Mastering the Mix Sale

[Larry Shelby]

At EveryPlugin

https://everyplugin.com/mastering-the-mix.html

Edited March 20, 2022 by cclarry

[MusicMan]

It would be nice to see the upgrade for Expose 2 go on sale at some stage. I don't think I've ever seen it discounted...

[Larry Shelby]

32 minutes ago, MusicMan said:

It would be nice to see the upgrade for Expose 2 go on sale at some stage. I don't think I've ever seen it discounted...

You haven't...I've been waiting too

[PavlovsCat]

I own the Izotope Suite of tools, but still have yet to really figure out how to mix properly. A friend of mine who is a musician who does music for games, suggested I look into Mixroom, as he thinks it would likely be easier to use. I'd be interested in what those who use Mixroom think. Is it easy enough to use that a guy like me, who only ever focused on playing music and is struggling to really grasp how to craft a good mix can get decent results fairly easily or am I better off spending more time with Izotope's tools (mainly Neutron for mixing). 

FTR, I do have -- but don't use -- Bassroom and Levels, which I got free over the last couple of years from PluginBoutique and Plugin Collective, 

Edited March 20, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[MusicMan]

1 hour ago, cclarry said:

You haven't...I've been waiting too

Well.. if you haven't seen it, then it's safe to say it hasn't been on sale ?

The upgrade price direct through them isn't far off just buying the full versy on sale too.. it's a shame though, they would actually sell a lot more of them.. I don't think they get the whole loyalty pricing thing..

57 minutes ago, PavlovsCat said:

FTR, I do have -- but don't use -- Bassroom and Levels, which I got free over the last couple of years from PluginBoutique and Plugin Collective, 

Don't overlook Bassroom.. it's a surprisingly good EQ for lower frequencies ?

[PavlovsCat]

5 minutes ago, MusicMan said:

Well.. if you haven't seen it, then it's safe to say it hasn't been on sale ?

The upgrade price direct through them isn't far off just buying the full versy on sale too.. it's a shame though, they would actually sell a lot more of them.. I don't think they get the whole loyalty pricing thing..

Don't overlook Bassroom.. it's a surprisingly good EQ for lower frequencies ?

Thanks for the recommendation. Do you think that considering I own Izotope's equivalent tool, that Mixroom will likely be easier to use -- and consequently, worth picking up? 

[MusicMan]

2 minutes ago, PavlovsCat said:

Thanks for the recommendation. Do you think that considering I own Izotope's equivalent tool, that Mixroom will likely be easier to use -- and consequently, worth picking up? 

I haven't personally used Mixroom, but for some weird reason Bassroom is really good at sculpturing the bass, so it wouldn't surprise me if Mixroom was good too.

You don't really need any of them, but they're just tools that can help. It's worthwhile spending the time learning the theory and being able to use any EQ.

Lots of good free resources to point you in the right direction.

It's easy to get stuck in the loop of thinking we need another plugin to solve something, when we've all probably got more than we need and it would be better to spend the time learning and practicing with what we've got ?

[PavlovsCat]

7 minutes ago, MusicMan said:

I haven't personally used Mixroom, but for some weird reason Bassroom is really good at sculpturing the bass, so it wouldn't surprise me if Mixroom was good too.

You don't really need any of them, but they're just tools that can help. It's worthwhile spending the time learning the theory and being able to use any EQ.

Lots of good free resources to point you in the right direction.

It's easy to get stuck in the loop of thinking we need another plugin to solve something, when we've all probably got more than we need and it would be better to spend the time learning and practicing with what we've got ?

Thanks. That sounds very good advice and I'll take it and hold off buying Mixroom and keep spend more time trying to learn the Izotope tools I already have. I've made a good deal of progress in the past several months understanding the basics of the processing effects used in mixing. EQing  remains the most challenging area for me. 

[MusicMan]

33 minutes ago, PavlovsCat said:

Thanks. That sounds very good advice and I'll take it and hold off buying Mixroom and keep spend more time trying to learn the Izotope tools I already have. I've made a good deal of progress in the past several months understanding the basics of the processing effects used in mixing. EQing  remains the most challenging area for me. 

IZotope tools are very capable, so you'll be fine ? With EQ, the best thing I learnt was making space for each sound and dynamic EQ with sidechain, so when a vocal for example plays at the same time as some keys, or whatever, that may share some of the same space, you can duck the keys just in those clashing frequencies to allow space for the vocals.

Also comes into programming and trying to avoid that collision, but otherwise try and bring out the main essence of each sound and not have two clashing.

A number of EQs like you would likely have with IZotope allow you to overlay them visually so you can see where they're fighting. Can make a much clearer track.

EQ is also just highlighting what you like about a sound/instruments, so that's a good place to start ?

[Yan Filiatrault]

2 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

I own the Izotope Suite of tools, but still have yet to really figure out how to mix properly. A friend of mine who is a musician who does music for games, suggested I look into Mixroom, as he thinks it would likely be easier to use. I'd be interested in what those who use Mixroom think. Is it easy enough to use that a guy like me, who only ever focused on playing music and is struggling to really grasp how to craft a good mix can get decent results fairly easily or am I better off spending more time with Izotope's tools (mainly Neutron for mixing). 

FTR, I do have -- but don't use -- Bassroom and Levels, which I got free over the last couple of years from PluginBoutique and Plugin Collective, 

Owning the Izotope Suite of tools should be more than enough. We all fall into GAS…

[Eusebio Rufian-Zilbermann]

I started using Levels not long ago and now I'm using it on every one of my projects. It has interesting tools like inter-sample peak metering (if you're not using a "true peak" limiter, is it introducing glitches or distortion? this will tell you right away). Yes, my results are better, it gives me a lot of work and it's forcing me to learn... It does point out areas where to improve the mixing/mastering but, with my limited experience it takes me a bit of time understanding what Levels is saying, how to actually fix it, and whether I should fix it or adjust the settings of Levels instead. Some examples: if the music is low on stereo field, how should I fix it? (if I don't have it there yet, adding a ping pong delay to guitar tracks will help, but more often than not it's not enough) or, if I am making an EDM track and get a warning that my dynamic range is low, what is the right solution? (music for dancing in a club is not expected to have the same dynamic range as other styles of music to begin with, so the thresholds should be lowered in Levels first before making adjustments to the music).

Some people criticize that analyzing existing "great" music in Levels will point out multiple issues, and use that test to determine that Levels is "wrong" and "useless" but... (a) quite possibly in those tests they are using the default setting and not  adjusting them to match the expected style, and (b) the reason plenty of older music is getting remastered nowadays is because the taste in music production has changed through the years and it isn't really that wrong saying that, judging by modern standards, older music production was lacking qualities that modern listeners are expecting.

TL;DR - Levels is a pretty useful tool. There is a bit of a learning curve but it's worth it.

If you don't have it yet, it's probably $32.99 well spent

Edited March 20, 2022 by Eusebio Rufian-Zilbermann

[mibby]

11 hours ago, MusicMan said:

It would be nice to see the upgrade for Expose 2 go on sale at some stage. I don't think I've ever seen it discounted...

If you have the first version, email support and you should be able to upgrade for $26.  I did in December.

 

9 hours ago, MusicMan said:

Don't overlook Bassroom.. it's a surprisingly good EQ for lower frequencies ?

 

@PavlovsCat ^^^ THIS! ^^^  I got them free too and have been using Bassroom lately on every mix. I'll get things to where I think I'm "done", then put Bassroom on my Mixbus and run it through to see what it comes up with.  More often than not, I like what it suggests or close too it.

I don't have Mixroom so can't speak to that.

After @Eusebio Rufian-Zilbermann write-up I'm going to be exploring Levels some more too.

But Bassroom has been one of the most pleasant plugin surprises in a long while.   

PS. Oh, I see that Expose 2 is only $32 at EP so $26 isn't much of a discount.  Still worth it though.  ?

 

Edited March 20, 2022 by mibby

[antler]

Bassroom is brilliant; I looked into Mixroom because of how much I liked Bassroom.

Ultimately though, I decided Mixroom wasn't for me. Bassroom is a specialised EQ for lower end content, whereas Mixroom seems much more like a typical full-range EQ (i.e. the type that I already have many of). In Mixroom's favour, it does have a consistent interface with Bassroom so the experience is more unified. I think it's got a 'friendlier' interface too, ideal for those newer to mixing, or looking for a fresh approach. However, if you're new to mixing the AI is iZotope's suite is also very good for getting a good starting point and helping out too; the plus point being that you can see what's being tweaked, so you might give it a try on future mixes.

YMMV