How do you plan and prepare the audio production and mixing for a media project?

It helps for the audio expert to be involved in the project from the beginning. Many times the audio person is only consulted at the end of a production, and along with this mistake, they would often hear "can we fix it in post?" to which the response is often "No." This can be avoided when including the audio editor from the onset.

I agreed, and I want to add the quality of the record technically and the volume if it is a live event. Also, know the audience to get a better impact of the message.

From Sonic identity to Production quality everything needs to be up to the mark as per the need of the product. Keeping yourself aligned with the project director from the start helps the best to prevent disaster in the end , understanding the brief and reference sonic examples are the starting point to move on that is defining the mood and genre. On the other side keeping the client aware of the process and sharing basic sketches and selling them your idea is the most important part and it reflects in the final outcome this controls everything else the mood of composer :) arrangement, recording, mixing with no alterations and surgeries in your piece.

Have a bigger vision(reference track, genre if be) and break them in to steps as you achieve it bit by bit(this will lead you to making right choices throughout mixing and production stages). proper planning and management of session is very crucial.

If I am on the project from the start I always like to communicate to the production company / producer that the concept of "Software is amazing now days so we can get away with bad audio " should be removed as an operating basis , I am hearing many productions sounding awful or synthetic because heavy software usage decreases the quality and makes it all sound the same. ensure you are in touch with production on that if you are able to.

Outside of an editing suite you are comfortable working with, you just need some very basic microphones for different settings. The increase in quality is tied to the skills of the operator. Complete a project and if you needed a tool that could have improved it, get it. Most people decide they can't do something until they have all the right gear, spend months assembling it, and use it as an excuse to avoid the creative process. Don't do this.

Avoid getting bogged down in over complicated set ups and gear, if you need more time figuring out how to use it than actually making music your creativity can be hindered. You could try a very simple synth and squeeze everything out of it and when you run out of ideas with it try a completely different approach.

If you're on a discount budget--per say a $60-500 range--it's best to rely on a long-lasting device as well as program applications which make financial contributions minimal. Moreover, the equipment you'll be working should be simple and easily handleable. For instance, Reaper is an audio workstation provides users a very hands on experience; despite some minor complications, it's user-interface is easily navigational for both audio novices and experts alike, and provides a mixture of tools found from other workstations like Audition, iMovie, and GarageBand. With this program you can create folders and build up your own sound libraries. As for recording devices, I mostly settle for Seiren Microphone and TASCAM port recorder.

Selecting the right tools for your needs can be daunting as the world has an embarrassment of choices available to everyone. I found it helpful to begin my audio career by selecting the best I could afford, but also focusing on tools that gave me a lot of flexibility. For example, choosing a DAW that works seamlessly on multiple OS platforms, and can integrate with many plugin formats. Also, selecting microphones that sound great on multiple sources and have switchable pickup patterns.

Logic is an amazing DAW for a budget. It has sounds and samples and presets that can get you started with an amazingly pro sound without having to buy more plugins and samples. There are amps for guitars, vocal mic presets, midi instruments from all over the world, and a huge bank of loops! If you're looking for a fast way to start this is a great starting place. There are lots of youtube videos for free to teach you how to use it.

fix it in the mix.. thats a wrong concept. Ensure excellence in recording stage. Try to get the best input by modulation and tonal quality, mic placements etc in order to capture the best sounds be it vocals or instrumentals. Mixing becomes more easy when you have things balanced and great recordings.

Record as if there were no mixing, mix as if there were no mastering, do your best not to carry issues over to the next stage, because if a problem was created in the previous stage, it means it could have been avoided there as well.

Good room + good performer + good microphone and interface = good recording. Sacrifice any one of the room/performer/or mic setup and your overall quality goes down. Strive to get the quietest and best space for your recording, to use the best quality gear that you can, and do work with the best performers (vocal, instrumental, whatever) that are available. Also, make sure to record at a solid amplitude (gain) level—a great, clean signal at -12dB to -6dB or so that doesn't clip will help you out *a lot* for post-production.

Before recording or composing I always like to put on some music I'm enjoying at the moment that puts me in a positive headspace, and connect with my senses, move my body around and perhaps dance a little bit. This helps to relax the body and mind and gets me into a more creative and playful state. Also blocking out time and removing distractions during this phase is important. Turn off phone, email and messages and commit to periods of creativity.

Metering is your best friend when it comes to achieving strong audio results. Its worth the investment of time to select appropriate mics and attend to their placement. If something is awry, the best time to fix it is before the tape is running- not after the fact. I recommend recording in dry (no fx) to give yourself the most versatile audio possible. FX can always be added after the fact, but if you record them in, you can't get back the dry audio. If the performer needs a little reverb (or another effect) in their headphone mix to perform at their best, run a separate cue mix to their headphones. The exception to this would be if the sound design has been cemented beforehand with no chance that it will need to change down the road.

Noise removal or breaths and pauses in between recordings ensures better quality unless they are kept deliberately for aesthetic purpose. Use DAW that you feel confident about. keep the session clean by editing takes well and applying fades. A bigger vision by naming the tracks as first harmony, backing, chorus etc for extra clarity for a track helps.

You can only do so much in edit you can't make a silk purse of a sows ear so always make sure you work in excellence and do not assume edit will sort it always better first hand with only minimal adjustments

More to the point on this, ensure you know your DAW inside and out. Read the manual. Speed and efficiency in editing is almost just as important as editing itself. No point time aligning Drums if it takes you 2 days to do it.

Editing is the transformative phase in which you sculpt, trim, and harmonize your audio tracks to create a seamless, cohesive narrative. Your digital audio workstation (DAW) is your tool of choice for this intricate process, allowing you to remove unwanted noise, refine volume and pan settings, synchronize timing, and weave transitions and fades into your audio canvas. Your compass throughout this creative journey should be your initial goals and content objectives. Let them guide you in deciding what to keep, what to discard, and what to emphasize or finesse in your audio masterpiece.

Again, know your tools extremely well so that you know their limitations. When you know your DAW and your plugins, the next thing to know is your goal. Getting to your goal is easy when you're comfortable with the process and the tools. Don't fall for the magic solve-all plugins

Collaboration is the key. Make sure everyone knows what you are trying to achieve amd why it is important to the production. Just because you are techy doesn't mean you don't have to be involved fully.

It’s all about creating a smooth flow when mixing the elements. This stage is really about your sense and experience when mixing the elements together. It’s very important to create a sound design that relates to scene and use an appropriate effects if possible to mimic the effect of the reality. Mixing the sound together depends on the timing as well, when to use each sound is the key to a great flow of your project. Keep in mind that over using the sound elements might affect your overall quality, just use what’s necessary when mixing the sounds, and avoid using too many elements that are not necessary.

To me, this is where the real creative magic happens. Do not underestimate the power of putting a bandpass, hi-pass, or low-pass filter on *every* track you have in order to get the signals to blend together better.

Mixing is a dying art and is also very subjective. Either you have taken the time to understand the ins and outs of this process or in my opinion if your goal is to focus on your art, then make sure you work with someone who understands your sound. Try to work with someone who loves the mixing process or is a proffessional. Make sure you are also clear with your instructions to the person mixing your music and trust your ears even if you dont understand the technical terms, if something doesnt sit right with you then speak up because you dont want to put out something that you are not happy with or that will annoy you everytime you listen to it.

Once you are done with basics like eq, compression, reverb, delay and automation, take a step forward for creative eqs or complementary eqs or sidechaining techniques, go for tonal adjustments, saturations and harmonics if the vsts are midi.

Preparing the final mix for distribution through mastering involves global processing to achieve industry-standard loudness and clarity I conduct a comprehensive review of the final mix, ensuring it aligns with the project goals and references. Sharing the final mix with the client for feedback and revisions is a crucial step in the process. Client satisfaction is a top priority.

If you're doing a commercial release it is ABSOLUTELY worth it to pay an experienced mastering engineer a couple of hundred bucks to master your audio. I can master my audio myself but I always hire a friend to do this—they give you a different set of ears and perspective on your audio, they have different gear than you, and they have experience finalizing different kinds of audio for different distribution formats.

Objective Ears: Seek feedback from fresh ears to catch overlooked nuances. Reference Tracks: Use professional tracks to compare and guide your sound. EQ: Make broad, subtle adjustments to balance frequencies. Stereo Imaging: Ensure a balanced stereo width, avoiding phase issues. Dynamic Range: Achieve good volume but avoid over-compression, which "squashes" sound. Consistency: Ensure volume and sonic character are consistent across album tracks. Metering: Use LUFS metering to gauge perceived loudness, catering to platform norms. Dithering: Apply when downsampling to reduce distortion. Backup: Keep a high-resolution, unprocessed master. Varied Listening: Test on different devices and environments for consistent clarity.

If you are the mix engineer it is usually wise to ask someone *else* to be the mastering engineer. It's easy to be too familiar with a product and to miss important nuances that someone else will hear immediately. If you are acting as mastering engineer, make absolutely certain you're doing so in an environment that is calibrated to be as flat, and free from environmental artifact as possible. This ideally means an acoustically treated space with an optimal listening position. SoundID reference can help *tremendously* in less-than-ideal spaces!

Bandlab offer a free mastering service, even if it doesn't become your final mix it will give you a better idea of what can ge achieved.

See the thing is :- You can't produce great industry level audio in your normal room. And by 'production' I mean the whole process : creating, mixing and mastering. You definitely need an acoustically treated room to do that. If you invest in (somewhat) good audio production equipments, you should also (consider to) invest in making the room/studio acoustically treated. Otherwise, a lot of times, when you listen to your 'mix' somewhere else, it will sound a whole lot different. And you can/will get confused. You will have to go over the whole process again. It's possible that you will get stuck. In my opinion, an acoustically treated room is as important as the production process itself.

While defining the project and its goals, it's essential to pay careful attention to a) your target audience and b) their preferred mode of content consumption. If your story, narrative style, medium of dissemination, and audience demand it only then elevate your tech specs to the highest, else don't add burden for everyone. Document even the details that may seem like common sense, and articulate your vision while doing so; it helps everyone involved in crafting the vision. E.g. Ambience sound gets louder when a door opens, documentation/ side notes helps us minimise the chances of overlooking finer nuances. Putting your thoughts into words/ inking them amplifies their impact.

The environment is KEY to any sucessful recording (dialog or Efx). I live in Vegas, and tend to do a lot of field recording. I typically cringe when I show up to record basic sit-down interviews, and the producer has rented a small to medium "meeting room" in the convention space of one of the hotels. The rooms are typically VERY reverberant with hard parallel walls, and many times are adjacent to noisy corridors. I will politely suggest moving the shoot to an average hotel room (with a couch, a bed and other objects which help absorb & difuse sound reflections). Sadly, picture/lighting considerations will always override any objections by the Sound recordist, so we are forced to adapt (moving blankets on stands, if we're lucky)??????

Create from the heart. Please. Don't create something that you think people will like. Create something that is bubbling up from inside you that just fills you with awe and awesome and ahhhhhhhh, something inside you that wants to express itself. This is the art, this is the voice of YOU, the big you who will impact humanity with your art. Thank you for daring to share, for learning to create, and for gifting the world your unique beauty.

When creating your audio mix, it is important to keep in mind how your target audience while consume the audio. And make sure to mix for that. Of course it’s great production value to deliver in Dolby Atmos, but when 70% of your audience will listen to it with cheap earbuds or on the speaker of their phone, you have wasted valuable resources and still deliver a sub-par product to consumers.