Learning To Mix?

Post any tips and tricks you've discovered for using Acoustica software here.

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AfxTwn
Posts: 87
Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2010 11:36 am

Learning To Mix?

Post by AfxTwn »

Hi, I really want to learn to mix but my main problem is that I don't know what my genre is or what I want my "sound" to be or what I want it to sound like.

The nearest I can describe my music is something along the lines of Frank Sidebottom or John Shuttleworth. I have some old 80's Casio keyboards (I mostly use the MT-65) and generally record around 4-5 tracks of audio into Mixcraft. The keyboard is mono so I just go out of the headphone out jack of the keyboard with an unbalanced cable into one of the inputs on my Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 (1st gen) audio interface, the line out of the keyboard produces too much noise.

Anyway, I tend to record the drums accompaniment track first (this is basically just a drum loop of a whole kit depending on which pattern/style I choose on the keyboard). Then I will record a bass line, either the built-in bass/chords - you can't separate them unfortunately, or by playing lower down the keyboard with one of the sound styles such as electric piano or organ etc. Then I record another track of a melody line and then possibly a track of chords. Lastly I may record a simple track of vocals. One of the issues I also run into is that when trying to record the drums, the Casio's do tend to have a tendency to drift out of time and there's no real indicator of what tempo they are playing at beside a basic tempo knob and a tiny flashing led. I don't know if Mixcraft has something built in that can listen to whatever's been played into it or recorded and detect the tempo and set the project tempo accordingly? I just leave it set to 120bpm normally and just use the metronome as a count in and play by ear.

So I don't have a lot to mix with just 4 or 5 tracks and I tend not to need to do any sub mixes as there just aren't enough tracks. I have been relying a lot on VST's such as iZotope Neutron or FAT (Sonible) Balancer/Compressor to auto-mix the tracks for me but Mixcraft doesn't like a lot of these plugins and struggles with them so I would like to use the built-in tools of Mixcraft to mix the tracks myself.

I have been watching the quick tutorials on Mixcraft's YouTube channel, especially the ones hosted by VenusTheory and while they are informative, they rely too much on you already knowing what you want your track to sound like and being able to recognise when you have turned a knob enough on an EQ say, for it to achieve the sound you want. I have no idea whether it sounds "right".

Other tutorials I have watched on the general area of mixing and using EQ's, compressors etc etc (in other DAW's or just in general) still go about it the same way. It's always from the idea of working in a particular genre and knowing what you want your mix to sound like. I fine the whole thing quite complicated and become very demotivated as I feel a lot of it doesn't apply to me. Especially when I see them having 8 tracks just for drums (kick, snare, hi-hats etc) and then a bunch of others for say guitars, synths, vocals etc. I just don't have that many and want to keep it simple.

I would be really glad if someone could give me some ideas of how to get started or point me in the direction of something to read or watch that would suit my very novice and basic abilities/setup. I could provide project files of one of my recorded sessions of the 4 or 5 tracks so you can give me an idea of how to mix them using Mixcraft. I feel like this is a basic skill I need to learn and shouldn't be that complicated from a very basic level and with the huge amount of tools available, should be a lot easier to achieve. I am not trying to get professional of commercial quality mixes, it's just for my own personal enjoyment (hardly anyone hears my little ditties apart from me lol). I just want to have more confidence in what I am doing.

Thanks for any suggestions and sorry for the long post.
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Acoustica Greg
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Re: Learning To Mix?

Post by Acoustica Greg »

Hi,

Did you take a look at this topic? https://forums.acoustica.com/viewtopic.php?t=10468

There's also this: How To Master Your Tracks | Mixcraft Quick Tip

Greg
Mixcraft - The Musician's DAW
Check out our tutorial videos on YouTube: Mixcraft 10 University 101
AfxTwn
Posts: 87
Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2010 11:36 am

Re: Learning To Mix?

Post by AfxTwn »

Thanks Greg, sorry I completely missed that stickied post at the top of the forum.
gaffster
Posts: 107
Joined: Sun Jul 18, 2021 1:56 pm

Re: Learning To Mix?

Post by gaffster »

Sounds like you are using mixcraft like an old school tape recorder since the MT-65 doesn't have midi. Pretty cool little board. I'm gonna look for a sample set. I can't stand trying to record old school without the flexibility of midi but if you are using the accompaniment features, yeah.. you are stuck with sync issues.

https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2015 ... -minikeys/
AfxTwn
Posts: 87
Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2010 11:36 am

Re: Learning To Mix?

Post by AfxTwn »

Yes I suppose I am using Mixcraft more like a tape recorder. I don't really use midi much and have just really gotten into using Casio keyboards, I think I am much more comfortable with just recording audio. I have been watching Venus Theory's Mixcraft tutorials and trying to learn mixing. I have also been watching some videos by Audio University. They do a series about ear training https://youtu.be/5rYrcm__3sk

They suggest using this free website https://webtet.net/apcl/#/parametric to train yourself to hear the vowel sounds associated with various frequency bands and that this is a good method to be able to identify different frequencies and then be able to EQ them.
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