Mixing and mastering tips

[Juho L]

Just some counter weight on all this "hardly audible" babble. Let's share the tips 'n' tricks of mastering and mixing.

I've shared some of my tricks on forum members' music area, so I'll just write some of that stuff again:

1. Bass distortion. Duplicate the bass track (or make a post-fader channel track) and set a heavy crunchy distortion on it. Then set the distorted duplicate just slightly audible. That way your bass track is more clear (you hear the note better istead of just random wooooof) without eating the mix. Works very well for almost all kinds of basses - especially for sub basses. This send distortion trick is also good for other than basses when you want to have grittiness without totally crushing everything.

2. Doubling. This is very basic trick, but still some people are totally unaware of this. Doubling simply means that you re-record (do not copy, rerecord) and pan the re-recording to the opposite of the original. Works especially on vocals (must for backing vocals) and heavy distorted guitars. This way you get wide and thick sound and it sounds sooo good. Of course beware overusing this trick.

3. Highpassed drumloop. Not actually a mastering or mixing trick, but very nice tool. Choose a drumloop and add a very high frequency HPF to it. Then add this highpassed loop on the background of your track (keep the volume of the loop low) and voil?. The loop is faintly on the background and your drums sound more brisk and full. My favourite trick.

I also have a question: How do you guys process drums? I usually end up having quite murky drums. They seem to lack the snappiness and clarity. Probably some EQ'ing needed, but how? Usually boosting the high frequencies makes the drums sound weird. Maybe cutting would do the trick? How to get the drums sounds brisk and clear without getting artifical sound?