Basic home studio design: You’ve made the decision to produce your own music, but where do you start? One option is to go to the nearest professional recording studio, however with fees starting at $100 ...
With the advent of cheap Sound Mixing Software, just about anyone can record a song and so the competition has intensified dramatically.
Pic by 37Hz
Spending time mixing a song is essential if you want it to get noticed. It’s now possible for amateurs to produce decent music with a computer, sound card and sound modules.
Every song is different and the complexity of the mix depends on the instruments used, the bandwidth each instrument occupies and the frequency spectrums used. The dynamics of the instruments also differ and learning how to manage these successfully is an art in itself. But as the old adage says, practice makes perfect! If you have an excellent ear and an unlimited amount of patience, you too can master the art.
Be prepared to spend several hours with you Sound Mixing Software mixing one track. You’ll need to listen to it many, many times and then, once you think it’s perfect, call in a second and third opinion. Invite your friends over and take note of their comments. A fresh ear might pick up something you’ve missed or bring a whole new perspective to the recording.
There are 2 ways to mix music. You can do it with a software program like Pro Tools or Logic, or you can use a mixing board and outboard equipment. The concepts are virtually the same, but you’ll find the top audio engineers usually opt for the mixing board option.
Sound Mixing Software my top 5
- Pro Tools - High learning curve but industry standard once you get it.
- Logic - Better for musician as the interface is more intuitive.
- Garage Band - Comes free with a Mac and surprisingly good. Based on
- the Logic System.
- Cubase - The daddy of mixing for a long time but a little dated of late.
- Audacity - Very popular free tool that works great. If you just getting into this stuff start here
If you are serious about mixing your own music, it’s probably worth buying one of the many books available on the subject. At the very least you should be checking the Internet for tips on successful mixing. Here are just some of the things you will need to take into consideration when mixing your music.
- Levels - the levels must be right or the listener will feel that the recording is unpleasant.
- Panning - strange panning will cause a recording to sound unpleasant through headphones.
- Treble - check the treble on your drum sounds; you may need to reduce it on the snare and increase on the hihats.
- Compressors – making use of compressors to stop your instruments jumping up and down in the mix is a very important part of mixing music. They are used extensively with drum sounds but can also enhance the sound from all the other instruments.
- Reverb – too much and it’s hard to distinguish the different instruments, too little and the mix sounds artificial. The reverb needs to be evenly balanced in order to bring out the best in your composition.
- Vocals – a good vocal sound is essential, so take the time to remove any strange noises or unwanted bass areas.
- Cymbals – these should form a subtle foundation for the rest of the instruments.
Once you’ve finshed with the Sound Mixing Software, you can make your ‘master’. This should be played on as many different types of equipment as you can find. Does it still sound perfect on all of them? If not, then return to the mixing process again until it does.
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- Bryan Clark » Blog Archive » 3 out of 6 users prefer software mixing - In a slightly unscientific poll I attempted find out what users prefer, Hardware Sound Mixing or Software Sound Mixing. Here is a GNOME user enjoying Hardware Sound Mixing, he looks happy and carefree. Here is a GNOME user enjoying Software Sound Mixing, he also looks happy and carefree.
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Show Notes – Episode #7 “Geek Music” | Seattle-Geekly.Com - I’m not sure what kind of sound mixing software you’re using but there should be a way that you can check your decibal levels. Of course you’ll probably want to have them even throughout the whole show. If you ever need any help with …
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Disco XT DJ – Automatic Sound Mixing Software ! | vhxn.com - This is a time to all music lovers to enjoy as amazing software has been developed called Disco XT DJ.
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Adobe Audition 3.0.1 – Adobe Audition, sound mixing software … - Adobe Audition 3 is an all in one program for recording, mixing, processing and editing your sound files. It features excellent and intuitive controls for creating professional music tracks from start to finish. …
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sound mixing software? - closest topic i could find. does anyone have any suggestions for sound mixing software? i’m thinking something that will have multiple channels or tracks, let you see the video and hear the sounds as you add them and play it back. …
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mblog » LogMeIn - Remote Access and Desktop Control Software for … - On the computer at the store where a friend works, the General Manager can login and control the store computer from head-office in another town. Pondering what IT wizard they had working, my friend told me that it was a free program being used to perform this seamless networking magic; LogMeIn. Trying it out in the office I could log-on to other stations, navigate the system, active programs, move windows, copy & paste and even activate the sound mixing software to record remotely.
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Free Software To Remix Songs - Remixing music is no longer as complex as it once was and there is abundant sound mixing software attainable that perform the job of mixing easier and you would be hard pushed to find a DJ out there whom does not use this type of …
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Thursday, 7th May 2009 at 2:48 pm