Rufmix Audio

1) What Is Gain Staging?

It’s actually very simple. In the days of analog recording, there were two main things to consider when recording. Headroom and Noise floor. Good gain staging required getting a hot enough signal to tape (without distorting) in order to minimize the amount of noise coming from the signal chain getting to tape, while maintaining optimal signal level between each of the devices inputs and outputs in the recording or mixing chain.

2) Gain Staging In A DAW

In the modern DAW production…

What Is Reverb?

Reverb refers to the way in which sound waves reflect off various surfaces in the room before reaching the listener's ear. It consists of delays of various times, some very short and some longer. It's these delays in the sound reaching our ears that helps us to understand the space the sound is in. 

Reverb consists of three characteristics

1. Early Reflections - very short echoes that reach the listener 1-30 milliseconds after the direct signal.
2. Late Reverberation - the sound that…

Parallel—or New York style— compression involves blending dry and heavily compressed versions of the same source material. With the dry track retaining the original dynamics and being the foundation of the sound, while the compressed track is blended in to taste. 

How to use parallel compression (the basics)

1) Start by creating an aux track in your DAW.  

2) Insert a compressor on the aux track. 

3) Create a Pre-fader send on your source track. By creating a Pre-fader send, the level being sent to the…

Nobody wants to hear this, because hey, we all like to buy new gear and play with it, but the sooner you realize that your gear is not your limitation, the sooner you can start making better recordings and mixes. 

Questions like  “What what is the best microphone, compressor, or EQ for...   are problematic as they don't have any context.” There is no best for this or that. It comes to personal choice and HOW they're used. I have no doubt that a grammy winning engineer like Jacquire King could produce an…

What is Sidechain Compression?

Sidechain Compression is exactly the same as regular compression with one exception. Normally we put a compressor on a Vocal or some other track in order to tame the transients and smooth out the overall level. With sidechain compression we're using one track to control the compression on another track. For example you have an instrument that is conflicting with the Vocal, you could put a compressor on the offending track, sidechain it to the Vocal and now the compressor will…

6) De-Essing & EQ

As we discussed earlier, once you have all three of the vocal tracks set-up, it's time to bus them to a mono Aux Input in order to treat them as a single track. As you can see here. I have inserted the SSL Channel Strip followed by the McDSP De-Esser. For EQ I'm applying a High Pass Filter @80hz, boosting the lows @160hz by 1.5dB, cutting the low mids (to improve clarity) @350hz by 3dB, doing a cut of 2dB at 5.5khz, and for a little air, a 3dB boost at 8.5khz. This is followed by the final…

Today let's talk about Mixing Vocals.

1) Editing 

By the time you get to the mixing stage, the editing theoretically should have already been completed. However it's always best to check the vocal track before mixing. Looking for things like edits without fades on them, pops and clicks, and any tuning artifacts. This would also be the time to check for, and reduce or remove any vocal breaths and lip smacks that distract from the performance, being careful not to over do it. Sometimes those breaths go a long…

Today I'd like to talk about knowing when it's time to hire a mixing engineer. The mixing process requires a lot of skill, patience and practice to get right. Just as you didn't become great at singing or playing your instrument overnight. It took years of practice, patience, and learning what works and what doesn't, before ultimately becoming professional on your instrument. A professional mixing engineer is the same. Having spent years practicing and perfecting the art of mixing music, learning all the…

Hello, and welcome to the new home for Rufmix Audio. My name is Kelly Mihalicz. My hope with this blog is to get to know more about you, and the music you’re creating, and for you to get to know me. I will be posting updates on what I am working on, and what is coming down the pipe. As well as posting recording/mixing tips and tricks, that hopefully can help you get the most out of your recordings. If there is something you’d like me to blog about or if you have a question I can help you with, please reach…