Do you guys have any advice regarding mixing the Stereo and Quad simultaneously or separately?)
I like mixing it simultaneously,it's less work, and more often than not, you can use a lot of the presets in the surround mix as part of your stereo mix.
I have started mixing our latest CD and,I do the stereo 1st , and then the Quad (not 5.1, I only got 4 speakers), so then I do something else in the quad and I have to go back to the stereo to make that change...
Since I usually have access to at least two large mains (or five more often than not,) two nearfield monitors (or five), I tackle the open (surround) mix first as well like you do in film. But you can save yourself a LOT of work if you have 8 channels in your mix bus, then you can do 4/5.1 mixes and your stereo mix at the same time. So the following directions are from a 4/5.1 mix that you can use most of when downmixing to stereo.
The way an 8-channel bus makes mixing simultaneously (or almost-simultaneously) a lot easier is, I make the center and sub share one channel as the frequency range is different. Like most people don't like leads in the surrounds, one of the other cardinal rules is no below 150Hz in the center and no above 150Hz in the subs. So since my ``surround'' mix only takes up 5 of the 8 channels, I use the other three for my ``stereo'' mix, which is really just a close copy of the discrete front three of a 5.1 mix, minus all the reverb returns and ambience and etc.
If your console has a Save Mix feature, save your mix so far as an Audition Mix, or if your console is manual, take a Xerox of your console chart and take down the positions of all the dials and sliders having to do with your mix.
What volume do you use when mixing?
The best way to get the proper balance is a three-step process: the step mentioned above counts as the first one, followed by:
2. to achieve a close approximation at normal (grandmother) living room listening level. Meaning, if you can't comment on elements of the mix over the volume of the mix itself to the man sitting next to you at the mixing desk, it's too loud.
Briefly increase the volume of an individual element if you need to in order to get an idea of it's overall blend in the final mix, but then return the monitors back to living-room-in-an-apartment-with-crabby-old-neighbors level.
Perform a Save Mix again, if your console has a `Save Original Mix with Updates'' then do that, or else take another Xerox of your console sheet and write down all the differences between the main mix you just did and the updates you just performed at living-room level.
Now, when you're done with that and have your close-approximation mix and your first set of updates, you do it again.
3. Insist on absolute silence in the control room at this point, make everybody set down their beer and put out their cigarettes.
Turn out all unnecessary lights untill you're sitting in an all-but-black room with no distractions.
When you add your mix updates this time, lower the monitor level until the loudest peaks are just barely audible, play the number through a few times at that very low-level to get an idea what needs brought up, what needs brought back, and where your left-to-right and front-to-back balance needs tweaked and perform those tweaks. Then, under the same silence as before, return the monitor to living-room level as before, and either utilize `Save Mix with Updates 2' or use a third sheet of your console diagram and document your updates that way, rewind and listen to the number again a few times.
Concentrate on your front three channels the most, your lead in the center, and it's full and wide musical bed to the left and right. Myself personally I never pan anything past 10 and 2, or maybe 10:30 and 1:30, for reasons of preserving the same surprises in stereo as you have for surround.
Surrounds should be used S-P-A-R-I-N-G-L-Y for anything other than ambiance and various effect-returns, swapped left for right for whatever the effect is processing. When you want to use surrounds for instruments, it should be a pleasant but somewhat jarring unexpected surprise, which is why it needs to be used sparingly. If the audience starts to detect a pattern of surrounds used for this particular effect at this particular point in the music, then an engineer has lost his audience and become predictable.
The reason I never pan anything in the front three past 10 and 2, is I need that 9 and 3 panning to preserve my ``surprises'' in Stereo that I toiled over in 5.1 for hours and hours and hours. Meaning I'll pan my ambiance starting at maybe 10:30 and 1:30 and fill the space between there and 9 and 3. Then, I'll mirror-match the panning of my effect whatever it is (on say the left channel) and mirror-match that effect return on the right, again reserving the space between 10:30 and 1:30 and 9 and 3 just for this purpose.
All my little brief instrumental surround surprises are mixed exclusively into 9 and 3 Lt/Rt panning, that way in case somebody has a stereo system with matrix (Dolby Pro Logic, etc) the matrix will bend that around and create its own surrounds for the listener, opening up the space. Listen to a pre-recorded quadraphonic open-reel of a Tomita recording from the 70's and then it's RCA Dolby Surround encoded equivalent through the proper decoder, and then turn the decoder off the CD and listen in Stereo for a good example.
And you can do all of that with an 8-channel bus. Assign 1 2 and 3 as Left Center and Right, and then if your console has the feature, select ``Mirror'' and then assign 4, 5 and 6 to be the mirror-mix, leaving 7 and 8 for your discrete surrounds. That way, whatever you do to 1, 2 and 3 will be replicated onto 4, 5 and 6 which are the front three of your surround mix.
Since all musicians have better hearing in one ear than the other and will therefore always make slightly lopsided mixes, if you want a really easy and cool way of centering your lead between left and right perfectly, besides sending your lead to a discrete center track of its' own in the mix, check your mix through your DIFFERENCE button or it's also called L-R or VERTICAL (i.e. the reverse of Lateral Mono).
If you listen to the Vertical channel of your mix and you hear bleed from the lead, that means either your panning is ever-so-slightly off center (could be the fault of the knobs on the console not being as exact as you'd like), or else your effect-returns from the lead are panned too close to the center. Try placing the effects-return out near the edges of the stereo field and then try listening to the VERTICAL channel of your mix again. Your lead should now have completely disappeared except for some sibilants and some other very faint echoes.
Once you're done with that, do the same with your bed. Bring up 1 and 3 and leave 2 down, and then utilize SLR which is Swap Left for Right and make sure your mix balance is as good backwards as it is the right way round. As we said earlier, since all musicians and engineers hear better one way or the other, swapping the mix left for right will ensure that whichever ear is not the engineer's dominant one will not get favourable treatment, resulting in a lop-sided mix, especially important in quad or 5.1.
Now, try as I said folding in your surround mix to your main mix panning the rears between 10:30 and 1:30 and 9 and 3 in the main mix and see what you think.
Thanks for the tips! (oh ,a dime!)