Beginner's Guides to mixing?

Hey guys

I'm getting fairly confident in my composing ability now but I can't get the sound quality out of my library that I know it has available. This is because I use purely notation software and I only know the bare minimum when it comes to equalizing, panning, increasing the attack/decay/reverb etc.

I was wondering if anyone knows of any a) good guides to introuduce a newcomer to this stuff (preferably online but no necassarily) and b) good sequencing software if it's necessary.

And if it helps I currently use Sibelius 5 with EWQL Gold.

Thanks for any help.

1. I know you won't like the reply, but: Get a sequencer. Don't ditch Sibelius for what it is, it's excellent, but with a sequencer you'll be able to mix better.

2. I don't think that there IS an actual guide anywhere. It's more about practice, trial and error and forums like this and many other that you can get feedback.

3. A good monitoring system IS crucial. You may not have the money to get decent monitors, or the space (I had my stuff in the living room for two years, before I got a tiny room), but you could get some excellent headphones, which, even if not exactly the same, will help out enormously. Just take your CDs (or your music) with you and be amazed at a store at how they might sound through some GOOD cans.

4. It might not be actually the mixing at fault but programming skills and knowing your library well enough. You have Gold, or Gold xp pro? Do you use CC11, do you use CC1 (modulation), do you use the crossfade patches, do you layer different articulations of strings to get a richer sound and a more interesting dynamic curve? Do you mind if you end up using... 24 French horns, because the 6 french horns patch sound better, even if in real life this would never have happened? Do you bounce, if you don't have enough RAM and mix in audio? Etc...

5. Good sequencing software.

first of all: REAPER | About . Shareware, no limit. try it, it's free and legally so!

For PC, Cubase (which has an entry version Cubase 4 Studio) and Sonar, which again has an entry version. As a matter of fact I believe that Sonar also has a trial version out. Get it.

For Mac, Logic. Logic 8 comes bundled with some amazing stuff (check with Marius for more).

Pro tools. Yes... it takes a lot, and midi STILL is not up to par with the rest, but it rocks your audio world otherwise (maybe because *normally* you also need the relavent hardware to run it! :D)

6. With most (if not all) EW stuff, inclduding Gold you don't need:

* panning

* extra reverb

* EQ

* tempering with the sounds.

If you work on other types of music, yes you need all the above, but just with EWQL Gold (xp pro, or not) you just need what comes out of the box to sound great ultimately. EW products are panned and are recorded in a hall, with the reverb there (release trails it's called). EQ is rarely needed in such music, maybe only in a mastering level, but that's the end of the line.

Hope it helps

4. It might not be actually the mixing at fault but programming skills and knowing your library well enough. You have Gold, or Gold xp pro? Do you use CC11, do you use CC1 (modulation), do you use the crossfade patches, do you layer different articulations of strings to get a richer sound and a more interesting dynamic curve? Do you mind if you end up using... 24 French horns, because the 6 french horns patch sound better, even if in real life this would never have happened? Do you bounce, if you don't have enough RAM and mix in audio? Etc...

Hey Nikolas, thanks for your help. I may be able to aquire a copy of Cubase SX3, is that good enough for a starter sequencer?

Is there any chance you could explain the stuff you listed up there a bit? You're right in that I don't use most of that stuff but I don't get how you use the midi messages (like CC1) and how you layer different articulations in Sibelius. Or crossfade patches so...yeah, still a rookie to the more technical stuff!

First of all, I don't know how to do anything in sibelius. I'm a Finale user. Layering simply means putting "together" more than one sound. Another word would be doubling I guess. So you will need 1 midi track playing.... butter legato, and another playing sus vib and try to mix and match the volume with going in and out to sound more interesting.

some articulations in EWQLSO are named DFX, or mod wheel, or XF etc. These don't work with the velocity but with the modulation controller. This is the mod wheel and is the CC1 controller (the first controller that is). you can change the value while the note (event actually is called) is playing, so you get more natural crescentos, or fade ins, or change from one articulation to another, etc.

CC1 is "expression" and is used by EWQLSO instead of volume. It acts exactly like volume.

Volume (CC7) is mostly used initially for mixing purposes, rather than changing it every now and then.

I used Cubase SL3, so I can tell you that SX3 is most excellent. Go for it!

Yes, Sibelius is software for notation and eventually composing, but it is not suitable for the production process. The good of Reaper is that it is free. But, if memory serves, it doesn't offer score editor which I.. umm.. dislike.

I use Cubase SX 3.

Does Cubase offer a score editor? I've used SX3 before but didn't see anything like that

Yes but it pretty much sucks compared to Sibelius and Finale. This is what I've been telling you. Each software for their own purposes...

Right. So Sibelius for scoring, Cubase for post production and effects if needed. Sounds good to me! Thanks for all your advice, Nikolas, I understand most of what your getting at now and will play around with the modulation settings on my current piece :)

I feel mildly comfortable composing directly in Cubase's score editor, although the notation is not so nice. Plus, I don't have enough HDD space. I've tried to increase the size of the score in Cubase, but it doesn't work - I think it is impossible?

Hey Nikolas, on EWQL is there anyway to reduce the attack/velocity of the piano that you know of? (Depending on which word is right lol). I have the volume where I want it but it sounds like the keys are being hit just a little too hard.

I dunno, I use Sonar for scoring, but only limitedly. I suppose if I really wanted to properly score something I should get Sibelius..

I wholeheartedly recommend Sonar for a sequencer, I have been using it for a long time, and I have only a few quibbles with it.

Also, never forget to add reverb, especially to concert hall pieces. That is my tip.

Hey Nikolas, on EWQL is there anyway to reduce the attack/velocity of the piano that you know of? (Depending on which word is right lol). I have the volume where I want it but it sounds like the keys are being hit just a little too hard.

reduce attack/velocity? try making the midi notes less loud (-> lower velocity values).

:pinch:

one more tip, when using EWQL, don't tamper with volume controls, try to se 'natural' volume control (velocity value). so instead of making something softer or louder, decrease/increase their velocity value. this makes orchestral mockups more realistic. you can always make something softer or louder after that.

^ Thanks for that.

I have Cubase now, and I was just trying to think of how to use it. I mean, should I write my music in Sibelius, export each staff as an audio file and then mix in cubase? Or should I export as MIDI and assign the sounds in cubase? I'm really not sure how best to utilize both notation software and sequncer.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Export it as a MIDI, I would. That will give you a lot more control.

It's not like you need Sibelius for the actual audio output anyway, so you may as well have direct access to the MIDI in Cubase.

yeah I just tried that and cubase seems to hate me! I can import the MIDI file but I cant get any sound to come out and I cant load EWQL in either. I've put the WEQL plugin in the "synths" and "other" folder of the Cubase VST plugins folder, but my primary concern is the fact my MIDI isnt playing back.

My output latency is about 2million at the moment if that might be the problem, I cant figure out how to get it down.

take a cubase sx3 crash-course. in spite of what you might have been told, cubase is very newbie-unfriendly.

crash course getting sound out of cubase while importing midi files.

1) import the midi-file.

2) press F11 for vsti's, click on the dark bar next to 1 and choose EWQLSO (silver, gold, whatever your flavour is).

3) when the sampler is loaded, load in an instrument (by again, clicking on the bar next to a number, i'd suggest number 1).

4) back to the midi file. click on the track, then on the left of the screen there are lotsa things concerning this track showing. in the top of this list there are buttons like, mute (m), solo (s), read ®, write (w) and other thiongs like, volume, panning etc. etc. when you don't see this, you can 'unfold' this 'menu' by clicking on the bar top-left which has the midi-name written in it bold.

ok, look for in: and out:. 'in:' probably says midi input or whatever, doesn't really matter unless you're recording midi on this track, which is not relevant right now. the 'out' though, we need to change though, click on the bar next to 'out' and select EWQLSO or whatever synth you've loaded in the vsti-load-thingy (F11). also, makes sure the channel is set to 1 (since you've loaded the instrument in the sampler on 1).

i hope this helps and i didn't just waste 5 minutes of my life typing this.

///

getting latency down could (in most cases) also be done, check the 'device manager'. you do use an asio-soundcard right? if not, you should try the asio4all drivers, which will most def. get your latency down by numbers.