An Introduction To 3D Mixing
Tutorial Details
- Difficulty: Beginner/Intermediate
- Time: 1 hour
- Requirements: Logic Pro or other DAW
Mixing is arguably the most important stage of the music production process. When done properly, one can do everything from add energy and warmth to a sound to completely alter the feel and flow of an entire piece of music.
In my next few tutorials, I will be taking an in depth look at the mixing process to help you gain a better understanding of mixing concepts and in so doing, present one possible workflow scenario to help you streamline the process. For these tutorials I will be using Logic, but the concepts can be applied across the board.
1. What Is 3D Mixing?
3D mixing is a way of thinking of the mixing process in a spatial (3 dimensional) way. In short, it is a way of looking at the elements of the mix in terms of pan (dimension 1), amplitude & frequency (dimension 2), and depth (dimension 3). The goal of mixing in this way is to have each event exist in its own sector of the 3 dimensional song space while maintaining the clarity, warmth and pumping quality that is a part of all good mixes.
Diagram showing the 3 dimensional sound space
2. Preliminary Steps
The first thing we want to do when beginning a mix is to stop writing! It is always recommended to keep the writing, mixing, and mastering processes as distinct entities (although sometimes it’s easier said than done) as this will help you to increase productivity and quality by only focusing attention on a single aspect. There is a quasi-famous quote to the effect that changing one thing in a mix changes everything. You will find that this is completely true and all the more reason not to get halfway through a mix and then decide to start adding extra synths as all sense of balance will be lost.
To help commit to the mix as a process unto itself (and save CPU) it is recommended to convert all MIDI to audio from the onset at the highest bit depth and sample rate possible. The sample rate is open to some contention with many suggesting to go no higher than 48Khz as everything above is seen as overkill. We will get into a deeper discussion of bit depth and sample rate in a later tutorial, but for now we will work with the 48Khz model as it will allow us smaller file sizes while maintaining a high fidelity recording.
3. The Example Loop
To begin, I have pulled a few loops from the Logic library. I have kept it rather simple as a small number of strong, well placed tracks is much more effective than a large number of muddy tracks competing for attention. You should not hesitate to throw out excessive tracks that do not fit in your mix, even if you have spent hours producing them. This is another reason for keeping the writing and mixing separate as you will have a more objective view if there is adequate time and space between the two processes.
For the beat, I pulled the TR-808 Hip-Hop Beat #3, the Thumpy Hip Hop Bass #14, the Mature Hip-Hop Piano and Mature Hip-Hop Synth all from the Logic library. I had trouble finding a vocal that fit and although this one does not exactly work, Remix Vox Electronic is what I settled on. It is pretty heavily processed, but will do for the vocal example. I then used the Logic command ‘demix by note pitch’ to break the drum beat into its constituent parts, then relabeled and colored everything.
Logic’s arrange page
I then went to the ‘settings’ menu and changed the sample rate to 48K which (in theory) allows for an accurate reproduction of audio frequencies up to 24Khz: far beyond the human range of hearing.
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Here is the loop so far. I’m sure you will agree it is in need of a bit of work.
The sample rate menu
It is important to note that any audio in your project recorded at a different sample rate will either be condensed or stretched out after making the switch in sample rate. The only reason the audio was not affected in this instance (vox, keys and synth) is that these particular files are Apple Loops, a type of elastic audio file. If you have audio in a project recorded at a different sample rate, you will either have to re-record it or convert it (in Logic this is done in the audio bin under ‘Audio File>Copy/Convert or with an option in project assets called ‘Convert audio file sample rate when importing’).
4. Bounce To Audio
The next thing to do is to record the MIDI instruments (drums & bass) and import them as audio. To do this I simply soloed every track one at a time and ‘bounced’ (a Logic term basically meaning record or print) them to audio. In the bounce menu, I chose to bounce them as WAV files @ 24 bit (Logic’s highest bit depth) and at the 48K sample rate we specified in the previous step.
The bounce menu
It is also important to note that I am recording the MIDI dry, with no EQ, compression, reverb, etc. There will be a time and place for those effects, but for the most part the audio should remain free of all non-essential, non-creative effects. You will want to use some degree of case by case judgement here; some slight EQ and compression will not hurt, but the mixing stage and not the writing/recording stage is where the bulk of this should occur. If you are using an effect that completely alters your sound (like the effects used on the vocal example above) you may consider recording that effect into the audio file, but this should be mainly saved that for post EQ/compression as well.
5. Groups
The next step in the process is to import the newly created audio files and to arrange them into groups. The most obvious group is the drum kit. To group the drums, I will create a bus track and send the individual outputs to this bus channel. This allows me to control all of the drums with a single fader while giving me the flexibility of processing the sounds independently on their own channels. After I have the sound and balance I want, I will ‘glue’ the drum sounds back together by processing the sub-mix channel with EQ, compression, and some slight reverb to make the kit sound like a single instrument occurring in a single acoustic space.
It is important to not alter the individual balance of the drum tracks once you have processed the sub-mix channel as it will alter the EQ balance and also affect how the compressor responds to the incoming dynamics. It is therefore important to have the individual drum sounds sounding the way you want them and to have them balanced before EQ-ing and compressing the sub-mix channel.
Grouping tracks in this manner is very helpful as it increases the amount of control you have over various elements of a single sound and should be employed wherever possible. Another example will probably happen later on if I decide to multi-track the vocal. Each individual vocal track will be processed differently and then recombined to form a tight and cohesive whole through sub-mix EQ, compression, reverb and whatever other effects come to mind.
Drum signal flow from individual drum tracks to the drum group sub-mix
6. Edit Artifacts
At this point it is a good idea to listen through your individual tracks and pick out any artifacts present; especially if your tracks are live instrumentation recordings as these are most likely to contain noise, clicks, hums and anything else that should not be part of the song. If any unwanted artifacts are present, you will want to try to get rid of these with a high/lowpass filter, noise gate, volume envelope, cut edit, or any other tool at your disposal. If these tools prove ineffective, you will probably want to re-record your session as those artifacts will only cause consistent problems throughout your mix and may never be fully cleaned up.
Logic’s noise gate
7. Final Note
This should help get you started towards creating cleaner mixes and serves as a good jumping off point for the techniques that are yet to be explained. I recommend experimenting around with some of the concepts here and really try to listen to the differences they make. In the next tutorial, we will continue to look at 3D mixing and start to move away from these more preliminary steps and begin to create a strategy for placing our sounds in the 3 dimensional sound space.
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Will, thanks for another great tutorial here on audiotuts+!
I somewhat have to disagree with you (or extend dimensions for that matter) though when it comes to the term of 3D mixing. While depth surely is a parameter to be tweaked, it’s often done by either panning or EQing and/or a mix of both plus spatial effects such as reverb (and the wet/dry ratio).
What’s lacking for me is the time domain (hence adding a fourth dimension to your concept). One could say that microtiming of tracks/parts is part of the arrangement, yet still it influences the mixdown process heavily.
Coming from House/Dance music, I can only speak about this field and I often find that when layering snare/clap sounds, EQing can be reduced to a minimum by stretching the single sounds on the time line.
For instance, you have a complex snare sound that consists of three or four different snare layers, one of them is playing 8ms before the actual counting time (2 and 4), one 5ms ahead, one on the beat, another 6ms delayed. It’s still perceived as one complex sound but levels are kept under control and depth (time-wise) is being added.
Similar thing with bass drums and bass: if you have a bass line playing notes on the beat, pulling the kick some ms ahead of the bass suddenly tidies up the whole bass part without having touched one single EQ or using side-chaining compression.
What do you think? Maybe you already have a 4D tutorial in the making – in this case I’m sorry for the spoiler;)
cheers…J
Hi Jon,
Thanks for the comment. I think what you are talking about falls more in line with sound design than mixing. Some mixing tools and techniques are definitely used in layering sounds as you described, but the goal there is to make an interesting sound where here we are working on the assumption that we have the sounds designed already and are now trying to fit them together.
The concept of time is important in music in general and some minute delays will definitely be used in certain instances, but that is usually employed to make sounds sound both bigger and deeper. Time is also seen in mixing when changing from different song sections where you may increase the volume of a crescendo through automation and decrease the volume for softer portions.
Even so, emphasizing time (apart from making sure things sound tight) is not a general goal of mixing and is entirely up to the song writer and arranger as to how things fit together over the course of a song.
Hope this helps.
W
Thanks for the explanation I was sort of thinking along those lines as well, but It helped me like at mixing as a separate process than say the song writing or sound design.
great stuff, i’m using logic 08 and i cant find the command that lets you split up a midi region to separate tracks, eg a drums individual parts. Please could you explain where it is in the menu. thanks.
In the arrange window go to the small menu that says MIDI and select ‘Separate MIDI Events’ from the drop down. Then select ‘By Note Pitch’.
This will create a region for each note pitch. I’m in Logic 9 but I’m sure it’s the same in 8.
…and when you bounce your tracks to you bounce to a stereo or mono file. Which is recommended ?.
The decision weather to record in mono or stereo depends on what sounds your recording and what sound your going for.
Hers a few examples however there are no rules and alot of the time it depends how much space in the mix you want that sound to take up.
Bass – Mono
Drum Hits – Mono
Loops – Stereo
Piano’s – Stereo
Vocals – Either
Thanks, i was talking about before the mix not before the master. Can you pan stereo tracks around like mono or should you keep them in the centre?
Whoops. Read your question wrong. Your going to usually want to bounce to stereo. Unless your planning on playing your song at a venue that uses a mono system.
How is this related to 3D mixing beside the first point???
Or is this part 1 of more?
Sam, you’re right. There are still two parts to come.
Hey This tutorial is NOT BAD. But really what did I learn from reading it? Nothing about 3D mixing. I learned how to group tracks and bounce audio files. Which i actually learned a long time ago. And you got the loop you can listen to at the beginning but not after (but i guess nothing was actually done to the sound so I guess it fits). I like this site and appreciate the free tutorials but lets not have false advertising here. if your goona have a title that says 3D mixing have SOMETHING that shows me how to mix in 3D. Give at least ONE example. pleeeease
Hi Wheedz,
This is the beginning of a series I’ve started that is going to be in multiple installments. I am going to be going in depth on a number of different topics concerning mixing from start to finish. This particular tutorial is really just the introduction but serves to lay the foundational groundwork for the mix and concepts that I will be going into later on. My hope with this series is to mix this ‘track’ from start to finish in order to demonstrate a possible workflow scenario while going in depth enough at the various steps to (hopefully) touch on topics more advanced producers may not have known or need a refresher on.
There are general concepts in mixing that are true across the board that will be brought up time and again when discussing the mixing process and some overlap of information is unavoidable. Even so, with this series I think enough information will be given for it to be beneficial to everyone from beginner to more advanced.
That being said, I do appreciate the feedback and I hope you can pick up a few tricks in future installments.
W
I’m waiting for the after.
That’s true, actually I learned nothing about 3D. And more, i’m not working on logic.
Hope you will do it soon.
And thank you for all that’s great tutorials.
Hi Big Ball. Hi Cie.
Part 2 has just come out, and you can find it here. And part 3 will be out in a couple of weeks.
I’m sure you’ll enjoy them!
Adrian
You can come up with some pretty crazy sounds that are unique. It is a lot of fun, and something I am learning more about. Do you have any suggested sites of where I can read about basic skills. Just looking to learn some more.
The one thing that bothers me is that you recommend converting the audio to 48kHz sample rate. I don’t use Logic (I work in Pro Tools LE or Digital Performer) and maybe the loops that Apple supplies with Logic make the conversion easy, but my rule of thumb is to start out with the project set to the sample rate of the end product. That is, if I’m producing a CD (or even downloadable mp3s) I’ll go for 44.1kHz since that’s what a CD uses. If I’m recording for video, I’ll go with 48kHz (or multiples if needed or requested by the video producer). Maybe I’m just behind the times and sample rate conversion (SRC) is transparent nowadays, but I go for the least amount of SRC if possible with the aim of avoiding possible errors.
- Colin
Hey Colin,
I think I mentioned the sample rate conversion is somewhat controversial. Some ppl. do it one way, some ppl. another. Most professional productions are done in either 44 or 48 with 44 being CD quality. I’ve heard of great mastering engineers suggest projects be as high as possible (192+?). As far as I know, it ends up getting into technical specifics about equipment and how the internal high cut filters operate in that specific hard/software (not something that really affects most producers). I chose to do this project in 48 so that It remains practical while adding the extra step of dithering later so we could get into that as well as a deeper discussion behind sample rate and bit depth.
But, by all means, keep on working in 44 if that works for you. I’m really not presenting a mixing dogma, just a possible road to navigate.
W
Sonically is there a noticeable difference between 44.1kHz or 48kHz?
Yes, great tutorials here on audiotuts!!!
Thanks to the authors and admins.
Cheers from Slovenia.
S.
File –> Export –> All tracks as Audio files
This could save you some precious time
Plus, it’s better to start with your session sample rate, otherwise one may end up with slow and low music. When your project is already at a sample rate, logic converts everything you put into it.
S
Great tutorials. Can you recommend a book on the subject of mixing? For a complete novice? Because I didn’t fully understand the part about creating a bus and then sending all outputs to that bus????? That’s how much of a novice I am.
After I grouped those drum tracks in one named drum-sub, do I mute those drum tracks, or I must mix drum-sub track with all that drum tracks that drum-sub is consisted off?
Logically, I would turn off all drum tracks (using pre-fader), and use drub-sub only in final mix??