No More Masking

[Cooley5a]

I could not understand for a long time why my mixes didn't sound like the cd that I listen to. At first I thought it was the kind of mics and plugins that I was using. (Not having a good mic and not very fancy plugins can attrubite to this, but I bet if I gave Recording Engineer, Tina Shoemaker, my junk the mix would sound like it was done in a pro studio.) I went out and bought mogami cables, waves plugin, AKG mics, and the GREAT sounding Universal Audio Solo610 preamp (everyone should have one of theses). By the way, I use Presonus Firestudio as my converter. All of these new toys gave me better tone, but it did not make my mixes sound like the song on the radio, so I decided to ask for help. I gave one of my mixes to a friend of mine and asked him what he thought about the mix. He told me the levels sounded good, but that I had a lot of masking going on in the mix. Now, I had heard about masking, but thought it was something I did not need to worry about. So I set out to find out about how to get rid of the masking in my mixes. I did a lot of reading and found out the masking occurs when you have two frequencies fighting for the same space. For example, if you boost your bass at 80hz and your kick at 80hz more than likely you will have masking. It took me some time to hear. Then there was masking going on in my mixes, but one day I woke up and started to work on this masking thing and I could hear it. The only way I can describe when masking is going on, is when you have an instrurment and you can't hear it. You turn it up, but now it is sitting on top of everything. If you turn it down, you can't hear it. If this is the case, then you probably have some masking going on. (This can also be fixed with a compressor if the instrument is going up and down in volumes, but if masking is still occuring you will still have a hard time hearing.) Try soloing your lead instrument and maybe you rhythm instrument (vox and rhytham guitar). Get these two instruments to sound good with each other and to occupy their own frequency pockets. I check this by turning the lead instrument way down and seeing if I can still hear it at any low volume. Then I check all the other instruments the same way, making sure that the lead instrument has its own space. My mixes have opened up and and almost sound the way I want them to. Also get another set of monitors and check between both of them. Get the mix to sound good on both monitors. I hope that this helps someone fighting to get their mix to sound like radio mixes. Also, it will take some time to hear the masking.
Happy mixing!

[brandondrury]

I bet if I gave Recording Engineer, Tina Shoemaker, my junk the mix would sound like it was done in a pro studio

I met her down in Nashville. She is obviously very talented!

All of these new toys gave me better tone, but it did not make my mixes sound like the song on the radio

I have a question and don't take this the wrong way. How can you say the Solo610 sounds "GREAT" but then you go on to say that you don't like the way your recordings compare to the radio? It seems to be a contradiction that you have a GREAT piece of gear that gives undesirable results. It seems like the Solo610 sounds "GREAT" to you because it's supposed to sound great.

With that out of the way....

The notion of making room for each instrument actually starts before a single microphone is used. It begins in the arranging process. So much work goes into creating parts that stand on their own in the mix without crazy doctoring. If all parts are clear in the room then there is no reason they shouldn't be clear during tracking and mixing.

Of course, even with all the work being done during arranging, there still needs to be quite a bit of work to give each element it's own space.

The one contradiction to this is the "wall of sound" idea where you actually want instruments to sort of merge together. Big guitar rock band want their guitars to merge with the bass to create one huge entity.

Thanks for reminding us of how important masking is.

Brandon

[String7th]

The way I start to fix this is solo the parts that mask together and separate them in thier corners. Example: I solo the kick and bass guitar to make sure they're not stepping on each-other's toes. Then solo snare, guitar, and vocals to make sure I can hear each as individuals and not a jumbled mess.

A good eq tip is if you boost one, cut the others to make a hole. If you boost the snare with a parametric eq at 5k, make a thin cut at 5k on the guitars or vocals to make room.

[Cooley5a]

The point behind the whole thing was that not matter how great your gear is masking can make your mix have some unwanted qualities. Its not the gears fault.

[QUOTE]

The notion of making room for .........

If I am right about what your saying who ever is recording would have to have some control over the arrangement and this does not all ways happen(not for me). I can only imagine what would happen when I tell a rock band that they will have to change there guitar or part in the song because it would cause masking.

How can you say the Solo610 sounds "GREAT".......

The solo did not cause my problem it was me thinking I knew what I was doing.
if you get a chance to try a solo 610 try it. for me its the glue the keeps my vocals together and that is why I thank it sound GREAT not because it's supposed to sound great.

don't take this the wrong way....

I will try not to take this the wrong way but to me this implied that I was some idiot who buys gear that he/she cant work. I spend time studying the stuff that I buy so I can use it to its fullest ability. It's not something I bought just so I could tell everyone I had one and it sounds great.

Maybe, I was not clear about what I was trying to say. it is tough to get on the the form and
communicate what your thinking. All I can say is I like the end result of my mixes.

[brandondrury]

If I am right about what your saying who ever is recording would have to have some control over the arrangement and this does not all ways happen(not for me). I can only imagine what would happen when I tell a rock band that they will have to change there guitar or part in the song because it would cause masking.

It's tough sometimes. We are at the mercy of the clientel. Sometimes you have to bite your tongue and it will just sound bad. I'm lucky that bands open up to me fairly quickly in most cases. It's not about "changing" a guitar part. It's about making them aware of problems that I forsee on the cd that they haven't noticed live (but ARE there).

When I hear a problem, I always say "we've got a potential problem here". They can handle it how they choose.

When you are comfortable with a band and can point out problems that lead to masking, clashing, or whatever undesirable word you want to place here the sonic possibilities are OUTRAGEOUS. I'd say it's a difference that is about 10,000 times more important than any piece of recording gear. Easily!

The solo did not cause my problem it was me thinking I knew what I was doing.
if you get a chance to try a solo 610 try it. for me its the glue the keeps my vocals together and that is why I thank it sound GREAT not because it's supposed to sound great.

Fair enough. I'll give it a try when the lottery check comes in (or this damn economy picks back up and bands pull out their wallets again!!!) I'm looking to try something other than my Vintech 1272 and Trident S20.

I've always been interested in the UA stuff.

I will try not to take this the wrong way but to me this implied that I was some idiot who buys gear that he/she cant work.

Take my perspective. You said a piece of gear was great but your mixes weren't turning out great. Simple logic says there is something (presumably other than the preamp) that is making the mixes not-great since the preamp is so good.

There is no reason to throw out the "idiot" word. I apologize if you took it that way. That was not my intent.

There are a lot non-idiots who haven't mastered the art of audio engineering. (There are a lot of idiots who have! ) If you haven't been exposed to the outrageous amount of hype and complete undermining of audio engineering skill in the home recording world, you don't have an internet connection. I'm simply trying to keep the info on the forum in proper context.

I'm actually glad you posted. People need to know that they CAN have great gear and still come out with not-so-great mixes. It's also inspiring to the guy who doesn't have $1,000+ to toss into his "volume knobs".

Just for discussions sake, which would you think is more important? Understanding this masking concept or owning your UA Solo 610?

Brandon

[Cooley5a]

If you haven't been exposed to the outrageous amount .....]

Your right. It is often hard to make good gear decisions when you read Pro Class A preamps on everything from $99 and up.

I know you didn't mean anything. I understand you are trying to keep some some form of quality information on the threads That's why I use recording review.