sevenstringj
Banned
That's not being a prick. That's keeping it real and dropping knowledge AND backing it up. 
A little tip/rant for the newer guys
- Thread starter Ratel
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.
This site may earn a commission from merchant links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.
I disagree w/ the headphones mixing thing so hard. I've heard good albums mixed on headphones, but I would still put monitors in an untreated room (but set up properly) over headphones. It would be a good idea to use headphones and other systems periodically to check your mixes, but my personal experience has been that the mixes I did on headphones are way worse than what I did w/ monitors in a regular room.
Rev2010
Contributor
I don't think your initial post with prickish at all. Unfortunately though it's rather pointless unfortunately because very very few, if any, will listen. Learning how to properly mix, process, etc takes a lot of time. Too many people out there simply blame their lack of ability on their new $150 headphones not being good enough, their monitors not being accurate enough, their new amp sim not sounding real enough, etc etc. So it's easier for noobs to bitch about their gear and have some new toy on the horizon to buy.
I've been recording for over 20 years now and in the past several years since I really bought some real studio monitors my mixes have improved drastically, so yeah sometimes the gear can make a difference between days of mixing with a poor result vs. hours of mixing and a great result. But the real results lay in what one has learned about recording and mixing and knowing what to do.
That and after a few days your thread will be buried several pages back
But again, I agree with you and thought you made good points and overall after many trials and errors people eventually learn anyway, just takes more time.
Rev.
I've been recording for over 20 years now and in the past several years since I really bought some real studio monitors my mixes have improved drastically, so yeah sometimes the gear can make a difference between days of mixing with a poor result vs. hours of mixing and a great result. But the real results lay in what one has learned about recording and mixing and knowing what to do.
That and after a few days your thread will be buried several pages back
But again, I agree with you and thought you made good points and overall after many trials and errors people eventually learn anyway, just takes more time. Rev.
Prime
Crazy Robot Guy
Yes indeed...you are a prick.
You come on here and post your great mixes and make me want to throw my sh*t into the river and then throw myself off a cliff.
Realizing everything I have done up to this point is a big pile of poo. Thanks man...I appreciate that. Good Job!!!
Seriously though...I agree. You can have killer mixes without spending a gazillion dollars.
I have seen and heard them. Another thing worth noting...composition can have a lot to do with how mixes turn out.
It is obvious...if you listen to the mixes you posted.
If you can't make a good mix with a cheap @ss ux2 and free vst's...all that fancy equipment probably isn't going to help you much.
The only exception being a decent drum vsti, unless you have real drums (which is even harder).
And like you said, you must have decent instruments. It doesn't have to be a 4k guitar.
But they should be decent quality....and NEW strings!!!
I could go on and on...but I am not very good at communicating my thoughts via the interwebs. So I will just stop here.
You come on here and post your great mixes and make me want to throw my sh*t into the river and then throw myself off a cliff.
Realizing everything I have done up to this point is a big pile of poo. Thanks man...I appreciate that. Good Job!!!
Seriously though...I agree. You can have killer mixes without spending a gazillion dollars.
I have seen and heard them. Another thing worth noting...composition can have a lot to do with how mixes turn out.
It is obvious...if you listen to the mixes you posted.
If you can't make a good mix with a cheap @ss ux2 and free vst's...all that fancy equipment probably isn't going to help you much.
The only exception being a decent drum vsti, unless you have real drums (which is even harder).
And like you said, you must have decent instruments. It doesn't have to be a 4k guitar.
But they should be decent quality....and NEW strings!!!
I could go on and on...but I am not very good at communicating my thoughts via the interwebs. So I will just stop here.
Yo_Wattup
Kick the Butterfly
https://soundcloud.com/dudleygrabsch/feared-lords-resistance-army
$170 interface and my guitars.. that's all is needed...
$170 interface and my guitars.. that's all is needed...
Alimination
Space Adventurer
This post is totally directed towards me. 
He's right though. Seriously, I got an axe fx, apogee ensemble, mac mini with a mother load of ram, Logic 9, a pair of BX8a monitors, ATH-m50 head phones, upgraded my pickups on my Ibanez 2228, JUST BOUGHT a MMJP7 12 (which I will post in another topic), countless plugins that I bought, and I'm still not happy with how my mixes sound.
In fact I wish it sounded like the two samples you posted. Great job by the way.
I did invest in the systematic mix guide which did help me out a ton. Do what other books or videos do you recommend?
He's right though. Seriously, I got an axe fx, apogee ensemble, mac mini with a mother load of ram, Logic 9, a pair of BX8a monitors, ATH-m50 head phones, upgraded my pickups on my Ibanez 2228, JUST BOUGHT a MMJP7 12 (which I will post in another topic), countless plugins that I bought, and I'm still not happy with how my mixes sound.
In fact I wish it sounded like the two samples you posted. Great job by the way.I did invest in the systematic mix guide which did help me out a ton. Do what other books or videos do you recommend?
This post is totally directed towards me.
He's right though. Seriously, I got an axe fx, apogee ensemble, mac mini with a mother load of ram, Logic 9, a pair of BX8a monitors, ATH-m50 head phones, upgraded my pickups on my Ibanez 2228, JUST BOUGHT a MMJP7 12 (which I will post in another topic), countless plugins that I bought, and I'm still not happy with how my mixes sound.
I did invest in the systematic mix guide which did help me out a ton. Do what other books or videos do you recommend?
You need to record on windows 8. W/o that, your mixes will be crap!
I find 99.9% of forum mixes I don't like to be squashed beyond recognition. When you load a SC file and it looks like one big brick of wav (or I guess mp3) chances are excellent I won't like the mix.
I know, if it's not "loud" it's not good to most people. I still think that dynamic content is good. I'm too shitty a player compared to ya'all to even post shit, but I have ok ears and most of it is just maximized beyond anything listenable imho. (yes, even for brutal metal)
Ratel
Sgt Camper
This post is totally directed towards me.
He's right though. Seriously, I got an axe fx, apogee ensemble, mac mini with a mother load of ram, Logic 9, a pair of BX8a monitors, ATH-m50 head phones, upgraded my pickups on my Ibanez 2228, JUST BOUGHT a MMJP7 12 (which I will post in another topic), countless plugins that I bought, and I'm still not happy with how my mixes sound.
I did invest in the systematic mix guide which did help me out a ton. Do what other books or videos do you recommend?
Check out Mike Senior's Mixing Secrets and Roey Izhaki's Mixing Audio. Mixing Secrets is better for starters, Mixing Audio is much more in depth and could be a bit overwhelming. But both those books are my bible along with Ermz's Systematic Mixing. And thanks! Glad you dig!
Rational Gaze
LithiumDawn Voicebox
Agree with everything on here dude, good stuff.
It really used to intimidate me when everyone and their grandmother began buying Axe FX 2's, unbelievable interfaces, and generally just being able to afford the bee's knees in gear. Not having money was always a huge stick in the side for awhile, and I would be really hard on myself and insist I can't really get my stuff to ever sound decent. But eventually, you realize that it's not really a bad thing, and you learn to use your own abilities versus relying on something that may cost 2000 dollars more, but come with really sweet patches that you don't have to worry about.
I know that the gear will ultimately make a huge difference, but also, learning to work with what you have is a wonderful thing to be forced into sometimes. It never hurts to be able to tweak a TonePort into sounding like butter.
It really used to intimidate me when everyone and their grandmother began buying Axe FX 2's, unbelievable interfaces, and generally just being able to afford the bee's knees in gear. Not having money was always a huge stick in the side for awhile, and I would be really hard on myself and insist I can't really get my stuff to ever sound decent. But eventually, you realize that it's not really a bad thing, and you learn to use your own abilities versus relying on something that may cost 2000 dollars more, but come with really sweet patches that you don't have to worry about.
I know that the gear will ultimately make a huge difference, but also, learning to work with what you have is a wonderful thing to be forced into sometimes. It never hurts to be able to tweak a TonePort into sounding like butter.
Konfyouzd
Return of the Dread-I
*raises hand*
I'm pretty sure the gear you use can greatly reduce the amount of work you end up doing. A noob is gonna sound like a noob no matter what they use if they don't know how to use what they have.
I know this bc after learning a bunch here, I recently upgraded my gear. To say it made no difference is a bold faced lie.
I'm pretty sure the gear you use can greatly reduce the amount of work you end up doing. A noob is gonna sound like a noob no matter what they use if they don't know how to use what they have.
I know this bc after learning a bunch here, I recently upgraded my gear. To say it made no difference is a bold faced lie.
theo
Got Hype(machine)?
I'm still very much a recording noob. Not going to try to avoid that. However after I switched to some yamaha hs50ms instead of my beyerdynamic copies my mixing got a lot better quickly. However in saying that, I do definitely agree with the majority of what you say.
Edit: Your mixes are really good.
Edit: Your mixes are really good.
Ratel
Sgt Camper
"I too hate people who have more money than me, damn them. And if you are not a master of something the FIRST time you try it you should never have even tried it, am I right? What gives with the balls on these people trying to learn stuff!!"
I don't know how this forum exactly works but someone apparently took it the wrong way and left this message with the reputation thingy. LOL
I never said that you should master something the first time. Been doing this full time for 2 years and my mixes are still shit compared to the pros, Putney and Crummett to name a few (those dudes are monsters check them out if you haven't heard of them yet). And no I don't hate people who have more money than me. What I hate is people who blame their gear for their shitty mixes 
I don't know how this forum exactly works but someone apparently took it the wrong way and left this message with the reputation thingy. LOL
I never said that you should master something the first time. Been doing this full time for 2 years and my mixes are still shit compared to the pros, Putney and Crummett to name a few (those dudes are monsters check them out if you haven't heard of them yet). And no I don't hate people who have more money than me. What I hate is people who blame their gear for their shitty mixes Ratel
Sgt Camper
It will definitely reduce the amount of work. But it also won't give you good mixes instantly
Thanks man! Yeah monitors are definitely the first thing to upgrade
The better your monitors, the better mixing judgement you will make.
osmosis2259
Well-Known Member
That was a great read Ratel.
I couldn't agree more.
I couldn't agree more.
ChrisLucas
Needs more hype
A good engineer and good musician with a Squier Strat and a $150 interface is going to make shit that sounds better than a shit engineer with a shit player and all the gear in the world. Simple as that.
Edit: Imo, headphone mixes with decent headphones (I use M50s) are going to be better than any untreated room, period. I don't care how well "set up" your monitors are, I'd take headphones over a square untreated room any day of the week. For example, In the mix I did for the Feared Mixing comp, I mixed it entirely at my GF's place with the headphone jack in my MacBook Pro. No interface or anything, and in my opinion, my mix slams pretty nice.
Here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ6o8T9GGOU
Anyways, I agree with Ratel overall, skill>gear all day every day.
Edit: Imo, headphone mixes with decent headphones (I use M50s) are going to be better than any untreated room, period. I don't care how well "set up" your monitors are, I'd take headphones over a square untreated room any day of the week. For example, In the mix I did for the Feared Mixing comp, I mixed it entirely at my GF's place with the headphone jack in my MacBook Pro. No interface or anything, and in my opinion, my mix slams pretty nice.
Here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ6o8T9GGOU
Anyways, I agree with Ratel overall, skill>gear all day every day.
