Element mixing program

Dynamics : controlling the volume envelope of an individual track or the entire mix. Dynamics is where Compression, Gating and Limiting are added. What this does is keeps all of the sounds at a pleasant and appropriate level.

In the instance of a compressor it will act as an autopilot on the volume control. Did you ever hear a song or performance, where one not just rings and seems louder than the others? This is where the compression kicks in to automatically bring that intensity down.

Interest : making the mix special. The best way to describe this is to think of an emotional song. We add interest by manually controlling swells and volumes to create more of an emotional response. Usually moving into key changes or choruses. This is often over looked with amateur engineers, due to lack or experience and guidance.

The following are main Filmora Video Editor features as an audio mixer and editor:. Launch Filmora Video editor on your computer. Furthermore, as an addition import option, drag the audio files and drop them on the program prior.

The Audio Mixer feature will be displayed on a pop-up window. On this very same Window, you will find your imported tracks highlighted in purple. Key in the name for the mix music you have created and choose the preferred output format from the drop-down list. Alternatively, you can as well share your audio mix project directly to social media platforms, send to YouTube or Burn to DVD. In addition to the advanced music mixer for Filmora Video Editor, the following are the description for the 6-audio mixing for Mac or PC together with their respective pros and cons.

Audacity is one of the commonly used sound mixer software that is both free and open source. However, contrary to the fact that this music mixing software is simple and easy to use, it comes with almost all the professional Supported Operating Systems in addition to mixing music tracks which include multi-track editing, live recording, ability to convert records and tapes to digital formats, noise and vocal reduction, and more.

Mixxx is yet another open source sound mixer software which has a few similar similarities to Audacity. This program is cross-platform compatible. Also, with audio mixer software- Mixxx, you can use it freely without the need for extra software integration. But in a case where you have any external hardware, it supports a Midi control. Knowledge for all! Here is a nice fresh one for everybody… Juelz Santana put out another call for beats a couple ….

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As a rule, those instruments that occupy only a narrow part of the spectrum are easiest to place in a mix, as they don't obscure other parts. Rich synth pads and distorted guitars, on the other hand, cover a lot of spectral real estate and so are harder to place effectively.

Bear in mind that distortion of whatever kind adds higher-frequency harmonics to the basic sound, so a distorted bass guitar will have harmonics across the mid-range, and a distorted electric guitar will have harmonics that reach into the higher end of the mid-range before the frequency response of the guitar speaker or speaker simulator rolls it off.

The mid-range is the most vulnerable part of the audio spectrum, where our ears are very sensitive and where many different instruments tend to overlap in the frequency domain. You will often find that some of these broad-spectrum sounds can be squeezed into a narrower part of the spectrum using high and low cut filters to trim away unwanted very low or very high frequencies.

For example, a miked acoustic guitar with no EQ produces quite a lot of low-mid that sounds great in isolation, but might cloud a more complex pop mix. Taking out some of the low end makes the guitar sit better in the mix without spoiling its perceived character, even though you might think it now sounds thin in isolation. To some extent, a mix is an illusion and it is about what you believe you hear rather than what you actually hear. It's often the case that filtering out the low frequencies on some of the elements in a mix can make the overall sound clearer, without noticeably affecting the sound of those instruments in the mix.

Where the mid-range is overpowering the rest of the mix, there's scope for cutting frequencies between Hz and Hz to take out any boxy congestion.

By contrast, bass guitars often need a little boost in this area, especially if they've been DI'd, as that's the part of their spectrum that contains their sonic character. You'll also find that some bass sounds can sometimes be made more manageable by actually taking out some of the very low end altogether using a high-pass filter; frequencies below 50Hz are rarely reproduced by domestic playback systems, yet they still take up headroom and can place unnecessary stress on loudspeakers.

High and low cut filters are also ideal for narrowing the frequency range that a particular instrument occupies. In addition to using filtering to narrow the space taken up by specific mix elements, you can also try creating more space between notes and phrases, for example, by muting or editing sustained guitar chords instead of just letting them decay naturally. Usually it is possible to arrive at a compromise solution combining EQ with cleaning up the arrangement to get all the parts sit in the mix without getting in the way of each other.

Again, use your CD library as a reference to see what sounds work on other people's records. Once you analyse them in detail, you'll quite often find they are rather different to how you originally perceived them. It pays to be aware that not all equalisers sound the same, so try out whatever you have to hand to see which gives the most musical sound. It's usually a good idea to clean up the unused low extremes of the frequency range for non-bass instruments anyway.

It's surprising how much LF rubbish can be present in recordings; even if this cannot easily be heard on small monitors, removing it will often make the mix sound much more open and cleaner! Drums are particularly problematic in small rooms. If the kit is tuned well and played well, the close mics will probably sound pretty good but the overhead sound suffers, especially in rooms with low ceilings.

Putting some acoustic absorbers between the mics and the ceiling will reduce the amount of coloration, and in most cases, you can roll out some low end from the overhead mics after recording to take away the low-frequency mush that tends to accumulate in bad rooms. Because rock and pop music tends to be recorded in fairly dead acoustic spaces, it is nearly always necessary to add artificial reverb, but today's styles use a lot less obvious reverb than those of a couple of decades ago.

Convolution reverbs that 'sample' real spaces can sound exceptionally good on acoustic instruments, whereas we've got so used to classic digital reverbs and plates on vocals that we tend to consider that as being the 'right' sound. This is a subjective decision, though, so if you don't have the confidence to decide what works best, go back to commercial mixes in the same genre, and try to hear what kind of reverb they've used.

As a rule, don't add reverb to bass sounds or kick drums, with the possible exception of very short ambience treatments, and don't let the reverb fill in all the spaces in your mix, because the spaces are every bit as important as the notes that surround them. A useful rule of thumb is to set the reverb level where you think it needs to be, then just back it off another 3 or 4 dB or so. And always check the reverb level in both mono and stereo — there can be a big difference if the reverb is a particularly spacious one.

In that case, you'll have to judge the best compromise between the mono mix sounding too dry and the stereo mix sounding too wet. If all else fails, change the reverb program!

I find that for most reverb plug-ins, the right starting point is with the reverb set at around the equivalent of a 20 percent wet mix. You can fine-tune either way from there.

Combining a longer reverb at a lower level with a louder but shorter reverb can also create a nice effect without flooding all your space with unwanted reverb. It is not uncommon to filter out some low end from a reverb to prevent it clouding that vulnerable low-mid range, and I'll often apply some low cut starting at Hz or so. Poor separation between instruments is often the enemy of a smooth mix, and achieving separation is always difficult when musicians are playing together in the same small room.

Spill not only makes a mix more difficult to balance, but such spill as you do pick up will include more room coloration as the source is further from the mic. Add to this the fact that cardioid mics tend to sound quite dull off-axis anyway, and you'll appreciate why too much spill ends up making the mix sound muddy, like a painting where the colours have been worked too much.

Of course if you do have a great-sounding room and the right mics, spill can help contribute to the character of a recording, and on many early records it did exactly that. There are two main ways to maintain separation between miked instruments that are playing at the same time: one is to put lots of space between them, the other is to use acoustic screens or multiple rooms to separate them. It is also important to consider what the null of a mic's polar pattern is pointed at as well as what the front of the mic is aimed at!

In other words, use the null of the polar pattern to reject the sound you don't want, reducing the spill by placing the mic with that in mind. For example, cardioid mics are least sensitive directly behind them, hypercardioid mics least sensitive around 30 degrees off the their rear axis and figure-of-eight mics 90 degrees off their main axis. Miked acoustic instruments and voices can usually be added after recording the main tracks, and for some styles of music, guitars and bass can be recorded via power-soaks or Pod-style amp simulators, in which case the player can probably sit in the control room alongside the engineer.

It's also true that in a smallish room you generally get a bigger and better sound miking a small guitar combo than a large stack. All this may seem a bit far removed from the actual art of mixing but trust me, it's a bit like painting and decorating: the preparation is the most important part of the job.

At this stage you can start to think about pan positions. Depending on how the pan controls work on your system, the subjective balance may change very slightly when you adjust them, so recheck the balance after you've decided on your final pan positions. Bass sounds and lead vocal tend to stay pinned to the centre of the mix; vocals because they are the centre of attention and that's where you expect them to be, and bass sounds because it makes sense to share this heavy load equally between both playback speakers.

If you're planning to cut vinyl from your final mix, keeping the bass in the centre will help avoid cutting problems.

Combining different reverbs can give results that wouldn't be possible with a single one. This mix uses a large hall sound as a basic instrumental reverb, with an early-reflections 'ambience' patch operating almost as a loudness enhancer, and a plate reverb and short delay to add richness to the lead vocal.

Stereo instruments, and I include drum kits in this category, can be panned to a suitable width, but ideally not entirely left and right as they will sound unnaturally wide. If you have a stereo piano and want to place it to one side of the mix, you could, for example, set the right channel's pan control fully clockwise and the left channel's to between 12 o'clock and two o'clock.

Note that when you have a single pan control on a stereo channel in a DAW mixer, this won't do quite the same thing as a pair of offset mono pans. If you do as I've described with offset mono pan pots, the left and right piano tracks will be equally loud, but the left one will be panned centrally, making the piano as a whole sit somewhere between the centre and right of the stere field.

A single balance pot, by contrast, will keep the two tracks fully left and right, but offset their relative levels, in this example reducing the level of the left channel. This is a small but often important distinction. Backing vocals can also be spread out, as can doubled guitar parts; again, look to commercial records for guidance if you're not sure how far to go. If you're mixing typical band material, trying to emulate the approximate on-stage positions of the band members is a good way to start — but keep that bass in the middle no matter where the bass player normally stands!

Often, stereo effects such as reverb and delay add a lot of width to a mix, even when most of the raw mix elements are panned close to the centre.

Headphones tend to exaggerate the stereo imaging of a mix, so it's a good idea to check that it works on phones too. By now you may have listened to the song so many times that you're not quite sure what you're listening to any more, so burn off a test CD, play it on as many different systems as possible and make notes about what you do and don't like.

Don't worry if it sounds quieter than commercial mixes, because the pumping up of loudness is generally done at the mastering stage, but try to ensure that you are achieving a similarly satisfying overall tonal balance. Mastering can also make a mix sound a bit more dense and airy, so don't worry if you're a bit short of the mark there, but you should be aiming to get as close as possible.

Come back to the mix after a day or two, make changes according to your notes and then repeat the process. If at all possible, try to live with the mix for a few days before calling it finished, rather than trying to do a final mix after a busy all-day session! Dave Stewart Musician and composer. Boxy at to Hz. Nasal at Hz to 1. Penetrating at 2 to 4 kHz.

Airy at 7 to 12 kHz. Electric Guitar Cut below 80Hz to reduce unnecessary bassy cabinet boom. Muddy at to Hz. Biting at Hz to 3kHz.

Fizzy at 5 to 10 kHz. Bass Guitar Deep bass at 50 to Hz. Character at to Hz. Hard at 1 to 2 kHz. Acoustic Guitar Boomy at 80 to Hz. Hard at Hz to 1.