that track in the mix and slightly raise or lower the gain without changing the feel of the mix very much.
After that there is a function in Logic audio called search peak. Usually the peak will be a spike during a transition or with vinyl mixes a pop or scratch. I smooth these out by changing the gain on a fraction of a second of the audio. These small edits are barely audible but throw off the normilization. Once I have smoothed out all the spikes, I run the normalize function.
At that point the mix is usually plenty loud. If not I will bounce the whole thing through the adaptive limiter. I prefer not to limit by too much (if at all). The coloring definitely changes the character on some tracks and as others have pointed out you are dealing with material that has already been mastered.
Most “real” mixers will add headroom on their own. When mixing with the Traktor internal mixer it is advised to leave at least 7db of headroom.
There is a great article on this subject here: How To Set Your Levels In Traktor Like A Pro - Digital DJ Tips
EDIT: note the article shows 10db but I use 7db. I guess your mileage may vary.
EDIT2: article from our beloved DJTT Got Headroom? - DJ TechTools
thanks for all the info you guys are amazing…
i do nothing with my recorded mixes. except for listening to them but there is something you can do to add some vintage feeling! and i´m not talking about recording it on a reel to reel. just upload it on youtube and download it with a mp3 grabber!
You guys seriously put way too much thought into this shit. lol.
Yes but looking at for example 320k MP3 files posted on Soundcloud, the dynamics could vary dramatically so a little bit post-processing to even out the levels might be needed. Unless you are super-pro and ride the gain perfectly. Or use Traktor that does a semi-decent job of auto-gain.
You don’t need to be a “super-pro” to make sure your levels stay within a respectable range. If one can’t, they just aren’t that good, and need to keep practicing.
I leave headroom and adjust after. That’s it.
If your dynamics vary enough for you to want to fiddle post mix then your levels or song selection are wrong. It happens though.
And yes, I do tweak the levels sometimes after a mix…