The Zero to Hero Guide - Mixing in Ableton Live - Fundamentals & Mix Preperation

126 Pages·2017·18.41 MB·English

by  Ableton Bible

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THE ZERO TO HERO GUIDE TO

IN ABLETON LIVE

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MIX

FUNDAMENTALS & MIX PREPARATION
‘THE ZERO TO HERO GUIDE TO MIXING IN ABLETON LIVE

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

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THE ZERO TO HERO GUIDE TO MIXING IN ABLETON LIVE ————

FOREWORD

Firstly, thank you for purchasing the first book in our Ableton Live
mix series. This set of eBooks aim to cover every aspect of the mix
process in Ableton Live.

We have designed this book to be used as a practical reference
guide during the mix-down of a track.

We recommend reading this book cover to cover first, to gain a
basic understanding of all of the subjects covered. We have
included summary pages at the end of each section, which bullet
point any key principles covered. These summary pages can be
Used as a quick and easy reference to jog our memory whilst we are
mixing a track.

Produced by Ableton Bible
Edited by Dan Exert

For free Ableton presets, racks and samples, Visit our website
‘THE ZERO TO HERO GUIDE TO MIXING IN ABLETON LIVE

Table of Contents
MIXING EXPLAINED

MIXING EXPLAINED SUMMARY & KEY POINTS 9
BASICS OF SOUND AND WAVE: rt

BASIC WAVE THEORY 10
SINE WAVES 12
TRIANGLE WAVES: 13
‘SQUARE WAVES 14
‘SAWTOOTH WAVES 15
WHITE NOISE 17
PROPAGATION OF SOUND 18
WHAT IS SOUND 18
‘THE SPEED OF SOUND. 19
WAVES 19
AMPLITUDE 19
CYCLES AND WAVELENGTHS 20
FREQUENCY 2a
PHASE 21
DECIBELS 26
LOGARITHMIC SCALES. 29
HOW WE HEAR 30
HEARING IS NOT LINEAR 3a
BASICS OF SOUNDS AND WAVES SUMMARY & KEY POINTS 32
CRITICALLISTENING
FREQUENCY 34
DYNAMICS. 34
TIMBRE 35
TRAINING OUR EARS 36
IMAGING 36
‘SPATIAL AWARENESS: 38
CRITICAL LISTENING SUMMARY 39
CRITICAL LISTENING KEY POINTS 39
THE ROOM 40
BASIC ROOM ACOUSTICS 40
STANDING WAVES 40
ROOM MODES a1
‘THE ROOM SUMMARY & KEY POINTS. 44
‘THE ZERO TO HERO GUIDE TO MIXING IN ABLETON LIVE —————

MONITORING a
COMPONENTS 45
THE COMPUTER/DAW 45
THE DAC 45
AMPLIFIER 45
MIXING CONSOLE 45
THE ROOM 45
MONITOR SPEAKERS 45
ANOTE ON EAR FATIGUE 47
MONITOR TYPES & USES OVERVIEW 48
1 - THE MID RANGE RADIO SPEAKER, 48
2+ NEARFIELD MONITORS. 50
3-SUB WOOFER 50
4 ~ HIGH END STUDIO SPEAKERS 50
SPEAKER SWITCHING & SET LEVELS. St
‘THE LISTENERS PERSPECTIVE 52
REFERENCE LOCATIONS 54
SPEAKER ORIENTATION 54
‘SPEAKER POSITIONING 55
MONITORING SUMMARY & KEY POINTS 56

SPEAKER SELECTION
KEEP THINGS SYMMETRICAL

AVOID WALLS

AVOID POOR ANGLES

AVOID PROBLEMATIC REFLECTIONS
EQUAL LOUDNESS AND LEVELS

TOO MUCH LOW END

STUDIO MONITORS SUMMARY & KEY POINTS

ACOUSTIC TREATMENT

‘STANDING WAVE:
ECHO AND REVERI

EARLY REFLECTIONS FROM THE SIDES
EARLY REFLECTIONS FROM THE CEILING
LOW-END RUMBLE & STANDING WAVES
FURTHER ENHANCEMENTS.

ACOUSTIC TREATMENT SUMMARY & KEY POINTS,
‘THE ZERO TO HERO GUIDE TO MIXING IN ABLETON LIVE

sY CHOACOUSTICS EXPLAINED 2

WHAT ARE PSYCHOACOUSTICS.
PERCEPTION IS NOT LINEAR

DYNAMIC RANGE

‘THE HAAS EFFECT (THE PRECEDENCE EFFECT)
MASKING

CRITICAL BANDS

NATURAL EAR PROTECTION TO LOUD NOISES
EQUAL LOUDNESS CURVES

FLETCHER-MUNSON TO ALTER DEPTH

EARS HEAR SOUND IN AN AVERAGE WAY (RMS)
LOCALISATION

LAYERING SOUNDS

DEPTH PERCEPTION

PSYCHOACOUSTICS SUMMARY & KEY POINTS

MIXING TECHNOLOGY AND EQUIPMENT. on
‘THE MIXING CONSOLE on
THE PATCH BAY ot
OUTBOARD EQUIPMENT 92
‘THE DAW (DIGITAL AUDIO WORKSTATION) 92
STUDIO MONITORS 92
DIGITAL VERSUS ANALOG 92
MIXING TECHNOLOGY AND EQUIPMENT SUMMARY & KEY POINTS.
93
MIX PREPARATION 94
BITDEPTH & SAMPLE RATE 95
TRACK ARRANGEMENT MARKER MAPPING 95
SIDECHAIN TRIGGER TRACKS 95
RENAMING & COLOURING 95
REMOVE LOW-END RUMBLE 96
‘TRACK COUNT REDUCTION 96
GROUPING & SUBMIXING TRACKS 97
DOUBLE CHECK TUNING AND TIMING OF PARTS 97
BOUNCE TO AUDIO 97
DAW MIXING TEMPLATES 98
‘TRACK STRUCTURE CHANNEL 98
SETTING UP A STEREO/MASTER BUS COMPRESSOR 98
IMPORTING & FILE MANAGEMENT 99
MACRO MANAGEMENT AND HANDLES 99
REFERENCES AND A/B COMPARISON 101
COMPUTERS & THEIR SETTINGS FOR MIXING 101
BUFFER SIZES & LATENCY 102
FREEZING AND FLATTENING 102
MIX PREPARATION SUMMARY & KEY POINTS. 103
‘THE ZERO TO HERO GUIDE TO MIXING IN ABLETON LIVE

OBJECTIVITY & SEPARATION OF MIX PHASES. 105
MIXING SOMEONE ELSES TRACK 106
MIXING OUR OWN TRACK 107
MIX CHECKLIST 108
TRACK ANALYSIS SUMMARY & KEY POINTS. 109
GAIN STAGING 110
WHAT IS GAIN STAGING? 110
GUIDE TO GAIN STAGING INOURMIX ad.
RECORDING pete
INDIVIDUAL TRACK GAINS ait
MIX BUSSES 112
GAIN STAGING SUMMARY & KEY POINTS. 114
ABLETON’S MIXER ANATOMY ROUTING AND SIGNAL FLOW 115
WHAT IS SIGNAL FLOW 115
INPUTS 116
MONITOR MODES 116
INSERTS 117
‘SEND KNOBS 117
PAN POT 117
MUTE BUTTON 117
SOLO BUTTON 117
RECORD BUTTON 117
VOLUME FADER 118
METERING 118
METERING AND DYNAMIC RANGE TERMINOLOGY 118
PEAK METERING ANALYSIS. 119
RMS METERING ANALYSIS 119
ouTpuTs: 120
ROUTING, BUSSES & GR‘ 12a
(MIX/SUMMING BUSSES & AUXILIARIES 121
BUSSES: 121
GRouPS 424
SEND & RETURNS 122
STEREO OUTPUT 123
ROUTING, BUSSES & GROUPS SUMMARY & KEY POINTS. 124

FINAL SUMMARY. 125
‘THE ZERO TO HERO GUIDE TO MIXING IN ABLETON LIVE

MIXING EXPLAINED

Mixing is the process of ‘combining’, ‘blending’ or ‘balancing’
multiple sound sources together. This gives us our resulting mix.

‘The word ‘mix’, Is an abbreviation of the word mix-down, which
means that we will be Mixing *X’ number of tracks down, into a
single stereo track.

We can think of mixing as being lots of cumulative processes that
achieve a final result. It only takes one tiny detail to be wrong in
any one of these processes, and the integrity of the entire mix could
be ruined. Mixing is quite a subjective artform, so there are plenty
Of different ways to get the same job done, as well as many
different opinions on how things should be achieved.

First and foremost, we need to realize that everyone has different
tastes. What might sound amazing to one person may sound like
rubbish to someone else. As our years of production accumulate, we
will begin to build ourselves a preferred workflow and style. Further
to this, as time passes, our ears will become much more finely
tuned to what we are hearing, allowing for more analytical listening.
This means that when we are listening to individual sounds within a
mix, or the entire mix-down itself, we can understand exactly what
it Is we want to achieve, and how we plan to achieve it.

For example you may be asked for:

+ A punchier kick drum
+ Awarmer bass-line

‘+ More prominent and upfront vocals
‘+ More of a 3 dimensional mix

All of these ideas are more easily achievable once you have a grasp
of the tools at your disposal and the fundamentals of mixing. Not
only will these different tastes and styles change from producer to
producer, but other factors will need to be considered, such as the
genre of music, the track itself, the emotions you wish to convey in
the track, and even things such as whether the record will be
pressed onto vinyl or not.

Factors such as these can seem irrelevant and are often overlooked,
but these small details matter. A common example of this is how

tracks intended for vinyl need to be more dynamic than their digital
counterparts. Vinyl tracks need careful attention with regards to the
‘THE ZERO TO HERO GUIDE TO MIXING IN ABLETON LIVE

extreme high & low frequencies to ensure proper groove geometry,
as well as to prevent unwanted distortion that could make the
needle skip out the grooves.

Within the mixing process there are a few key functions that will
need to be controlled and manipulated to give us a well-polished
mix.

‘These key functions are:

Volume (Balance)
Pan & Stereo Imaging
Equalization
Dynamics

Space & Depth
Effects

Automation

‘Once we have got all of these different elements under control, the
end result will be a ‘bounce’ of the sum of all our tracks. Typically
this will give us our stereo-interleaved audio file, which will be
ready for mastering.

Many producers will mix their tracks as they are composing. This
technique is fine, because it can help with a producer's creative
flow; however, we strongly suggest revisiting the entire track from
a mixing perspective. Different mixing methods are covered
extensively in a later eBook from this mixing in Ableton Live series.

MIXING EXPLAINED SUMMARY & KEY POINTS

‘+ Mixing is the process of combining multiple sound sources
together

‘+ Different genres and music mediums require different mix-
downs

+ Mixing Is very subjective; each producer has his or her own
way of working

+ A'bounce' is when we print a project or piece of audio to a
file, such as a .wav or .aiff

‘+ The mix process can be split down into key functions such as
volume, panning, stereo imaging, EQ, dynamics, space &
depth, effects and automation
‘THE ZERO TO HERO GUIDE TO MIXING IN ABLETON LIVE

BASICS OF SOUND AND WAVES.

In this section, we will take a brief look at the basics of sound
waves, frequencies and harmonics. It’s important that we
understand the basics of sound, so that we can fully grasp the
reasons why we do certain things in the latter stages of the mix
process.

BASIC WAVE THEORY

Firstly we have basic wave theory, the most common waveforms
are:

Sine Wave
Triangle Wave
Square Wave
Pulse Wave
Sawtooth Wave
White Noise

It is unusual in the mixing stage, that waveforms will be this simple.
Usually the audio we work with will be complex waveforms, which
can be thought of as being made up of lots of simple waveforms
stacked together, as well as a lot of effects and processing.

As we are aware, a sound Is simply a vibration or oscillation. If a
vibration cycles periodically, then they will have a musical tone.

Complex tones can be broken down into a fundamental frequency
and overtones, which together make the composite sound. (Fourier
analysis) This is the technique used in spectral analysers, which Is
why they are also commonly referred to as FFT's. (Fast Fourier
Transform.)

‘The reason we get these harmonics (overtones) in complex sounds
Is because of how an object can cause micro vibrations within itself.
For example a guitar string can be split in half, third, quarter and so
on, which will subsequently produce the 2", 3° and 4 harmonics.

The amplitude and phase of these harmonics will also play a
considerable role in the overall timbre of the composite sound.

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