In Part 1 of this article we spoke about some of the brutal truths about mixing for the internet. In this article we continue with more punishing, but important, facts about being able to compete on the internet with your media.
Bass Frequency Crushing
Let’s mention how we handle bass frequencies that might overwhelm our compressors and limiters: we kill them. We don’t let them destroy our mixes. In fact, we want to implement a 48 dB per octave high pass filter at 85 Hz. Then we want to boost frequencies around 90 Hz or use a base enhancement plug-in like Waves MaxxBass to give our listeners brains (which are always lying to them) the perceptions that those bass frequencies are there. Then blast louder. Why do we want to do this and ruin our mixes? Because the nature of the playback devices which individuals on the Internet listen to are nearly exclusively speaker cones less than an inch wide. Do you think any bass frequencies are coming through those speakers? So if we can remove those unnecessary bass frequencies, this gives us the opportunity to have more bandwidth and be yet louder. I know. This isn’t pleasant. In 33 cities on the Sound Advice Tour I had nothing but very upset attendees. And rightfully so. Nobody wants to mess up their perfectly beautiful and dynamic and immersive mix. But you do if you want to compete. And the battleground has been laid out: The Internet. Arm yourself. Lock and load. Turn the dial to 11.
The Article
The writer of the article Joe Gilder is an excellent writer, and he clearly understands the issues music mixers face.
It is an excellent article and has wisdom throughout it, and it makes the clear point that WE MUST NOT GO OVER ZERO!! But please don’t pull your faders down because things are getting too loud. Especially if you’re mixing for the Internet. In the Cinema Sound education, We spend several hours on mixing for cinema, television, optical media and internet. And while it is it important to ensure that you were staying within legal limits, when there are no legal limits the only thing we should be concerned about is how much compression, limiting, ear–wrenching equalization and stereo enhancement we can stand well still getting our creative vision across. If you don’t, your competition will.
10 Words To Live By:
Joe gives us 10 words to live by:
Capture beauty.
Do no harm.
Share it with the world.
These are excellent, and and they are words we should probably apply to as many areas of life as we can. However I have a different view for mixing for Internet:
Capture beauty.
Make it crushingly loud.
Beat out the competition.
Have a different view? Let us know here or Tweet about it!
