Mixing With Pink Noise

Mixing with Pink Noise
http://mixingtips.org/forum/mixing-tips-(general)/mixing-with...
Home
Help Blog Tags
Gallery Downloads
Login
Register
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Did you miss your activation email?
Forever
Login
Login with username, password and session length
Search...
You are
Here:
MixingTips.org Sound Engineering Forum Mixing Tips (General) Mixing with Pink Noise
Latest Posts
Convenient sweater Ugg
Boots , Variations after
Bind not to mention
Crochet Boots Meant in
behalf of by cbyfessknx
[Today at 05:36:36 AM]

by
EleanorPr
International Conference
Focuses On A Rare And
Lethal Lung Cancer by
Glaphemlatt
avoir un maxxi vibro dans

un boutique du sexe par
webcam by beeniabroossy1
previous next
Pages: [1]
Go Down
Author
Sexshop vous ne limaginez

le lendemain elle. by
discountsex
by
Patrickmaf
[Yesterday at 08:59:58 PM]
Health Affairs Focuses On

Global Health; Issue
Features Report On Utah's
Medicaid Waiver by
Glaphemlatt
[Yesterday at 08:26:46 PM]
REGISTER TO COMMENT ON THIS TOPIC
(Read 7394 times)

on: May 31, 2011, 02:25:53 AM
Mark V
Advanced Member
hi-buying online
viagra-5555 by asynccoms
PRINT
137
Posts
A long time ago I read an article that Craig Anderton (well known music/recording
writer) wrote about an accidental discovery he made while mixing with an air
conditioning unit on: the pink noise it generated helped him get better mixes, so
once he figured that out he started using pink noise to check his mixes. Last night
I remembered that trick and tried it and it works pretty well!
Here's the article:
Referrals: 0
Quote
BRING THE NOISE!
By Craig Anderton
An unusual way to "road-test" your mixes
Do you want better mixes? Of course you do -- having a decent mix can make or break your
music. Even the best tracks wont come across if they're not mixed well.
Different people approach mixing differently, but I don't think anyone has described something
as whacked-out as what I'm going to cover this month. Some people will read this and just
shake their heads, but others will actually try the suggested technique, and find that they're
crafting tighter, punchier mixes without any kind of compression or other processing.
THE MIXING PROBLEM What makes mixing so difficult is, unfortunately, a limitation of the
human ear/brain combination. Our hearing can discern very small changes in pitch, but not
small changes in level. You'll easily hear a 3% pitch change as being distinctly out of tune, but a
3% level change is nowhere near as dramatic. Also, our ears have an incredibly wide dynamic
range -- greater than 200dB. This is more than twice the dynamic range of a CD, for example.
So when we use only the top 2040dB of the available dynamic range in a mix, even extreme
musical dynamics don't represent that much of a change relative to the ear's total dynamic
range. Another problem with mixing is that the ear's frequency response changes at different
levels. This is why small changes in volume are often perceived as tonal differences, and why it's
so important to balance levels exactly when doing A/B comparisons. Because our ears hear lowand high-frequency signals better at higher levels, just a slight volume boost might produce a
subjective feeling of greater "warmth" (from the additional perceived low end) and "sparkle"
(from the increased perception of treble).
The reason why top mixing engineers are in such demand is because through years of practice,
they've trained their ears to discriminate among minute level and frequency response
differences (and hopefully, taken care of their ears so they dont suffer from their own
frequency response problems). They are basically "juggling" the levels of multiple tracks, making
sure that each one is at an appropriate level with respect to the other tracks. Remember, a mix
does not compare levels to an absolute standard; all the tracks are interrelated.
As an obvious example, the lead instruments usually have higher levels than the rhythm
instruments. But there are much smaller hierarchies. Suppose you have a string pad part, and
the same part delayed a bit to produce chorusing. To avoid having excessive peaking when the
signals reach maximum amplitude at the same time, as well as better preserving any rhythmic
"groove," you'll probably mix the delayed track around 6dB behind the non-delayed track.
The more tracks, the more intricate this juggling act becomes. However, there are certain
essential elements of any mix -- some instruments that just have to be there, and that are
mixed fairly closely in level to one another because of their importance. Ensuring that these
elements are clearly audible and perfectly balanced is, I believe, one of the most important
factors in creating a "transportable" mix (one that sounds good on a variety of systems).
Perhaps the lovely high end of some bell sound won't translate on a $29.95 boombox, but for
the average listener, if you can make out the vocals, the leads, the beat, and the bass, you'll
have the high points covered.
1 de 3
13/12/27 13:00
Ironically, though, our ears are less sensitive to changes in relatively loud levels than to changes
in relatively soft ones. This is why most veteran mixers initially work on a mix at low levels: It
makes it easier to tell if the important instruments are out of balance with respect to one
another. At higher levels, imbalances are harder to detect.
ANOTHER OF THOSE ACCIDENTS The following mixing technique is a way to check whether a
song's crucial elements are mixed with equal emphasis. Like many other techniques that
ultimately turn out to be useful, this one was discovered by accident. My studio doesn't have
central air conditioning, and my in-wall air conditioner makes a fair amount of background noise.
One day, I noticed that the mixes I did when the air conditioner was on often sounded better
than the ones I did when it was off. This seemed odd at first, until I made the connection with
how many musicians use the "play the music in the car" test as the final arbiter of whether a
mix is going to work or not. In both cases the background noise masks low-level signals, making
it easier to tell which signals make it above the noise.
Curious whether this phenomenon could be refined further, I started injecting pink noise into the
console while mixing. This just about forces you to listen at relatively low levels, because the
noise is really obnoxious! But more importantly, the noise adds a sort of "cloud cover" over the
music. Just as mountain peaks poke out through a cloud cover when viewed from an airliner, so
do sonic peaks poke up out of the noise floor.
APPLYING THE TECHNIQUE You'll want to add in the pink noise very sporadically during the
process of creating your mix, because the noise masks high-frequency sounds like hi-hat. You
cannot get an accurate idea of the complete mix while youre mixing with noise injected into the
bus. What you can do is make sure that all the important instruments are being heard properly.
(Similarly, when listening in a car system, road noise will often mask lower frequencies.)
Typically, I'll take the mix to the point where I'm fairly satisified with the sound. Then I'll add in
lots of noise -- no less than 10dB below 0 with dance mixes, for example, which typically have
restricted dynamics anyway. Then I'll start analyzing what I'm hearing.
By the way, pink noise is preferable to white noise for this application. Pink noise is weighted so
that there is equal energy in every octave, while white noise is weighted so there is equal
energy per frequency. Pink noise has a lower perceived pitch, which makes it more suitable for
masking the fundamental frequencies of ordinary instruments.
While listening through the song, I pay special attention to vocals, snare, kick, bass, and leads.
(With this much noise, you're not going to hear much else in the song anyway; check out the
accompanying audio example.) It's very easy to adjust their relative levels, because there's a
limited range between overload on the high end and dropping below the noise floor on the low
end. If all the crucial sounds make it into that window and can be heard clearly above the noise
without distorting, you have a head start toward an equal balance.
Also note that the "noise test" can uncover problems. If you can hear a hi-hat or other minor
part fairly high above the noise, it's probably too loud.
I'll generally run through the song a few more times, carefully tweaking each track for the right
relative balance. Then it's time to take out the noise. First, it's an incredible relief not to hear
that annoying hiss! Second, you can now get to work balancing the supporting instruments so
they work well with the lead sounds you've tweaked.
Although so far I've only mentioned instruments being above the noise floor, there are actually
three distinct zones created by the noise: totally masked by the noise (inaudible), above the
noise (clearly audible), and "melded," where an instrument isn't loud enough to stand out or soft
enough to be masked, so it blends in with the noise. I find that mixing rhythm parts so they
sound melded can work if the noise is adjusted to a suitable level.
FADING OUT Overall, I estimate spending only about three percent of my mixing time using
injected noise. But often, it's the factor responsible for making the mix sound good over multiple
systems. Mixing with noise may sound crazy, but give it a try. With a little practice, there are
ways to make noise work for you.
Logged
Re: Mixing with Pink Noise

Reply #1 on: June 02, 2011, 04:37:34 AM
Mark V
Advanced Member
Here's a wav file of pink noise that you can put on a track to try yourself!
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
0
Logged
137
Posts
Referrals: 0

Reply #2 on: June 02, 2011, 11:05:06 AM
_Jeff_
Nice find Mark +1 from me

This is really interesting. I never heard of this technique before, I'll have to try it
out on my next mix.
Just wondering have you used this technique before, and did your mixes
improve?
0
Moderator of
MixingTips.org
Chimaira Tom samplesYou
are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
Logged
(.WAV+.GOG)
Silver member
2 de 3
13/12/27 13:00
796
Posts
Gender:
Referrals: 15

Reply #3 on: June 02, 2011, 05:00:58 PM
Mark V
Advanced Member
137
Posts
Referrals: 0
I mixed a song with it a couple of days ago and yes, I think using pink noise
improved it. In fact I think it's my best mix so far. It is by no means a magic
bullet but as suggested in the article, where it helps most is in identifying
problem areas (and it speeds the process of getting your levels right also).
For example the song I was mixing was quite complex with standard rock
elements like drums, bass, electric guitars, but it also has synths, violins, cellos
and a tubular bell so getting everything to gel was more difficult. While the pink
noise was on I could clearly tell that the hihat and one track of cellos was too
loud, but the snare was too low. I turned the noise off, did some adjustments,
then when I turned it back on to check I could then hear that the bass and kick
were not quite defined enough so I was able to fix them fairly quickly while using
the pink noise.
Another cool thing is it works when you are wearing headphones. I have a nasty
habit of sometimes mixing with headphones late at night and I always have them
turned way too loud (bad for the mix, TERRIBLE for the ears). With pink noise
you aren't tempted to crank the levels since it sounds so bad, a relatively low
85db being apparently where we hear relatively the most flat.
Logged
MixingTips.org
Reply #3 on: June 02, 2011, 05:00:58

PM
Pages: [1]
Go Up
PRINT
REGISTER TO COMMENT ON THIS TOPIC
previous next
MixingTips.org Sound Engineering Forum Mixing Tips (General) Mixing with Pink Noise
Jump to: => Mixing Tips (General)
go
SMF 2.0.1 | SMF 2011, Simple Machines

SMFAds for Free Forums
Referrals System by CreateAForum.com
SMFAds for Free Forums
Astonished Theme by Diego Andrs
WAP2 SimplePortal
SimplePortalXHTML
2.3.3 RSS
2008-2010,
3 de 3
13/12/27 13:00

Mixing With Pink Noise

Diunggah oleh

Informasi Dokumen

Hak Cipta

Format Tersedia

Bagikan dokumen Ini

Bagikan atau Tanam Dokumen

Opsi Berbagi

Apakah menurut Anda dokumen ini bermanfaat?

Apakah konten ini tidak pantas?

Hak Cipta:

Format Tersedia

Mixing With Pink Noise

Diunggah oleh

Hak Cipta:

Format Tersedia

Mixing with Pink Noise

Help Blog Tags

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length