I'd like to add one detail I've learned from someone: Before mixdown, listen to your song with both a loud volume and a quieter volume. Loud and quiet monitoring can reveal the unintended balance of track levels and that way you can find out if your mixdown is perfect.
AMAZING step by step process. You actually covered so much of what I've been dealing with lately. I've been using Reaper for tracks for roughly four months now and it's great, but I have been running into a few issues which you've perfectly provided a remedy for. Thank you!
Wow I've watched so many videos over the years on mixing making music etc. But I finally understand what compression is thanks to you. Simple clear explanation
This video helped my mixing SO MUCH! I was always fighting with levels and compression, and this layout was so similar to my base template that it was super easy to make the minor changes I needed to take my mix to the next level. A thousand thank yous!
Thank you very much for making this video, Mr. Douglas! You have helped me out IMMENSELY! Very precise, quick and to the point! Again, thank you very much. Your video is digital gold...
Thank you so much for this tutorial! Its really helping me understand more about mixing, ive always gone with whatever sounded good for me but its awesome to have a workflow for the process! ☯️
Sir the video you made is so knowledgeable and your efforts towards making everyone learn to be able to mix and master a song on their own is preciously excellent... Thanks a lot for this... Keep up the great work...😇
Superb video, excellent information, like the intro it nearly gave me a heart attact when first played [being very delicate at the time]. I wish I had your energy. Love the work you put into the videos.
Top class video my man. I'm a recording artist with my tracks on RU-vid but currently in the process of mixing my own songs for the first time. This video has been helpful no end 👍
AWESOME tutorial!.... my two cents worth: [1] After you Gain Stage and have a 'rough mix', do a 'render' and listen to it on a bunch of systems before you start your mixing stage----this gives you an objective outside set of references to reflect upon when you're boosting and cutting things while building your final mix; [2] For 'Automation' use the 'Read' option so you can see the faders/controls actually move---any accidental/unintended 'ghost' automation that occurs will drive you nuts trying to find out what's happening if you can't see controls moving.
Stage 4 is an interesting technique. If I have my static mix how I want it but need headroom I just Ctrl+A (select all tracks) and grab one fader to turn everything down equally.
Great video! The track is very chill too. Quick question, why route all the tracks to the submix via the way you did it, and not just drop them in folder track? Is there a difference?
I'm also wondering that- also wondering why you can't just bring the master volume down a bit to avoid peaking? Isn't that the same as bringing a submix track volume down
Awesome video. Do you have any videos for beginners on how to double track guitar and how to make and use bus.. i'm new so it's a little confusing . any help would be great.
Paul that was simply one fantastic video I just watched, well done, I have reaper with a year now since lockdown and still learning, the issue I would very much appreciate if you can answer here or make it part of you next video as I'm sure it will help many, rendering the track you just did I notice really narrow wave lines, do this indicate your track will be really low, play in car stereo boost volume, eject and the radio come on and blow you out of it in volume, add to your Google drive, play it on your mobile and you can barely hear it, On the mixdown and rendering window I look for wider stereo wave forms by turning up the master fader firstly and avoid clipping, yes I know, this is wrong, totally wrong, and should never adjust master fader, and as you said create a master bus, never did, but now I will for future reference after watching this video, look forward to many more, Excellent job, well done 👏👍
Great video!I’ve just converted to Reaper after many years using Cubase. Quick question, why do you need to create a submix to bring the overall volume down, why not just bring it down with the master fader?
Thanks for the video. I was hoping for a segment on adjusting the spatial pattern of the mix though? Like panning guitars, and centering vocals etc? Is there a special feature for this in Reaper?
I wouldn't find it very necessary to have a submix unless I'm using a reference track in the same project What I really want is to have a visual track of the full mix so I can check easily for peaks silences, etc. Without the need to have to render the project so I can fix it quickly
Very clear and useful video! Thanks! Just one question - I hear this a lot - "play it on many different devices to make sure it sounds good on all of them". How does the latter part work? If it sounds crappy on one device and you change your mix, it may now sound acceptable on that one device but it will sound crappy on all others, right? Do professionals actually create different mixes for radio, streaming and classical media like CD or vinyl?
Well, I suppose it's the art of compromise. Sometimes there are different mixes (for different media or releases -- eg single vs album), but not for this reason. You do get different masterings, however. And that's where the crappy cassette release from the 80s will go for a different compromise than the MSFL gold-plated CD. The latter can afford to do away with most compromises, knowing that the buyers will probably have a high end setup and a treated room.
Why did you send it to a bus instead of just changing the Master volume? I mean when I master mine I just use the Master volume track and add compression and a limiter to the master volume.
Great succinct video! The headroom step is completely unnecessary in a modern DAW like reaper. See Kenny Gioias videos on the topic. You can simply put a level plugin on the master itself and off you go.
