Mixing Quiz & Demo

[metrobot]

Hey everyone... my first Silver demo!

Ivy Leaves (http://maggie.bandzoogle.com/users/SeanMalroy/media/mp3/musicplayer-IvyLeaves.mp3)

Credits:
EWQL Silver: solo violin, cello, & harp
Bill Coakley: piano
Various old Ensoniq samples translated with rubberchicken
some freeware from Izotope Vinyl (http://www.izotope.com/) on the opening piano
and the amazing freeware Crystal Softsynth (http://www.greenoak.com/crystal/about.html) plugin.

This is essentially a melodic mood piece which could be the opener of a film. It's an example of wringing every last bit of content out of a couple simple phrases. I'll appreciate any comments on the composition. My open question to the forum, however: how's the mix? How do you mix tracks? Is it all by feel or do you do frequency sweeps and carve out homes for each instrument? Or something else? I'd love to hear, cuz I'm baffled by the whole concept of mixing. My mix consists of manic volume automation in Logic, tiny bits of EQ on some tracks, but really just making it up. Better yet, for "mastering", I used the multiband compressor, ad limiter, exciter, and a bit of extra hi-end eq boost. (There's not a lot of bass in the arrangement and that's mostly intentional.)

Thanks for listening and your comments are appreciated.

==
Mac OSX 3.8; dual 1.3 G4; 1.8gb ram; Logic 6.3.3; digi 001

[ToddK]

Well, Eq'ing a synth to get a certain sound is very different from
say Eq'ing a bassoon for corrective reasons.

It really depends. There are no absolutes, just like in composing.

I think its good to grab a mix magazine, and read alot.

Make sure you're at least familiar with the frequency spectrum.

Then you learn where acoustic instruments live with in that spectrum.

Lastly, try to get the best studio monitors you can afford.

There's no "Perfect" studio monitor either, but the better your tools,
the better work you can do.
Mixing with crappy monitors is like wearing sunglasses in the dark.
You're missing alot of stuff. ;)

TK

[metrobot]

Thanks Todd. Mix is a great magazine. I guess I'm trying to figure out if each project is different and you simply approach them organically with your years of experience as a guide. Or if there are general practical concepts at work, like giving each main part its own frequency range. If that is how you do it, a blow-by-blow would be interesting. Do you use a visual graphic eq analyzer, your ear, frequency sweeps, etc. And as lots of instrument's frequency range overlaps, what do you do then?

Would love to hear different people chime in as well to get a spectrum of practical habits. But I know we're all busy too! :)

[ToddK]

I like to see what i'm doing with EQ visually, but using your ears i suppose is best.

Here's a chart i found today.

http://www.mjorch.com/hertz.html

[FilmComposerZ]

i just use my ears to mix....Tried to learn all the Frquency stuff and dB stuff, etc, but always my ears told me what sounded right