The Beginner's Guide to Mixing [Audacity]

Thank you persona.. this information somehow made my mood go up haha;; ^^

Eh, so you made a mixing guide? Allow me to add my own two-pence.

Set your mic sensitivity so that your loudest singing/screaming/whatever is between -6db to -0.1db. Ideally, of course. If you find that you can get over that, turn it down, even if you think you'll be too soft.

Do. Not. Adjust. Gain. On. Tracks. Use normalise.

Compress. A lot. And fast. A standard volume to compress everything a singer does to is -24. You should be able to get everything to the same volume if you compress enough.

Fixing pitch, timing, and weak tone whilst mixing is a waste of time. If you want them to be better, learn to sing better. That is, you shouldn't use an equaliser on your vocals unless you must for the song. (eg. the tinny parts of from Y to Y)

That said, the way to get the tinny/radio effect on vocals that you hear a lot is to completely compress (no dynamic varation) your vocals, then do a high and a low pass on them. Where you cut frequencies depends on your voice. Experiment.

Most people never realise, but singing has more reverb than you'd initially think. Don't listen to you vocals and think: 'Yeah I sound like I do irl!' You need to be thinking: 'Dude I sound like I'm trapped in my bathrooom!'
Some people think this means they should be hearing themselves echoing around for a few minutes though.

Clipped vocals can't be saved. They also sound horrible. Throw them out.

Sometimes the BGM at certain parts is softer than in verses and such. Times like this, it's obvious that you should make your vocals at those points softer as to not overwhelm the music. I am stating the obvious yes but someone might miss this step, who knows. I did once.

Krystal! At first when I saw your name next to the topic I was like, "oh S@#!, Krystal's gonna grill me". =D

Great to have your advice, though, since you were my first teacher =)

Are you sure about compressing everything to the same volume though...? =_=;; that seems a little... extreme?

And I absolutely agree trying to fix aspects of the singing like pitch and timing is way easier by singing better!

Great, now I know how to do the tinny/radio/telephone/whatever effect.

(In case a beginner is wondering what low and high pass filters are... they're basically like using the equalizer for low and high ends of the frequency spectrum. So to produce the tinny effect, diminish the low and high ends of the frequency and only leave the midrange. Where within the midrange depends, like Krystal said, on your voice)

Though clip fix helped me a lot, someone on YouTube said it filled his with scratching noise... prevention really is key here... set your mic sensitivity properly!

Hm... I guess it's time for an update... I'll do it after getting the Campanella audition in.

Compression and reverb have to be pretty brutal. Most pop songs have a dynamic variation of what, 3db?

Here's a screencap of one of my compressed voice files that shows a softer verse and louder chorus. The individual changes of volume in words and such are still there, but the overall track is pretty even.

Thanks so much for this!!! Really, really, thanks! Watches topic for more ideas. :D :D
I would really love to know more about mixing, but... there's only so much one can do in 24 hours. orz I wish for 48-hour days!!! So anyway, things like these where useful info can be found in one place is a really big help! Thanks again!
Also I have a question... Are there other programs for mixing like Audacity that's really light on the system and space requirements? It seems a number of people use Audition, or Cubase, or.. well, there were others but I don't remember... And those need GBs of space... Was thinking more of MB range... I do want to try them out at some point, since I guess they're popular for a reason... But, well, just trying to find out if there are other options. :D
Thanks a lot!!!

Nvm, I'm being lazy and putting off the stuff I should be doing for stuff I want to do (lol) so I've been clicking around topics and quite a number of programs were mentioned. Will be checking them out~
Before coming across this topic I really had no idea how people made the vocals fit in with the music! ><
So thanks again for the info everyone!!!

Where do u download LAME?

@fluffeh: Download page is here, but installation instructions are here.

Also, guide updated! The EQ usage Ciel suggested works like a charm... see example section for demonstration!

Update: July 18, 2010

• Removed Specific Adjustments, Fix Clipping, Volume/Timing sections.
  
• Added Mixing - Panning, Amp, Normalize, Gain sections.
  
• Added Effect - Radio, Echo, Autotune sections.
  
• Added Before Mixing - Clipping, Timing, Pitch sections
  
• Added Examples section
  
• "Equalization" section re-written!
  
• Mentions other contributors in this thread =D
  

Also, I'm not sure if it's because of the length of the post, but the "preview" feature stopped working for the first post...

Umm... How do u do the thing with 2 voices singing? Like when songs go into climax/chorus they always do it... I heard something like hamori, harmonies and stuff but is that an effect? Sorry im a noob here and ty for the eq guide, ima try it now and see the diff XD

Ps: what is IMO? XD

Oh! And Ciel, what program do u use for mixing? XD

IMO = In my opinion. I think Ciel uses Sonar...? And your other harmony thread has some pretty good explanations now lol.

How to change the pitch of the track? (i want to use harmony XD) Bcus whenever i change the pitch the track goes crazy and sounds like a machine...orz soo... Maybe a guide for changing pitch on audacity? XD im sorry if this is a bother >.<

The changing of pitch isn't advanced enough (at least in Audacity) to not make you sound like a machine lol... If you want to do harmonies, you'll either have to get a more professional program, or actually learn to sing in harmony.

I've tried to learn to sing in harmony before... couldn't do it... so I'm always envious whenever other people do harmonies so well (like Ciel). Now I just don't sing harmony lol...

I decided, that if im gonna do any harmonies im gonna sing it! XD so its going to b a really long while b4 my next cover... orz LoL =P

BIG thumps up for this beginners guide
I'm a total beginner that only sang without mixing and couldnt stop thinking "i'm so bad T~T" but i guess part of it was about mixing ^^;

Seriously, your guide helped me a lot,
Thanks ;3

Thank you so much for this! I'm really new to this and I actually had no idea
there was any mixing involved or what exactly mixing was... lol.
Your guide will probably help me a lot. So thanks again! :D

Is Gverb and Gsnap the same thing? Or are they completely different.

Gverb is like reverb with echos and such
Gsnap is somewhat similar to autotune XD
It can make your voice sound robotic in audacity XD
Some people use this if they only have audacity as their option

Though..I still don't know how this Gsnap thing works =w=
I'm still trying to figure it out *SHOT*
But if you ask around I'm sure someone is bound to know XD

Wait, people usually use pitch change for harmonies? oAo;;

ARRGH ALL THAT LEARNING FOR NOTHING ORZ|||
whatever

Thank you sooo very much for writing this! I completely suck at Audacity, so this helps a lot~! :3

And I am low-normal tone-deaf. AHAHAHAHAHAH.
great.

onigirimi wrote:Wait, people usually use pitch change for harmonies? oAo;;

ARRGH ALL THAT LEARNING FOR NOTHING ORZ|||

OnO|| Wait! Nononononooonononono! Keep doing your beautiful natural harmony! If I gave you that impression I sincerely apologize. Since I can't harmonize, I hold people who can in very high regard. Using pitch change for harmonies is theoretically possible but I don't think anyone does it (except for pop sensations who can't sing maybe). I tried it and didn't even finish a verse and gave up lol. You definitely didn't learn harmony for nothing =)

Heehee I'm so bad at harmonies... They always sound awkward...

While I don't have Audacity, it was still nice to have an explanation of everything! Since, well, terms tend to be universal and all. Good job Persona~ :D

Also, just adding; if you download Audacity Beta versions, it's actually compatible with Autotune. ^^

Haha! I didn't do barely anything to my vocals but the bare basics, and yet look at the difference:
Untouched
Basic Editing
Awesome!
I'll fiddle with that Autotune business when I have time to burn. As it is...-checks time- BACK TO HOMEWORK D8

Are you sure those links are right? Well, at least the untouched one links to a private youtube video lol...

Can someone do a post like this but for garageband on the mac...??

this was super helpful! thank you so much!