From: bert@athena.llnl.gov
Newsgroups: rec.music.makers
Subject: Re: Question on mixing down a recording!
Date: 16 Dec 92 22:33:06 GMT

jmf@gdwb.oz.au (Jamie Forssman) writes:

>		Just a question on what all you home studio users
>		mix down your recordings onto?

>		Eg. Stereo in the lounge room
>		    Tape deck....(panasonic x-12 super duper)
>		     
>		And what have the rsults been like?

>		I am currently recording on a Yamaha MT100 II 4 track
>		and have been mixing down on the stereo on the lounge.
>		This is a bit of a hassle so I'm thinking on buying
>		a "rock box" with CD line ins to use as a mix down deck.

i've been playing at the home and project studio game for about 2 years
now, and i have a few suggestions/ideas that i hope will help.  here
goes...


my first comment is that when mixing things down, you should always
play the mix-master back on several different systems.  this is
particularly important if you mix using a home stereo or headphones.
home stereos and (consumer) headphones are notorious for having
tweaked frequency spectra.  you'll find this out the first time you
take your killer mix over to your best friend's stereo and discover
(for example) that the bass is overwhelming and there's no high-end...
thus, i really recommend forking over a few dollars and getting a
reference amplifier and a pair of nearfield monitors (for example, i
bought an alesis ra-100 and two tannoy pbm-6.5's for $600) -- the flat
frequency response will give you a much better feeling for how your
mix will fair in multiple listening rooms.

that said, i much prefer to mix my 8-track system down onto DAT (in
preference to cassette or open reel 2-track), but HiFi-VHS also seems
to be a good choice.  this gives me a very good representation of my
final mix (watch those record levels, though!) and is fairly low
noise.  if you're mixing to analog tape, i recommend you keep your
signal level as high as possible (+3 to +5 for CrO2 tape, +5 to +7 for
Metal tape) *without adding tape distortion*.  you will need to
experiment with your tape deck and recording tape to find what point
that is.

it's a good idea to do several "practice mixes" before you do the
final mix; it gives you rehearsal time on moving sliders, changing eq
settings, and/or changing effects patches, plus you get the benefit of
playing your trial mixes on other people's systems to correct eq-ing
flaws.  the point here is to minimize the number of passes over your
multitrack master (if you can back your master tape up, then do so and
make your trial mixes from the backup) -- each time the heads pass
over your master tape, they chew a few particles away, degrading the
final result. this is particularly important on cassette multitracks.
and always do the final mix on a fresh tape.  the extra few bucks are
worth blowing to make your music sound as good as possible: just
imagine doing your killer mix only to discover you hit a drop-out spot
on the target machine's tape...  or residual interference from the
tape's previous occupant...  one more piece of advice: everyone's ears
get tired after a couple of hours.  try to take a break and do
something else every once in a while to keep your ears sharp.

another thing that has proved useful for me are the professional
studio magazines.  i thoroughly recommend _home and studio recording_
as they deal with issues important to us low- to mid-budget project
studios, and do so in a very clear, informative, and pertinent way.
for finer points and tips from the pros, _eq_ and _mix_ are nice; but
it's hard for me to be serious about reading a review of the newest
$80,000 neve console, or a $4000 neumann tube microphone...  but,
they've had some great articles on eq-ing, use of compressors /
limiters / expanders / noise gates / outboard effects, that really
gave me a lot of ideas and insight.

happy mixing!

bert

==============================================================================
bert still, numerical math group, LLNL   |   _   _               Katherine
(510) 423-7875, still1@llnl.gov          |  / `-' )        ,,,    the Great
postdoc/mathematician/sometimes musician |  | IU U||||||||[:::]    Riding
what? my rack doesn't fit in the truck?  |  \_.-.(         '''      School
==============================================================================


--
bert still, numerical math group, LLNL   |   _   _               Katherine
(510) 423-7875, still1@llnl.gov          |  / `-' )        ,,,    the Great
postdoc/mathematician/sometimes musician |  | IU U||||||||[:::]    Riding
what? my rack doesn't fit in the truck?  |  \_.-.(         '''      School