From the mouth of Mau,..
"A few have asked - "how about tips in a nutshell" funny, a nutshell can hold my 2 cents....
1) 24bit recording / Record low to allow for peaks, as there is lots of detail being captured / aim to have your loudest parts peaking between -10 & -6db when tracking (-10 is more like it).
2) Mix where -20dbRMS = 0VU or -14dbRMS = 0VU on the master bus, use Level in logic set to Peak/RMS, or free PSP Vintage Meter VST/RTAS on VU (download free here vmeter.html) to calibrate this. Digital meters lie to you about how loud something really is.
3) When using a limiter or (L1,2,3) you should only have quick spurts of gain reduction often less than -3 to -6db GR or Attenuation. If there is a constant gain reduction vs quick & short, then you get that "hollow boxy sound".
4) Group like sounds using busses or group channels. All harmonies together, all kick drums and bass together, all high hats and shakers together, all claps, snaps, snares, glitches together, etc. Use really light compression on these channels to "gel" them together (think -3db gain redction at most).
5) Put a high pass filter/low cut on everything. Bass build-up, muddies your mix. You do not need below 80hz in a vocal, so shave it. Remember, that when 10 vocals with 80hz removed are grouped on a bus, you will need to do another 80-100hz cut on the buss because of build up. Shave off below 30hz on drums etc, Shave off the lows as high as 500hz on a snare, or guitar, just play around with it (but never in solo).
6) Let the mastering engineer get it loud if you feel you need to get it loud to let your friends hear it, then the mix is not good enough, period.
7) For a novice producer/engineer - it will often take 2 weeks to get a mix "solid". There is nothing wrong with this. Do it for a year, and your mixes will get better quicker, quicker = 4 days.
8) Learn about EQ,Compression
9) EQ, sometimes moving the fader up is the wrong thing, adding a boost at a certain frequency, or cuting/dipping at a certain frequency yields better results, and sounds crisper.
10) Not everything needs to be loud. Loud on a vocal, or an instrument, is determined by how quiet other elements are.
11) Use automation, if your faders aren't moving, then neither is your song.
12) Reverb places something close to you (less reverb), or farther away (more reverb), do not think of it as space, think of it as a way to sit something behind something else.
13) Reverb is easier to maintain when it is used on a send channel of an audio track, not an insert.
14) If you are recording and mixing correctly in 24bit, you should never see overs or clips - if it sounds low on final mix, turn your speakers up, do not grab a limiter. Most mixes don't need a limiter at all, my last 25 mixes, had no limiter on the master bus,and if you have to use a limiter, read number 3.
15) Better plugins do not make a better mix, EVER.
16) Stock plugins do not suck, they just take a different level of work to get things where you want them.
17) Use Linear Phase EQ on busses or groups, or the master, not individual tracks - it is basically a perfect EQ, and is hard to hear if it is fixing things on individual channels as it is so subtle. Because its perfect it also is a CPU hog, so use it sparingly.
18) On background vocals, remove all breath during edit, the final master will bring all this to full scale in it will make your music harsh sounding and less spacious during a stacking or harmony build up.
19) Remove empty spaces in vocals from recording as you may have low level hum (due to your studio set up), or earphone bleed that is exaggerated when compressed during mastering.
20) Cheaper equipment performs at its best at low levels, just like a vocalist, or instrumentalist, the more work that has to be done, the less smooth the performance is. The same goes for the internal mixing of your DAW (logic,PT,Cubase,Live,FL Studio). Low levels with no clipping gives your mix room to breathe.
There is more. Let me know if you all need more TIPS..."
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