Mixing Singles to Sound Like the Rest of the Album? | FAQ Friday - Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro 

Its awful refreshing finding this channel. I've been making music unprofessionally my whole life and strived to figure out certain methods cause I feel they are overlooked often in the more modern music. And it's super nice to see these videos where you advocate a lot of the methods I've gotten shit for trying to keep as they are too much work and you can fix it in post and I always say yes you can but the more you get right while recording the better the post production will go and over sound. Love this channel.

Love these FAQ Fridays...so much useful tried and true information is found here every week. Thank you in spades Mr. Huart!

Hey Warren, I've noticed that the recent FAQ Friday episodes have had fewer questions with longer, more in-depth answers compared to earlier episodes, and I am LOVING it. Quality over quantity, we're all getting such amazing information from you. I was doing a live sound gig where we had a bass DI blended with a mic, and I used one of your tricks where you cut the bass from the mics and only leave the low-end from the DI. It worked amazingly, it was so punchy and still had serious weight behind it. Thank you so much for helping me to grow my audio skills.

I'm learning so much here. Your videos inspire me so much. Thank you for doing this.

Love the FAQ Friday's Warren! I watch your vids over breakfast every day & pick up so many 'real world' tips from a real world pro! Great stuff! I'd like to ask which set of monitors behind you do you mainly mix on...and what percentage of time would you mix on headphones versus monitors? ie would you mix a project 70% on phones then go on to your monitors for final adjustments, or mainly use monitors with only checking on phones?

The backing vocals tips were just what I needed! Thank you very much! What I always do as well on BVs, is to delete the breaths and clipgain the "T's", "K's", and "Ss". Have a nice weekend.

Warren, you're the friggin man! Thanks so much for all of your help!!

The answer to your first question just saved me a ton of work. I've been putting a project together from individual songs recorded over about a 20 year period, and I had it in my head that I needed to get them all sounding like they were recorded at the same time. Thanks a ton!

The rough mix is soooooo important because it gives you cues of what needs to be the focus and what stays on the background as supporters. What needs more attention and what needs to be left alone. A lot of ppl start inserting plugins and stuff right after importing files and miss the whole point of the song just because they are intrigued on making the drums slamming good ..or the guitars wide and wet as the ocean.

You are very nice, kind and objective in your answers. It’s hard to find people doing what you do with love, passion on sharing this information. I’m new to your channel, I came here looking for information around making an album sound even but your answer just expanded my understanding of music production. Often we forget that this is art, and our tools are not made by luthiers and we are the bridge between pure art and music business. Thank you! You made my 2020 better. I’m a beginner on this, I just recorded 10 songs to sell from home since I have no one gig booked for 2021

Hey there Warren! Really great stuff man I’ve been following you now for the last month encouraging and learning to adopt some very valuable content that you speak on for my home studio and what I can learn more as a drummer to be more diverse when it comes to mixing tracks, etc. you are really helping a lot appreciate all your videos and all that you do

Quality as usual Warren & PLAP … Many thanks mate

Favorite videos i watch!! How do you feel about doubling vocals, then panning them hard to each side? Does it help, or harm a vocal performance?

About you trying out sonar works, I think the reason the speakers maintained their characteristics is because you've probably done a great job with the acoustics of your room

One aspect of speakers that I'm not sure if corrective software is able to account for, is the fact that different materials and designs used to create the actual cones will result in different transient and high end responses. For example, with a relatively soft cone that has a small degree of flex to it, when the center of the cone pushes and pulls, it takes time to spread to the outside of the cone, resulting in muddied transients and less accurate high frequencies. And of course there's all kinds of other aspects of a speaker's design that can affect the sound in a plethora of ways, each of which is correctable to differing amounts. A speaker is more than just an eq curve, and no software (to my knowledge) can account for all of that.

Thanks Warren, I asked the first question about a month ago and I wanted to know your opinion. I thank you very much for sharing with your experience

Thanks Warren, really appreciate your vids. I’m mixing a rock project right now that has a lot of songs with the kick & snare always on the same beat and wondering what tricks you might use to have them both present & separate/defined

Fantastic!

I applied quite some techniques that I learnt from Warren, or got confirmed by his teachings, how they make sense. Especially about drum sound scape, and above considerations on making an album with different sounds. On background vocals, if the same singer with a rich voice does 10 bg vc tracks, it may sound like a swarm of bees. I try to mitigate that with using phase shifting plugins, and give a different setting to every track. Also, grouping the vocals by musical content (high, low, "choir", or 2nd voice to follow lead vc etc.) and giving each group a focused sound distinct from the others.

Great video! Is there anyway you can do a video showing us how to mic an acoustic guitar when using it as a percussion?

The BVoc's tip will change my life. Thanks!!

Thank you Warren! You rock! Have a great time at my German neighbours! Greetings from The Netherlands :).

Thank you for the awesome intro Kind Sir!!! you have new subscriber !!!! I have a new Home!!!

I liked the diatribe Warren! Interesting point about mixing each song on its merits. I've been mixing my band EP and my band mate was concerned that the songs are all different but I think it's a strength to not be trying to be too deep in a sound or genre. The mixes are all completely different too! Cheers Adam

Thanks for the GREAT videos Warren! Even though I've been in business for over 45 years, I'm still learning!! Your comments about stems prompted a question. Re: Stereo Buss processing. Do you leave all your buss processing alone (in line & adjusted as they were for the full mix) for each stem? It seems to me that the sound through the processing would sound different when the processors are reacting to a full mix (and its resulting level) as opposed to just the stem going through. Would the result be a different sounding "summed mix" versus a "normal" full mix? Thanks again for founding the community!

Yay! Now I don't feel too bad about always doing no effect vocals, and always saving copies before doing anything to anything. I would love some audio technicas, after researching for a few years trying to find something comparable to what I like, and am surgically holding together with gaffer tape. Thank you Warren! 😊

Hey what's up and I hope your weekend is fantastic!! I love love love your interviews with engineers/producers of wonderful music. I was hoping to see you interview someone who has worked with Frank Sinatra or another major player of that genre. Thank you very much and thanks for everything.

This makes sense. 👌 I'll apply this.

Awesome bro 💖 💖

Hey Warren such a great great channel thank you! I've also just joined the Academy so Been downloading multi's. My question is....what are your favourite Pro Tools keyboard shortcuts!

Enjoyed your video so much...i'm afraid to ask this but....when to mix in mono or stereo????...

I would love to see an inside the song with Sylvia Massey, videos I’ve seen of her production is so inspiring and creative, Thanks for the videos and channel btw Warren, i can’t wait to see new videos.

im a home studio amateur here but this was a question that came up by the other guys in our band as they wondered why i mixed everything separately on our first album we just finnished on different project files and the drums were the main reason....we used 5 mics but the bleed depending on what the cymbals were doing affected particularly the snare mix (alot of crash etc.)and the way i eq'd things so there's was no way to get the best sound without mixing every song separately.....i was waiting for a video on this......great info.....again

Okay, I need to ask one question now as well: When you pan tracks left to right, either hard left / hard right or anywhere in between, how do you make sure that the mix doesn't fall apart when switched to mono. Also with drum room mics in rather big rooms. Is it a question of EQ or phase checking? Thanks, Warren.

thanks for the tips. I've got some fairly significant hearing loss, No doubt from 40+ years around loud drummers. Is there any major mixers out there mixing with hearing aids?? Thanks Paul

5:31 Exactly!

I have a question - or perhaps better suggestion. You could make a video (every 1/4 year?) where Warren is doing a live mixing of one of a track a lucky subscriber that sends him the tracks in about an hour. Would be great to see what he can do with perhaps not perfect material. And you would make the subscriber unbelievable happy... and because it was mine fine idea - U could choose one of my songs for the first episode. xD

Hi Warren, Again Thx for all your great vids and INFO!! I have had a problem for awhile now with FEMALE HARSH VOX. I have used tube mics+ outboard tube pres even tried Sure 58's and Condenser mics with 1073 and LA2A plugins going in using RME interface with APOGEE BIG BEN and I DO NOT NOTICE this harshness until MIXDOWN. 95% of the vox is GREAT but THOSE spots inevitably show up....)-: I try using MULTIBAND eq with every COMP on the market to tame the harshness, even using parametric OR Graphic BEFORE the MULTIBAND....I read an article of someone having U47 & a U67 among other mics and also high end OUTBOARD PRE'S and COMPS he ended up getting this SOOTHE vst that helped him on one particular session... I demoed it and then bought it but I'm still struggling cleaning up the mix....When these issues show up I inevitably take EVERYTHING (VST'S) off the trk AND the MIXBUS and solo it and it's still there...I'm using REAPER to TRK and MIXBUS to MIX. Could there be some degrading of the TRK happening or is this common at all? I do eventually after loooots of massaging and manipulating and TEARING down and rebuilding the mix more than once do I come up with a decent vox but it is DRAINING and COUNTER PRODUCTIVE creatively wise...ANY ADVICE would be VERY welcome....Sorry if you have already covered this plz let me know , Thx Jeff

have fun Warren .

I usually mix a song, make a template from it and start song number 2 with it. On the second song I end up going into more detailed editing because I have a good starting point. The same process goes for all subsquent songs and then I can go back over the album and adjust what needs adjusting.

Awesome video Warren! Just wanted to ask, what are your thoughts on live instruments VS programmed instruments? Is it cheating? Does it depend?

Every time I watch vids of what goes on at TGU, or the two NAMMs, it makes me wish we had something similar here in NYC every year, or at least nearby in Boston or Philly, because I hate flying. Once again, you give a timely tip, as my bandmate and I recently recorded some backing vocals for the chorus of a song, and I was wondering about the best way to mix them without getting in the way of the lead vocal, other than simply turning them down in the mix.

Thanks a lot for your kindful information brother. A small of question for you: Which plugins did you pefer for mixing ? ( Waves plugins or Native Instrument plugins or any )

I have a track due for release soon where I mixed the vocals and backing vocals in a very particular, and for me new way. I put thr vocals through a bus with some very slight chorus on top, not too much but enough to give it character. That goes on top of the dry vocals. Then the backing vocals are obviously mixed at a lower volume, all of the vocals (so the dry lead and backing vocals and the chorusy ones) are put through another bus with tonnes of plate reverb to simulate a room mic. Then to blend it all together I use a tape generator that simulates the saturation and feel of a tape console in a digital VST. I then go over the song as a whole and level the vocals accordingly to the part I'm in, maybe in a louder chorus I really let em loose and in a softer bridge or verse with clean guitars I might pull back on the effects and volume to really give it the feeling of being softer.

Great subject. Especially this day in age with people spreading out material more and more.

Thanks for all! Question: Might be basic, but when you have done some tracks (recorded all by myself) and you want to normalize levels (volume) you Put them together in a session and then export? Thanks!

Thank you you just answered my question. Every song of this album is very unique. I have everything in the ballpark.. it's the bottom of the ninth... Masters should be a grand slam

Concerning the corrected headphone question, I use sonarworks to help me out in my mostly untreated and uneven room. It made a huge difference. But I avoid using it on my headphones because i run the risk to take my headphones to a live situation, or listen something on a phone or computer which is not corrected. On headphones I prefer a familiar sound to a corrected one.

I'm surprised to neither hear about, nor see comments about AKG K701s in thos discussion of headphone mixing. They radically changed my mixes, and that was coming from fairly decent monitors in a treated room. I later learned about Quincy Jones and others relying on them and I thought "yeah, that makes sense!"

Great video! I was hoping you would EQ your lavalier mic

Hi Warren. Just kind of a noob question, but there it goes. When dealing with vocal doubles I usually endup with like a nasty flanger effect, sometimes is subtler and even cool, but not being able to get rid of it completely really bothers me. Any tips on this?, I understand being doubles not exactly the same original wave will cause phase issues but thats the point of a double isn't it?. Many thanks in advance and as allways love your vids. Keep the great work.

hey guys. great vid as always. where is the best place on line to find out who mixed the song and other people on the recording?im sure there are a few. anyone wanna chime in on this? Cheers from Vernon BC Canada

This is what I call, "keeping the rawness of the track."

Interesting topic you hit upon,as someone who has been into hifi (ergo the screen name)for most of my life, one of the great debates was always between subjectivism vs objectivism.Objectivists have said to me just EQ and two speakers to a flat response and they will sound the same, but that doesn't take cabinet rezonance and distortion and dispersion patterns into consideration, sure you can take a cheap pair of speakers EQ them and get 40 hz wave out of them if you don't mind 25% distortion.

I love to do slap delays on my vocals :)!

What are some tips for organizing the home studio for improving workflow? Are there any lessons from professional studios that we can apply in our more modest workspace? Cheers!

7:28 Great tip.

Warren! Totally off topic, but you were mentioning dyeing your hair recently. It looks great, still very natural! What shade do you use please? Cheers, V. :-)

When recording three part vocal harmony, do you prefer using one omni mic or two or three separated mics? With one mic, the artists have to perform the mix.

Thank you for such an informative video! I am however, a bit confused with the whole "printing effects" part. I only ever knew bouncing a either dry, or processed vocal. Is there a way to bounce just the effects? I'm not sure how to go about it, as far as turning an effect into a waveform on a track.

Budget overheads for metal drums: Røde M5s or Lewitt 040s? Or is there something better in the 200 EUR per pair range?

What's your thoughts on a presonus setup? ( monitors, interface, channel strips, console and studio one) Or should my gear be more diverse?

Hi warren, when tracking at higher sample rates, have you needed to upgrade you hard disk IO to handle writing more data in real time? Thanks!

Interesting answer on Stems, but no mention of automation and whether you would remove that? I ask as I assume the client wants stems to do their own mix including volumes?

Warren with your Beyerdynamic DT990, do you sometimes get this fine distortion in the upper mids sometimes?

Warren is the best

Excellent video as always! With regards to BG vocals my usual go to technique is to use a stereo widener on their bus to get them spread out away from the lead vocals. I have a question for you Warren!: When using a 1073 style pre do you always drive the transformer with the input high or is there a time and place for such oomph? Personally I am a saturation whore and will drive everything just because I can haha.

Regarding getting all the songs on an album to sound "mixed together"... Even using mostly all the same equipment throughout a session, just dropping or adding one rhythm guitar may change the tonality a lot more than you would ever expect. Just changing key significantly might even throw that "magic" balance off a little. Ultimately, each song really needs to be fine tuned for it's own individual tonality. Usually the best you can do if you're trying to "fast track" the "matching" process, is to try and match the drums sound and bass sound for all the songs, and hope that it magically gets glued together during mastering. But I really don't even think that would really make enough difference in some cases. A very fast paced and busy song doesn't do well being mixed exactly the same as a slower less busy song. Different amounts of oomph are required. Mix them both the same? The fast heavy busy song sounds a bit weak. The slow gentle song sounds totally over the top and ends up with the totally wrong feel. All you really can do is try to keep the very bottom end as full and the top end as brilliant and shimmering. But it's a game of push and pull. There are practical limits. I've mixed an album's worth of songs using radically different instruments. Electric bass on most, but acoustic stand-up bass (via Soundfonts) on others. Organ and/or piano on some, but doubled up rhythm guitars on others. Relatively clean lead guitar vs. very overdriven lead guitar. Some with acoustic guitar, some without. It can be done, to some extent, but it is truly time consuming. Basically you have to go through all of the songs numerous times, referencing them to each other. And if you're including acoustic songs, heavy electric songs, and songs with some orchestral elements it can be a real nightmare. Having the same full thick bass sound used for an electric song may actually not "play nice" on an acoustic song. But you don't want to suck the life out of the electric song either. It's a compromise at best... And not always what's best for the songs. Songs are much like children. One excels at school and goes to college. Another is happy just tossing pizzas. A third one goes to a trade school. You can't force all your children to have the same outlooks. AND... Sometimes this "uncomfortable diversity" is what them all great in their own special individual way.

I use two pairs of headphones to mix: AKG K701s for everything but the low end and a cheap pair of Fostex T7s for the low end and nothing else. By constantly referencing pro material I think I get my mixes as good as possible with my set-up and they tend to translate very well to other systems?

Did I get you right? When printing stems, you do not adjust the master bus compressor. But you do not take it out completely, do you. So based on the stems alone, getting the mix is at least difficult, because the master bus compression of the mix differs from that of the combined stems? Really, really great video!

Hi! We have an Apex 460 mic. What more expensive mic would you recommend?

Hello, I have just finished recording my first song - I have gotten a lot of positive feed back. What are the steps in pro tools to finish it? quantize automatiom?

the problem with the records you're talking about isn't that the songs are MIXED too similarly, it's that no one held out for 10 good SONGS.

One question, how to approach mixing long song, concept song, a 10min prog song, I had one song like that I mixed, and I had trouble saving time, the biggest issue was pre mastering since the mood changes alot

Is it possible or even plausible to mic a drum set & run those mics into a mixer & run the output(s) of that mixer into an audio interface? Sorta of similar to sub mixing in a live situation as I am just getting started recording but have helped run sound live for years.

FAQ Friday Question: How important, or not, are power conditioners and uninterrupted power supplies (UPS) for the home studio? If I have reliable current and don’t hear any obvious issues like ground loop hum, are these devices a waste of money or do they offer legitimate benefits? Love your content Warren!

About the "rough mix" question: I supposed a better term is "pre-processinng mix", with "processing" referring to EQ, compression etc. On the stem terminology thing: I recently saw a video which explained the term as an abnreviation of "Stereo Master". Which could be even more confusing.

Warren, you're amazing! How do you find time to create all this great content?! (Just read Philip K. Dick, /Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?/, and I'm beginning to suspect you're a Nexus-6. ;-)

SonarWorks does give you the option to add low and top end boosts after the correction is applied though?

If you're using both virtual drums and bass do you bother to then do some of the standard EQing you've mentioned, like a little bump at 60Hz on the kick, etc.?

What are the differences between great mic and mediocre mic? Can one make a mediocre mic recorded sound better by EQ or any other way? Thanks.

Hi Warren, I have a question for FAQ friday. Do you use automation in EQ's? Let's say you have a guitar intro where you want a fat tone, but when the rest of the instruments come in it might sound muddy. Will you then automate EQ for the guitar? I was thinking of this when hearing the intro of Always on the run by Lenny Kravitz. It has a fat sounding guitar in the intro, but I wonder if it might muddy the mix when the other instruments come in (it doesn't and I wonder how they did that!).

Warren, I know that you work different ways (console, hybrid, in the box). I have been hearing a lot about Harrison's Mixbus DAW. Have you used it? What are you thoughts on it?

Heh! I actually thought of the background vocal treatment all by myself! Then God^H^H^HWarren confirmed it :)

Fine Faq today! Im just into my first multitrack recorder 4 channel interface, we have two singers and one guitar. Should I use the remaining input for a room mic/room sound?

You should meet up with “ seven “ Michael Summers and go through the Tech N9ne album “ special effects “. It’s a sonic masterpiece like no other in hip hop.

Hi Warren. Do you have a method for reacquainting yourself with a mix-in-progress after you've been away from it awhile. I often find myself staring at the screen, saying, "Now what?"

I'm not a technician but I wouldn't be be that much concerned of having all sounds perfectly in every song of an album and this basically for one reason: very likely the songs will be in different keys, that means that the frequencies change anyway making each song sound differently anyway.

Its ok if i turn Up the volumen of my monitor and turn down the faders in the box, so i can have a ton of headroom, and hear the mix properly? Thanks from Buenos Aires.

Been loving your content for a few years now and I'm always grateful for the wisdom you share. What's the difference between a convoluted reverb and something like Valhalla Room or Valhalla vintage? I find myself using East West Spaces II because the tone, variation, and depth of the real spaces feel so alive, but other times I feel like I should invest in a more open or versatile shapeable reverb, like a Valhalla Room or Vintage. What are your thoughts on when to use one or the other in a mix?

I got a good ? Does anybody know if you buy trackouts from a producer and import them into your daw sessi0n do you still have to pan the trackouts or you leave them be?

I would like to cast my vote for more joint videos between Warren and Fricker. That's a great duo because of the contrast in their personalities.

What do you think of community music clubs?

I may be starting work at a professional studio for the first time in my life in the coming months. What are some of the things I should do to prepare from moving from amateur to professional?

What model are those Focals Warren? I'm in the market to buy..

You've used the phrase "print the DI" a few times in other videos, and I think I know what you mean by that, but could you clarify/expand upon that, perhaps in another video?

Ok here’s a question...when I listen to pro recordings, each instrument sounds so clear and defined it’s almost as if there’s air between each component...My recordings on the other hand don’t have that air between the various components. I low pass filter to try and get rid of mud but my mixes still seem to be an intertangled mess even after cutting and boosting competing frequencies. I’m tired of sucking at mixing LOL

We keep talking about monitors vs headphones, but what about mixing using hifi desktop speakers/subs?

Fantastic FAQ Friday, thank you so much Warren.

Do you hi pass bass guitar? Like around 70hz just to help it sit better?