Software mixing

[Alex van ReeVe]

Hey there,

As we all know not all of us have equipment in our homes for mixing. Therefore many people are using software like: Ableton, Traktor, FL etc You can easily make a cool set using them. Knowing how to properly use the program you can make the magic happen

Many people know how to use the above mentioned programs but doesn't know how to fix the sound. They feel that the sound is worse or the frequencies are not right, the volumes, gains are not correct, etc etc so to help those which don't know the answers I would like to ask the AH.FM ppl for advice:

What should young people notice while making their first steps in mixing using software? Should they also use also plugins like: auto filters, compressors, etc etc.

All answers are welcomed
Cheers

[Vicky Wood]

There's a lot of tutorials available on software packages on YouTube, best look at a few of those to familiarise with the program in question

[Bartas]

In polish DJ MAG was tutorials about mixing, using Ableton.
On YouTube are a lot of tutorials, which help in first steps with Ableton/Traktor etc.

For first steps MixMeister is good software.

[Salazar]

adding to the advice of the posters before I'd say to stay clear of compressors and filters, most tracks are produced in software and have already the shits compressed out of them. You could apply normalisation and a mild compression after finishing a mix, for overall gains or individually in preparing your tracks before mixing, some tracks are mastered to an extend that leaves a lot to be desired. In a live situation, e.g. club, house party you won;t have the time to apply filters and such, working with presets is a possibility but could make things worse as all tracks are differently mixed down.
Take a track you feel it could be improved and experiment with some settings available in your software. If you're in need of some stuff try KVR , as with most things it's a lot of learning by doing and personal preference.
Fixing frequencies individually for a track in a mix is very tricky, solution is proper mixing in the first place and track prepping.