The Amazing Shrinking Pro Tools Mix

Submitted by anonymous on Wed, 08/24/2005 - 06:04

I've been given the task of editing and mixing a project that began on an ADAT, was transferred to some Yamaha DAW dealie and then exported to .WAV files. (This is an Americana, Folk-Rock type thing, BTW) I figured I would finally enter the 20th century and learn Pro Tools and by an mBox. All is well in tech land, no issues at all with the mBox, PTLE and my Mac. Even using PTLE is dang easy, on the surface anyway...

BUT - On songs with a fair bit going on, say 20 tracks or so, the bounce just sounds "small". Monitoring the tracks doesn't sound "small". It's a pretty simple affair. EQ only when needed, just a bit of verb and a slight delay on the main vox. I never had this problem with ADATS, or stand-a-alone hard drive recorders. I think I'm hip to gain structure and am careful with the meters within PTLE. What am I doing wrong?

Being a newbie sucks...

Thanks!

Tony

Comments

Thanks Opus!

I understand the concept of mastering and have had many of my mixes mastered. As said before, these mixes were all done in other media than PTLE.

The difference I'm seeing is the difference in sound from monitoring the mix before and after the bounce. They should be the same, no? I'm asking because I've never experienced this mixing from ADAT or DAW...

BTW, these mixes will be mastered prior to press.

Off to your thread... :)

Tony

Re: Another good and simple suggestion!

[quote=tony-moore]Thanks!

So why does bounce suck so bad? What happens when bouncing that doesn't happen using the suggestions in this thread?[/quote

You need to mix all your tracks. Use a master fader. dont use any inserts on your master fader. Bounce to a multimono wav format. THEN import your L and R tracks to a stereo track and apply comp and EQ to the one stereo track. That should help alot.