Mixing Tracks Tutorial

So now you should have quite a lot of different clips and tracks, and now we want to mix those.

Hiding Sections

• First off, hide the in/out section. We don't need that at the moment.
• Make sure the mixer section is on. It should be on by default, but if not, you can turn it on with the M key.

Playing the Tracks

Let's play everything.

• I may want to take this one out again.
• Here in the meters, the average (RMS) and peak output level will be shown.
• Of course, when you're monitoring or recording, the input level will be shown.

Adjusting Levels

You can adjust the levels and the volume. I'm also going to get rid of the tracks that I'm actually not planning to use:

• This one
• And this one

We do have enough beats.

Fine-Tuning Volume

• If you're not sure how loud you want a certain sound, it's good to take it out completely.
• For example, we can take this one out and just slowly bring it in.

Panning Tracks

We could change the panning on some tracks to create a nice stereo field.

• If you take the tracks, you can actually make them smaller, allowing you to see the values.
• Deselect them, set this to 25 left and 25 right, maybe the bass a little to the left.

Soloing Clips

We could listen to individual clips by soloing.

• If you want to solo more than just one track, you can either change the preferences under Record Warp Launch and just turn off Solo under Exclusive, or hold Control on Windows or Command on Mac and then solo another track.

Grouping Tracks

Now we can also group some more.

• We could group these three tracks and rename it--maybe call it Sounds.
• This beats track could be called Bass and Mbira.

Renaming Multiple Tracks

If you want to rename more than one, start with the leftmost track, call it whatever you want, and then use the Tab key to skip to the next one. Once you're done, press Enter.

Organizing Your Mix

If you do end up with many tracks, I recommend grouping them together. This makes it easier to create submixes:

• You could mix these three tracks at once, then the beats, and continue with all the tracks that you have.

It's much easier to do it like this.

Muting and Levels

You could also check if you want to mute something.

• For example, the audio engine in Live is in 32 bit, so individual channels can go into the red (over 0dB), except when routed to external outputs--that would cause distortion.

Always ensure that the master doesn't go over zero at all since it will go out to an external output.

Adjusting the Mixer Section

The mixer section can also be enlarged or made smaller.

• As you've seen, making tracks smaller allows you to see the panning values.
• The same goes for the sends, which we'll cover next.

Understanding Sends and Returns

You've already gotten to know the sends and the returns.

• You can turn on the sends here with a little S and then the returns with the R right beside it.
• Return tracks can only host audio effects, no clips.

Default Effects on Return Tracks

By default, the first return track (A) contains a reverb, and the second one has a simple delay.

• All the tracks can send their signals via their sends into the return tracks.
• This means if you want to use a certain effect on more than one track, you can group the tracks and add the effect to the group track or send the audio out into a return track.

Best Practices for Usage

• Most commonly, return tracks are used for delays and reverbs.
• When using those effects, make sure they're set to 100% in their dry/wet setting.

What's not recommended on return tracks are dynamic effects (especially compression or limiting). Those should be used on individual or group tracks because they are most often applied during mastering.

Setting Send Levels

The value set in the sends per track determines how much of the track's output is fed into the return.

• For example, let's try this with the Mbira track.
• We can feed it into the reverb and play it now.

Now on return track A (the reverb), you can see the levels.

• You send all of the audio that's 0dB or less.
• The more you feed into the return track, the louder it gets.

You could either turn down the individual channel or the return track, but remember that turning down the return track affects all audio fed into it.

Adjusting Send Options

For the sends, you have little toggle buttons for post and pre.

• Clicking on it switches it to pre, meaning the signal is tapped before the mixer stage.
• If set to post, the volume and panning settings are taken into account.

Master Track

Last but not least, we've got the master track.

• This is the default destination for all tracks and can only host audio effects.
• A good effect to use on the Master Track is the spectrum audio effect.

Analyzing Frequencies

When you go in there, you can actually see the master. Drag it to the master, enlarge it, and when you play it:

• Unsuspend this track to see the frequency of all tracks.
• This is great for mastering, as you can visualize frequencies that should be boosted or reduced.

The effects generally used on the master are mastering effects, which typically include:

• Compression
• EQ
• Limiting

Finding Presets

In the audio effects, you can find various presets for mixing and mastering.

• You can try one of those and see what you like.
• For example, try this one and play it.

You can also drag the spectrum here to visualize the result.

Final Touches

Now you see it includes an EQ8, a glue compressor, the utility, and a limiter.

• Play with your settings, do a bit of panning, adjust the levels to your liking, and experiment with the send effects.
• We could also add some more reverb, for example, on the beats.

Note on Mastering

One more thing: mastering effects should be applied only as the absolute last stage when you want to master your track.

• It's better for mixing to hear how it sounds without any mastering applied.
• You shouldn't have anything on the master track until you're really happy with how it sounds.

Typically, mastering is done on the stereo mixdown anyway.

Cueing and Soloing

The last thing to explain is soloing and cueing.

• Cueing enables you to preview tracks without the audience hearing them.
• To do this properly, you need two stereo outputs.

So, set the master to (1 and 2) and the cue out to (3 and 4). In my case, I currently don't have these options because I'm using the built-in output.

Setting Up Cueing

What I can do is set this to mono 2 and this to mono 1.

• This won't work properly because headphones usually have a stereo output, but I'll show you how it works nonetheless.

Down here, you can switch solo to cue by clicking on it.

• You can adjust the levels you hear when cueing.
• Once you change it to cueing, all solo buttons will display a headphone icon, allowing you to preview the track.

Now I can only hear the sound on the left side, and on the right, I hear this track.

• You also see that the levels are blue now.
• Turn this off again to go back to soloing since I won't need this right now and also change it back.

Adding More Return Tracks

One last thing I forgot to mention: you can also add more return tracks by right-clicking and choosing Insert Return Track.

• You can do this anywhere on the title tracks.

Happy mixing!