Grebz - Listening

LISTENING

Once you obtain a result that you think is good, your work is not over yet. You must also take the time to listen to your song on all types of listening devices in order to check that it sounds well everywhere.

Why? Because all devices do not reproduce sound the same way, et the more devices you can lay a hand on, the more you can come to a compromise, a sort of "average rendering" to adjust your mix. If the cymbals in your song are too loud and make your ears bleed, it means that something definitely needs to be done. But if they sound a bit too loud on a system, and a bit too low on another system, but sound well on your monitoring speakers, then it is wise to leave them as they are and hope your listeners will be using a neutral-sounding device.

Here are a few listening devices you could use:
        - Monitoring speakers
        - Headset (open, semi-open, closed, basic headphones, in-ear headphones, etc.)
        - Stereo system speakers
        - Computer multimedia speakers
        - Television set
        - Car speakers (many people listen to music in their car)

It could also be interesting to listen:
        - From another room: you can spot things from a distance that you wouldn't necessarily notice when standing in front of your speakers, right in the middle of the stereo field. This can lead to making adjustments or improvements.
        - At different volumes: it is proven that lower frequencies are perceived differently depending on the listening volume. In order to avoid listening fatigue (and protect your ears), you should mix at a reasonable, comfortable volume. Not too loud! But at lower volumes, low frequencies don't stand out as much and you may tend to add too much of them to compensate. Thus, when listening to the final result at higher volumes (because music sounds so good when you crank it up!), you will find out there's way too much low frequencies. Check it out.

Each time you use a different kind of audio device, various aspects will stand out. On a good stereo, everything should be harmonious and balanced, in a car, bass sounds are usually tiny and if you listen from the next room, it will also sound different. All this will help you to find the right balance between instruments and that would be a mistake to listen to your song from only one audio device, no matter how good it can be.

Listen, but also take breaks, it's indispensable. Ears tend to get tired quickly and get used to what they hear. If you listen to a section of your song that is faulty for three hours in a row, you will end up not being able to hear the flaws anymore and thus... not correcting them. Also, your appreciation of an issue will change over time and you will modify things that you should not have (or did not wish to) modify in the first place, or at least not that way.

When you have spent a few hours mixing a song, don't hesitate to leave it aside for a couple of days. Listen to other stuff, forget about your song completely. And then, listen to it again with fresh ears... its flaws and qualities will jump right to your face! After two days, you will be objective again, and that's what you need to achieve a good mix. But as you may know, the ear will get used to what it listens very rapidly, so what strikes you at first as a problem will soon again sound normal to you. In order to avoid that, write down what you thought as negative in clear terms: the left guitar is too loud, the guitar on the right is too dull, the kick sounds too dry, there is too much reverb in the vocals, etc.

Write down and fix, then start this process again... Give it some time, listen again with fresh ears until you are satisfied with the result. This is of course time-consuming, but it's worth it. We all want to make it final, to listen to the finished song, to have people listen to it. But it's even more satisfying if you are really and thoroughly proud of your song, rather than letting your friends listen to a song that you know has some problems you were too lazy to fix, don't you think?

Your ears are not always the best judges out there! How can you be sure that what you hear is really good? How to remain objective with a personal creation? Even though you are your first audience (obviously!), even if your song must please you first, you still have one ordeal to overcome: have someone else listen to your work...

But don't take any chances, because you may not like the opinion you are going to get. So don't have anyone listen to your work before you have made enough progress. You will waste your time and your listener's if you insist on having him/her listen to some unfinished, half-intelligible stuff. If you are aware that the time has not yet come, then why rush things?

When you ask for someone's opinion, tell them exactly what you expect. As long as you don't see your work as complete, ask for an objective, technical opinion. Is the sound ok, not too bright, not too dull, are the lyrics understandable, do the drums sound fine, does this part provoke the expected feeling (strength, peace...)? Later, when you consider your song as finished, you can ask the ultimate question: "Do you like it?"

You should know one thing: everybody feels differently, they listen to the same song and hear different things. If you ask 10 persons their opinion, you are going to get 10 different answers, very often conflicting. Kevin loves the sound of the guitar, but Jane hates it because she thinks it's too aggressive. On the other hand, they both agree that the vocals are great, while John thinks they lack energy, and they should calm down more before the guitar solo...

In the end, you will take the decisions, but other people's opinions will necessarily have some influence on you. The purpose of music is of course about enjoying it, but also about sharing it. So if you are the only one to like what you do, that's fine, but it's a bit frustrating. And you will undoubtfully appreciate that your friends, relatives or colleagues tell you how great they think your song is.

MESSAGES

krickgpe
le 03/05/2017 à 08h34

Bonjour et merci pour ce site très instructif. Les conseils de mixage de guitare et de basse s'appliquent-ils aussi à des pistes déjà enregistrées, je veux dire non enregistrées en live dans le daw ? Merci.

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En ce qui concerne le mixage de guitares (ou basses) enregistrées par ailleurs, il faut tenir compte de la façon dont elles ont été enregistrées.
Dans mon didacticiel, je pars d’un enregistrement totalement dénué d’effets (guitares branchées directement dans l’interface audio), et j’y ajoute des simulateurs d’ampli, des chargeurs d’impulsions, de la distorsion, etc.
Bien évidemment, si vous utilisez un enregistrement d’une guitare qui passe déjà par un ampli, vous pouvez vous passer de l’étape « simulateur d’ampli » et « chargeur d’impulsions ».
Si l’enregistrement comporte déjà un son de guitare avec de la distorsion, il n’est sans doute pas nécessaire d’en rajouter, sauf si vous pensez qu’il n’y a pas assez de distorsion.
Pareil pour la réverb : si l’enregistrement comporte déjà une réverb audible, il vaut mieux ne pas en rajouter.

En revanche, vous allez sans doute devoir travailler un peu l’égalisation de votre guitare enregistrée pour qu’elle s’intègre à votre mix. Là aussi, adaptez l’EQ à votre mixage en cours, en fonction des instruments déjà présents. Toute égalisation doit se faire en fonction du reste du mix, et pas uniquement sur l’instrument tout seul. Il faut à la fois respecter le timbre de l’instrument, mais aussi veiller à ce qu’il s’intègre bien au tout. Diminuez par exemple un peu les fréquences graves de la guitare pour laisser de la place à celles de la basse. Le mixage est un jeu d’équilibre entre les différents instruments présents.

Ce didacticiel n’est pas un guide à suivre aveuglément en toutes circonstances, c’est plutôt une manière de montrer sur quels paramètres on peut agir, mais c’est à vous de choisir et doser les paramètres adaptés à votre musique.

Grebz

Panigutti
le 18/04/2017 à 20h57

Great work thanks you from paraguay

zakk33
le 05/04/2017 à 18h38

Bonjour, 
Je possède un ampli à lampes Jet City en combo et j'ai vu que l'on pouvait se servir du son de son ampli (préamp) avec des IR à l'aide d'une DI box branchée sur les sorties HP de mon ampli. 
Faut-il une DI qui fasse en plus obligatoirement sim de cab comme les Palmer pdi09, Redbox de chez HK ou Behringer ultra gi100 ? 
En sachant que je n'ai pas de boucle d'effet ni de line in/out, quelle DI pas chère me conseillez-vous ? 
Après, j'utilise des impulsions Ownhammer et Redwirez avec le cab avec un simulateur d'ampli, mais je ne vois pas comment faire pour faire fonctionner un loader d'impulse avec le séquenceur Reaper (sans simu d'apli). 
Merci pour votre éclairage :) 
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Bonjour Chris, 
Merci de votre visite sur mon site. 
Très honnêtement, n’utilisant pas de DI ni d’ampli connecté à mon PC d’aucune manière, je ne connais pas les branchements dont vous parlez dans votre message. 
En revanche, pour ce qui est d’utiliser un chargeur d’impulsions et des impulsions avec Reaper, voici comment procéder : 
* Sélectionner la piste voulue pour insérer un plugin, et cliquer sur le bouton FX 
* Deux nouvelles fenêtres apparaissent, dont une avec la liste des plugins détectés par Reaper sur votre ordinateur. 
Sélectionnez votre chargeur d’impulsions puis cliquez sur OK. 
* L’interface du chargeur d’impulsions va alors apparaître dans l’autre fenêtre 
* Vous n’avez plus qu’à y charger la ou les impulsions de votre choix. 
Une fois vos réglages effectuées, vous pouvez fermer cette fenêtre, et vous pourrez la faire réapparaître en cliquant de nouveau sur le bouton FX de la piste.
Si vous voulez ajouter d’autres plugins sur cette piste, cliquez sur le bouton FX pour faire apparaître la fenêtre de plugin, et cliquez sur le bouton « Add » en bas à gauche, ce qui fera apparaître de nouveau la liste des plugins, choisissez le plugin qui vous intéresse comme précédemment et il sera ajouté. Ajoutez par exemple un simulateur d’ampli, et placez-le avant le chargeur d’impulsions en le sélectionnant et en le faisant glisser au-dessus de NadIR. 
Bien entendu, procédez de la même manière pour n’importe quel type de plugin (réverb, delay, EQ, etc.) pour les ajouter à une piste. 
Grebz

Dr Bonkers
le 26/03/2017 à 19h06

Hi, If you are looking for guitar cab and bass cab impulse response (IR) files, you might want to check out my site. I am always adding new guitar cabinet or bass cabinet ir's usually on a weekly or monthly basis in both Fractal Audio & Wav file formats. Currently I have the following for sale:
Ampeg B-15
Aguillar DB810
SVT 8X10
SWR Super Redhead
Norlin Gibson Moog Lab Series L5
1959 Valco Supro 1606 branded as Oahu Publishing Co of Cleveland Ohio 1X6
Sound samples may be found in the Samples tab of my site, which is Google translate compatable.
If you have any quesions tht the site does not answer, please feel free to contact me.
https://www.drbonkerssoundlab.com/
Best,
Dr. B

Latency
le 01/03/2017 à 20h22

Best guitar sim for clean? Not many out there with a clean focus.

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In the free sims, I'd say the best for clean sounds are the Ignite Amps sims. All of them can handle clean sounds: NRR1, Anvil and even Emissary.
Lepou's sims are also able to produce nice clean sounds, like LE456, Hybrit or Lecto.
Don't forget that free amp sims are usually simulating only the head part of an actual amp. You will need to add an impulse loader (such as Lepou's Lecab 2 or Ignite Amp's NadIR), and load impulses into them. The choice of the impulse will have a huge impact on the sound quality.

Commercial amp sims all have the ability to handle many types of sound. Amplitube, TH3, Revalver, S-Gear 2 can be recommended, although they can be expensive. Among the simplest (and less versatile) commercial sims, you can try Vermillion from Kuassa, which can produce nice clean sounds as well, and will include the impulses as well.
Grebz

LISTENING

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