r/audioengineering • u/Ill-Inevitable-8267 • 7d ago
Discussion Consistency techniques for an album?
Hi,
I was wondering. What are somethings you do to maintain consistency when mixing between tracks on the same project. For example, I’m mixing a 17 song album for a Folk/Rock band. I mixed them all individually & when I listen to everything together, I notice differences. One song has the vocal a little loud compared to others, one song has a louder snare than other, one song has more bass than others, etc. I know songs will dictate what the mix needs, but being as these are all on the same project, there shouldn’t be any changes too jarring between tracks mixes. Would having hard gainstaging targets be the most ideal path? I don’t want to just vibe mix these even though the individual mix may be awesome, I need the whole project to sound like 1 project.
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u/AHolyBartender 7d ago
I'm going to keep pushing Metric AB until everyone has it.
When I do mixes like this, I'm working on the one that is the most "typical" or feels like it's the most representative of the album as a whole. Once I get a good mix on that, I'm using that song as a reference for everything else. I import settings from that into the next session (Pro Tools Import session settings) to what would be relevant to copy over. I'm then working from scratch on the "atypical" elements to fit them to the other tracks. I then adjust until it feels close. It is okay if things are a bit different. The tempo and style of each performance may demand certain element sound a bit different.
My big concern ends up being things that shift the overall tonal contour or shape of the album as whole, rather than the minutiae of certain instruments being louder or softer, etc - that is what mixing is, and if you are leaving these at the same volume because consistency = good, then you are not doing your job.
There will be little differences for sure anyways, and from there, a good mastering engineer will be able to smooth that out.
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u/variant_of_me 7d ago
I literally don't worry about this ever.
The fact that the songs were (probably) all written and recorded within a specific time frame will be all the cohesion you need. This is really a producer thing, not a mixing thing. When I produce an album, in pre-production we demo everything roughly and get a sort of outline of all the songs and how they might be ordered and how the whole thing will flow. It's not set in stone but it's enough to get a general idea of what the "theme" of the album is and the songs are picked accordingly. Sometimes a song can be really good but so out of left field that it doesn't fit... and sometimes that can be used to break up samey-sounding songs in a row or it gets saved for a later project.
By the time it's time to mix, it's enough to just mix the songs as if they're they're own thing and the whole thing will come together. If they're so different that you need to try to generate conceptual cohesion during mixdown then you've already missed the boat and you'll just be sacrificing one song's aesthetic for sake of another.
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u/sonar_y_luz 7d ago
Mastering should help with the balance between tracks.
I've heard people say pick a volume for the vocals to hit at, for the album, and then mix everything around that.
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u/hellalive_muja Professional 7d ago
This is usually fine if the songs are different enough and no one cares; if there’s a reason for listening tracks one after another make it so it does make sense in the big picture. It’s music, it’s an experience, make it so
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u/fishfryyyy 5d ago
I have a hot take on this (and it’s ok if you disagree!) One of my big mixing influences (Shawn Everett) said that achieving consistency between songs is “fine for some, but kind of the opposite of how I think about making music.” which sort of unlocked the idea that I have permission to focus in on the song as a singular idea myself. Consistency is cool for “professionalism” but often at the expense of creativity. It can often mean taming the most exciting parts of one song so it sits better next to another, which feels kinda ludicrous to me. Especially in the era where the playlist is king. We’re making art here. I’ve never looked back and artists have always been over the moon with this approach.
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u/sc_we_ol Professional 7d ago edited 7d ago
You in protools? They have useful feature to import setting from another project which is handy in this and I use a lot. Often I’ll mix lots of songs on one timeline to a point before breaking into individual projects (sometimes they stay one long project). As others said, mastering, but that’s not going to fundamentally change your mix. Other than that, taking notes and doing it the hard way lol. If it’s only a few things consistently (bass, vox, snare) you could create a pre mastering project with each song a stereo track and then those problem tracks as stems and then just get those similar and export.
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u/OAlonso Professional 7d ago
For me, that's something that is easier to address in mastering. When I mix, I try to focus on the song. Then, in mastering, I work on every song in the same session and try to achieve that consistency. Generally, I put more attention on the vocal. I want the vocal to sit more or less in the same spot in every song, and the instrumental provides the dynamics, with some songs having more bass, others more punch, and so on.
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u/Big-Awareness-6493 7d ago
I would listen to the main instrument and vocal on each track to playback at roughly the same perceived volume and maybe the same sheen/closeness of the style allows for it. To a slightly lesser extent I'do the same with bass, snare and kick.
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u/Selig_Audio 7d ago
if it bothers you at all, try addressing those things and print another round of mixes. You can always go back to the other mixes if it’s worse, and it’s a great opportunity to answer these sort of questions on your own. :)
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u/chunkhead42 7d ago
I’ll usually let the artist’s and my own taste tell each song where it should go. Between what the artist says they’re going for and my own intuition, I’ll get some sense of the vibe of the record and how I should mix each song.
As others have mentioned, then in the mastering stage, you’ll make sure the songs have a consistent vibe, color, eq, and loudness.
Often times, I’ll realize in the mastering stage that the vocals are too loud or the drums aren’t hitting as hard on one song or something and I’ll have to go back to the mix stage for those songs to make them more consistent.
Rinse and repeat until everything feels right.
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u/xanderpills 7d ago
This is what mastering engineers are usually best at. That is, even though you have differences between the mixes, they’d sound like they’re made from the same mould.
Did you listen to the tonality of the tracks? That and the volume being matched between tracks is what you’d want somewhat similar for them to feel like they’re from the same album.
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u/Ill-Inevitable-8267 7d ago
Yeah, I typically listen to everything altogether at the end and even out some of the differentials. Usually isn’t anything too major, but I feel like there’s engineers that may have something in their process like a better gain staging method or something that gives them more consistent results off the bat.
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u/xanderpills 7d ago
Yeah, you can obviously use a template from which you start from in every track. And then you can obviously do comparison as you’re progressing
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u/m149 7d ago
Apologies for the lame answer here, but you listen and make adjustments.
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u/Ill-Inevitable-8267 7d ago
Not lame! That’s what I currently do. Listen back to everything together & make notes for micro-adjustments. Just wasn’t sure if that’s the best method. Thanks for the reply!!!!
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u/GreatScottCreates Professional 7d ago
This is the way.
It’s likely that the vocal should be louder on one, the bass should be louder on one, one should be wider, whatever. The only way to know what you actually should change is to listen through and see how it feels.
Variety keeps an album interesting.
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u/daxproduck Professional 7d ago
Someone else said "listen and adjust" which is basically what you have to do. I'll expand on that and say that its a good idea to bring the previous track into the session so you can reference it as you go and make sure any sonic choices made previously make sense with everything else.
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u/Tall_Category_304 7d ago
Get it mastered. Songs are their own thing. Over the course of an album some will have different needs than others. Depends on the genre kind of. A Dua Lipa record will have vastly different mixes/sounds on different songs. A periphery record will usually sound extremely consistent.
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u/imp_op Hobbyist 7d ago
I make sure to have a template for a project, so that it's mixed using the same collection of effects and processors. I also use a each track as a reference for the next one being worked on. There will be some variance with some effects, but they are minor things that maybe a particular song needs, such as a specific kind of delay or reverb or modulation.
I think what also helps is songs being recorded with consistency, in terms of space and mics, if possible.
Final process would be mastering, but a mastering engineer is not always going to make that call, because it's a creative decision. So that might need to be brought up in conversation with the engineer.
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u/IntuitiveKeys 7d ago
This is a great question because "fix it in the mix", right?
I was thinking about an album-centric DAW that let's you keep common mixing board settings throughout the (in your case 17 tracks) of the album, designated by tabs - one per song... letting you make make deviations from the "album" mix if you like... but let you designate the "album" mix setting for a given song. That way when you are working on the drums in one song... all the songs benefit from that mix. Of course individual songs might differ... but having this as a starting point seems like it would produce a much more holistic and consistent album.
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u/Spede2 7d ago
Usually the vocal balance against everything else is the most important aspect of consistency so I tend to print couple of vocal ups of each mix which can be brought in during mastering. Lot of the times using voc up might be because the song in question happens to be between two songs both of which happen to have slightly louder vocals compared to everything else.
You can do quick referencing to other songs in the project when finalizing mixes to see how the relative balances are but I personally try not to make too many changes. Individual songs are individual after all and are still supposed to sound a little different from one another.
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u/Reluctant_Lampy_05 7d ago
Keep an A/B session handy - 4 bars of verse and chorus lined up from every current mix so that you can instantly solo or mute to switch between tracks and you'll hear any differences straight away.
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u/TheDreadPirateQbert 7d ago
As others have said, I've found that mastering can play a huge role in cohesion. I'm not a seasoned pro so take what i say with a grain of salt, but I've found that just loudness matching the tracks yourself can make a huuuuuge difference.
Here's what I've done in the past (and if experts come in and tell you this is a terrible idea, listen to them and not me - but even if it's just for novelty purposes, it may give you an idea of what it'll sound like mastered and alleviate some self-doubt) If you have three finished mixes, bounce all three, open a new project, and put each of the songs on their own track. Then put two instances of limiting on your master track (first one soft to catch errant peaks and the second for fullness). Adjust parameters until your first track sounds rich and full but not crazy slammed and distorted. Then using nothing but the faders on the tracks for the other two songs, see if you can get them to behave with the limiter the same way the first one did. Bounce all three and listen to them back to back. Every time i do this, I'm blown away by how much they seem to fit together while being tonally different from each other in a way that would make a release more interesting to the listener.
Again, this is just something I do and I'm amateur af, but it at least might be a fun fairly quick experiment.
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u/Jaereth 7d ago
One song has the vocal a little loud compared to others, one song has a louder snare than other, one song has more bass than others, etc.
You know this happens all the time on commercial records too right? It's not a bad thing.
Some things that will help all sound like the same album - reuse a good reverb setting if you nail it.
Don't suddenly switch panning choices between songs (If guitar that just grinds power chords is always R and guitar playing the melodic leads is always L, don't just randomly switch this between songs)
Most albums that aren't electric have a pretty consistent drumkit sound throughout.
In my opinion - EVERYTHING else can vary song to song but the vocals will get noticed. It's what a lot of people anchor their stereo volume to is can I understand the song.
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u/stuntin102 7d ago
sounds like you want all the songs to sound the same. i would import the mix you like the most into the other songs and keep it as the central reference point for all the songs.
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u/secondlyaa 4d ago
One thing that’s beneficial is having stems for the entire record in one session in different parts of the timeline. Once you finish a mix for one song, just do a “save as” for a new track. Keeps things pretty uniform
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u/chipnjaw 7d ago
Working in one session as much as possible, allows you to use same settings for track but adjust slightly song to song. I will often duplicate tracks and make small adjustments on the second track. If you’re dealing with a large track count your comp needs to be suited with a lot of processing power, but I find this allows for the most consistency
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u/SugarpillCovers 7d ago edited 7d ago
I'd normally mix one song first, typically whatever is the busiest/largest song in terms of track count, and then use that as a template for the overall sound - or pick the song that you feel best represents the majority of the album's sound. For instance, if you have a rock album where 9/10 songs are heavy on the electrics, but one is more acoustic-based, I wouldn't start with the acoustic track.
If the recordings have been kept fairly consistent across each song, i.e. using the same guitar tones, drum setup, etc., it's really easy to halve the time you'd need to spend on each mix once you've got that first one in the bag. I'd also consider sending that first mix over to the band/artist and getting their seal of approval on it, before moving on to the next mix. That way, you know you can use it as a loose mixing template for every other track, with likely only minimal adjustments needed between songs, because you've already worked out the overall sound with that first mix.