Whether you're aware of it or not, volume has a critical effect on our work.
From recording to mixing to mastering, volume affects our ears and the way we hear and perceive sound, which inevitably affects our mixing decisions as well.
That's why it's important to know how volume affects us, and how can we minimize these effects, to keep our workflow efficient.
Today I'm going to share with you 5 ways to make sure your ears won't get fooled by volume.
Mix In Low Volumes
Mixing in low volumes is very important, that's why I already wrote an entire post about why you should do it. But to recap, it makes your ears perceive a much more natural and less hyped sound, while also reducing the sound reflections in your room. This results in a much more "transparent" sound, with less "coloration" from our room and our ears, making us hear the real sound of our mix.
The better we can hear our mix, the better mixes we'll produce.
Level Match Your Plugins
This is one of the key guidelines of mixing. It's very basic but at the same time very important.
Level matching means making sure that your track stays at the same volume level, whether your plugins are bypassed or not.
Most plugins will have some kind of output gain knob, it's there for this very purpose. Level matching your plugins is the only way to truly hear how your plugins affect your tracks. No matter what type of plugin you use, you have to make sure it doesn't make your track any louder or quieter. It's the only way to make sure you're that the difference you're hearing comes from the actual sound of the plugin and not from a volume difference.
So many times we think that our EQ/compressor/saturation plugins sound great, when in fact we only think that because they made our track louder.
Level matching creates a fair and true comparison between the plugin being on and off.
Without it, you can't really know if a plugin makes your track better or worse (or if it does anything at all)
Mix In 2 Volume Levels
This technique is great because it's taking advantage of how our ears perceive sounds at different volume levels. The concept is simple: mix on your main volume level (which shouldn't be too loud in the first place), and often check your mix on a quitter volume level, about 10db quitter. Turning down your volume by 10db will instantly give you a new perspective on your mix, helping you hear the volume balance of your tracks. It's also a good way to check your EQ and compression decisions, which can sound different in extreme low volumes. You will also "reset" your ears which will help your stay on track when mixing the same song for a few hours.
An easy way to apply this concept is to simply insert a volume plugin on your master fader, set to -10db, and enable it whenever you need to check your mix on the quitter level.
Some interfaces have a built it "dim" switch, which can be used for this purpose exactly.
Don't Record Too Loud
We already talked about how recording is the most important phase in the making of a song. And we also talked entirely about why you shouldn't record too loud, and how to know how much is too loud. But one aspect we didn't talk about before is how recording too loud will prevent you from actually putting in the work and getting great sounding recordings. Let's say your'e recording an instrument and you're not quite getting the sound you're looking for.
Then you turn up your preamp's gain and suddenly it sounds much better (since to our human ears, louder sounds better).
What happens is you end up with a track that's recorded too loud and doesn't even sound the way you initially wanted.
You have to keep your recordings at the optimal volume level, and work your way to a great recording.
I can't stress enough how much mic placement is important to get a good recording.
Reach For Volume Faders Before Plugins
In the great modern mixing world we live in today, we often tend to forget about the basics of mixing. Tell me if this situation sounds familiar: You listen to your mix after a couple hours of work, and you feel like a specific track is just "missing something", it simply doesn't sound as good as you want. What do you do?
You insert a plugin and start tweaking to find the missing piece and fix the track. It doesn't really matter what plugin it is, whether it's an EQ, a compressor, saturation, or even fancy parallel processing. The point is when we hear a problem we automatically reach for plugin to fix it. But guess what?
You won't believe how many times the answer is simply just about 2db of volume. Maybe that's what your track was missing, simply volume. And the opposite might be true as well. You feel like a track is overwhelming and need to be tamed? Before you grab a compressor, tweak the volume, maybe all it needs is a 2db volume cut.
We tend to immediately reach for plugins, so much that we forget the most basic and most important thing in mixing, volume.
Plugins are the "real mixing", volume is just volume, right? Not really. You can have 1000 of the best plugins in the world, but it doesn't worth a thing if your volume balance is off.
Volume balance is the first priority in mixing, before any plugins, even before EQ and compression.
Always keep that in mind when mixing, and always reach for volume faders before inserting a plugin.
All of these tips and methods will help you minimize the effects volume has on your work, and also develop your awareness to them.
Did you ever find yourself getting fooled by volume?
Do you already use any of tips?
Tell us in the comments below!
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