hello, marcaut même si ce sujet ne focalise pas que sur ta question , celle-ci y est traitée (faut chercher un peu..)....
pour info cela est tiré de Guitarwarschool...
Bonne lecture
This will help you look at mixing and mastering a bit differently
Our good friend Soloist asked about mixing and mastering, so I thought this was another good topic to add to these boards.
Keys to mixing: Try to never let any instrument occupy the same pan. Even a subtle change can make a difference. Let's show a few examples, shall we? I'll speak of panning as I would the hands or time on a clock. This is merely a starting point for you, not an etched in stone use of every song. In this example, we have a full set of instruments along with vocals and back-ups. I'll go through the starting point pans I use for a project. Keep in mind, these change with the use of effects and other goodies we usually add in when we thing we're done.
Pans are very important to the stereo spectrum. Thus, if a few of the same sounding instruments occupy the same pan, they could very well get buried in a mix, and we surely don't want that now do we guys?! We'll look at drums first.
I usually pan my kick drum between 11 and 12 o'clock for the bass guitar, a similar sounding instrument in the low end, will share a close pan at between 12 o'clock and 1 o'clock.
Snare can be wherever you feel it to be. I usually run it down the middle along with lead vocal tracks. Some people myself included, run the kick drum panned centered with the bass guitar, and pan the snare a bit to the lef tor right. Use what works for you.
Toms can be panned at a listener standpoint, or a "behind the kit" standpoint. Lets do listener. First tom at around 1 o'clock, second at around 11 o'clock, 3rd at around 9 o'clock. It all depends how wide you want your toms to pan. Sometimes people go the extreme route, but I like other instruments to have the wide pans.
For cymbals, the hats between 1 and 2 o'clock, crash one between 2 and 3 o'clock, crash 2 between 9 and 10 o'clock. The ride I usually put between 9 o'clock and 8.
For bass guitar, either up the middle or slightly panned AWAY from the kick drum.
Guitar rhythm one either hard left or between 7 and 8 o'clock, guitar rhythm 2, hard right or between 4 and 5 o'clock.
Keys in stereo hard left and hard right if guitar are not hard left and right, vice versa if the guitar are panned hard left and right. These 2 share similar mid range frequencies, so be careful when panning.
Lead vocals center, and backups anywhere you want them as long as they don't occupy a midrange frequency. You may use same pans, just make sure the instrument voices are different when doing this. Don't be afraid to experiment, and let your ears be the judge. All starting points here, not permanent points.
EQ-ing: EQ is very essential to hearing everything the right way as you know. Similar eq values in instruments can be a nightmare, and take years to master what to listen for. The method I spoke about in the panning part is similar with eq-ing. Same frequencies hide instrumentation. Kick drums, bass, low toms....all share same or similar bass frequencies. Guitars, vocals and keys share same or like mids. So you have to be careful. The pans and eq settings will bring each instrument more to the forefront. Compress kicks, snares, guitars, vocals, and bass from the beginning if possible. With proper compression, you'll not need much on the final mix.
Compression: Compression in easy to know terms just basically keeps your levels even and distinct. It will take an acoustic guitar's lowest note and make it as loud as the loudest. It will keep the loudest note from clipping and give you a more even sound. You can achieve gain or sustain from certian compressors as well if needed. If you don't have a hardware compressor, you'll have to use a plug-in to compensate. Compression is very important to instruments that don't keep a "sane" level. Like bass guitars and acoustic guitars. They are very dynamic instruments that call for compression to keep them even in the mix. You'll know when you are using too much compression when things start to sound funny. Most people can't tell when they are using compression. First thing to look at when using it is your levels. If they seem even, and the sound sounds fine, chances are you are using compression correctly. Lower end instruments will use a hotter compression. The low end makes them rumble, so they drift in level. A -10 to -30 threshold level is a good starting point with a ratio of 4:1 to 7:1 in extreme cases. Vocals too fall into this catagory. Be careful not to over compress for you then lose dynamics. Cymbals and toms don't really need to be compressed. As well as certian piano sounds. They are very dynamic, and a compressor here would ruin the vibe. Distorted guitars I compress at a 4:1 ratio starting with a -5 threshold and work my way to no more than -10 in extreme cases. Bassy guitar tones need more compression, and some guys love the bass in their tone. To overcome this, you can compress a bit harder or jut roll off all the low end from 50 htz on a few dB. Those frequencies under 50 are rarely heard by the human ear in guitar tones unless your MAJICHANDS. LOL!
Mastering: Mastering is simply what all of you do when you first put a new CD into your player. You eq it to where it sounds good to your ears. You are mastering (in a true sense) that bands recording, but there are other things that go along with mastering. After the mix is done, you want to leave headroom (meaning don't normalize to 0 dB) for changes in eq, leveling and compression/limiting. I bring mine into cool edit pro or steinberg wave lab at about -6 dB. Eq here first. You'll be eqing the whole mix, so watch for gains. Try to drop frequencies at all times. Raising them will pump up overall volume, and you're not ready for that yet. You just want a good eq flow here. Listen for sub lows. ( out of 10 times, you can drop low end frequencies from 40 on down to 0. Listen for mud. It's usually in the 500 k range to 1.2 range. The mids too hot will muddy the mix, so watch 'em. Listen for cymbal hiss when working with high end and vocal artifacts that sound too brittle. After that is all sorted out, compare you eq on and off. Listen for level changes and correct the overall level of the eq on sound to sound as loud as the eq off sound.
After that's done, apply a compressor or limiter using a 2:1 ratio or less. You don't really want to compress here, you just want to keep all the little peaks and valleys even. When you have it where you want it, do the level comparison to make sure you level is the same as no compressor on. If you boost it a little, thats fine, just don't go crazy. The next tool I'll speak about that is perfect for this job, you may or may not have. If you don't have it, bring the compressor level up to where the whole mix is now at -2 or -3 dB. Bring it into cool edit and normalize and make sure you set dc off-set to correct to 0 %.
If you have the tool called the Waves L-1 Maximizer, bring the compressor level to -3 dB, apply it and run it through the maximizer. Use the "Final Master" preset and tweak it to your liking. Pump it hot till it sounds like it is distorting, then bring it down gradually until it's clean. All the above are good starting points and should get you on your way to experimenting on what works for you. Best of luck and thanks for reading!
Danny "MAJICHANDS" Danzi
http://www.dannydanzi.com
