How to Make a Song Sound Clear During Mixing & Mastering
- 1). Launch your preferred digital audio workstation -- such as Cubase, Pro Tools or Sonar.
- 2). Open the “File” menu, and select the relevant song session from the “Recent” sub-menu. Select the song you want to mix and master.
- 3). Open the mixer interface. Methods vary slightly according to which program you use, but you typically click a shortcut tab marked “Mixer.”
- 4). Hit “Play” so you can hear your mix edits in real-time.
- 5). Adjust the “Gain” faders for each channel, to balance the volume. Set the gain level for the lead vocal as far up as it will go, before the warning light flashes. The warning light means the signal is too strong.
- 6). Set any backing vocals to approximately 80 percent of the volume of the lead vocal.
- 7). Adjust the remaining instrumental track gain levels so each is audible. Higher-pitched instruments typically “cut through” the mix better than duller, bass instruments. So set their gain level lower than that of bass instruments, to allow the bass instruments to be audible.
- 8). Click on the lead vocal channel to highlight it.
- 9). Open the “Equalizer” from the “Tools” menu. This tool lets you enhance and reduce selected frequencies, and it has a curve -- superimposed on a grid. The vertical axis represents amplitude and the horizontal axis represents frequency. Click on the equalizer curve, and move it around the grid to experiment with boosting the frequencies. When the sound of the vocal becomes brighter and clearer, click the curve to set the frequency at the selected amplitude. Repeat this process for each track to tease out the brightest, most resonant frequencies.
- 10
Click on the “Stereo Out” channel. Clicking here highlights the master mix, so each edit you make applies to the song as a whole, rather than an individual track. This is mastering. - 11
Open the “Multi-band Compressor” from the “Tools” menu. A single-band compressor lets you alter the dynamic profile of a single sound, and the multi-band compressor lets you apply the same process to the composite frequencies in a mix. A typical multi-band compressor has four separate frequency bands. - 12
Adjust the “Threshold” setting for the first band. For example, setting to 80 percent means the loudest 20 percent of sounds on the frequency are reduced in volume. Then adjust the “Ratio” setting, to determine how much volume reduction you apply. This approach lets you smooth out peaks in certain frequencies. By doing this, you make “space” in the mix for the more subtle sounds, giving them more clarity. Repeat this process for each band on the compressor.
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