MALIK ARSHAQ
MAKING THE MOST
If you are a producer or a mix engineer who moves within the closely knit community of musicians , you would definitely come across the notion that you will need expensive third party plug-ins and VSTs to make a professional sounding mix . The truth is that we ' ve all felt the pressure to jump on the " cracked plugins " bandwagon or to spend a good deal of money to " upgrade " to the latest plug-in which will automatically make your mix sound god-like . The real problem with that approach is that it shift your attention from truly understanding why your mix was bad in the first place .
This does not mean that your stock plug-ins are in any way better , but that without the lure of reaching for another plug-in to magically “ fix ” your subpar mix , you ’ d be forced to really focus on what the real issues are with the tracks in front of you and identify what is needed to take them to the next level . Contrary to popular opinion , stock plug-ins are extremely powerful and can sound great , if used efficiently . In fact , a set of stock plug-ins in the hands of an experienced engineer is more than sufficient to create a professional mix . It is tempting to think that your mixes could be significantly improved by spending a lot of money on new gear . However , this can be a very costly decision if you do not know how to use the tools at your disposal .
Assuming that you ' re trying to get the best possible results by using only stock plug-ins , here is a list of tools that are absolutely essential for you to achieve a professional , studio-level mix .
Gain Staging : This is probably the most crucial step that decides how your overall mix ends up sounding . Ensure that every individual track in your DAW has enough headroom ( try to maintain the levels around -18 to -12dBFS). If the channel looks hot , load up a gain plug-in (" Gain ", " Pre-Gain ", " Trim ", " Utility " based on your DAW ) in your first slot and lower the gain until you can see the channel is peaking at roughly -12dBFS. That ’ s it .
EQ : After volume balancing , it is important to know how to bring out the right frequencies in the right instruments or tracks to make your mix sit in the way that it is supposed to . EQing is an art that is best learnt through experience . Try to get a feel of what exactly you need to highlight , which instruments have frequencies that clash in the mix and things like high-passing , making shelf or bell cuts / boosts and understanding how the " Q " of an EQ works .
Compression : This is one tool that a lot of people find hard to understand . It is basically used to reduce the dynamic range between the loudest and quietest parts of the signal by attenuating and boosting them respectively . For example , when you hear a song where the singer whispers in certain parts and almost screams in others , yet they are both equally audible , this is how it ' s done . Mastering the use of a compressor will give a great of flexibility while mixing . Other plugins such as gates can be very useful in attaining a tight , punchy drum sound . Effects such as reverb , delay come in handy while trying to get that rich , spacious sound .
While looking to invest in upgrading your studio as opposed to spending more on plug-ins , it would be wise to upgrade your front-end , that is spend money on what ' s actually going to affect your recording , whether it be having different microphones for different tonal options , picking up an affordable channel strip for some light EQ and compression on the way in or even acoustic treatment , can help in getting a better mix because they ' d help in making your original raw tracks sound better in the first place .
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