EZ Mix 3, when to analyze the song?

[LeanderL]

Hi!

I misunderstood EZ Mix 3 and the AI function to analyze your song. I clicked to let EZ Mix listen to the loudest part of the track (Metal Master Retro preset)…but then I saved everything to a custom user preset…played around with different stuff…and thought that the user preset and the knobs were sufficient to get the boosted sound. However, this is not true. I did not have active and analyzed song data…so letting EZ Mix listen to your song, saving the preset, quitting your DAW without saving, opening your song, opening EZ Mix, selecting your preset does NOT work…the song is louder, but only around -9 to -10 LUFS…when listening to the song again, analyzing it, it is back to -7 LUFS and way punchier!

So you are not supposed to save a user preset in song 1, then opening a different DAW project with song 2, then simply loading the EZ Mix preset…because it will NOT have analyed data…although you loaded the preset and might think everything might be loud and punchy because of the knobs etc.

Ok, now I know…but how do you use EZ Mix then? When you have all files in your DAW and mix them without EZ Mix, then let EZ Mix analyze your song, the mastering preset is applied, but it might change your mix…so you need to adjust your mix….which is tedious.

But if you have freshly exported files (only WAV, no VSTi active in the RAM) and boot up EZ Mix right away, how do you know your loudest part of the track before finishing the actual mixing process?

I am confused…so WHEN do you click “Analyze” and apply the mastering?

SeelenPuls ~ Poetic metal from Austria: SeelenPuls.at
Grummelgnom ~ Sociocritical metal from the forest: Grummelgnom.at

Topic

[John]

LeanderL wrote:

WHEN do you click “Analyze” and apply the mastering?

I’d say when you’re ready to export the final master. The presets do not store the input data, that would not be practical, since the point of the Analyze is to optimize what the preset will do to the song depending on the input. Make your mix sound as great as you can, then let your ears rest and finally enter the mastering stage.

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[LeanderL]

Thanks…but when I mix everything without the EZ Mix mastering preset, I have to adjust the mix again after applying the preset…because it boosts parts that need to be quiet…so I have to make them more quiet..and e.g. a preset might boost the guitars a lot so I have to change the mix…basically, I need to mix the song twice, once before applying the mastering preset to know the loudest part of the song, once after applying…

I also would like to know if capturing a snare with the snare assistent, then saving it as a preset, will transfer to a different song WITHOUT analyzing again or do I have to analyze it again?

Basically, I would like to know what to do and when to have the same sound across songs?

e.g.
1) DAW project 1 = song 1. I apply the snare assistent, I apply the bass assistent…I use the electric guitar bus assistent. I mix the song, I listen to it with the mastering preset…when happy, I load

2) DAW project 2 = song 2. I want the same sound I have for song 1…what do I do? Analyzing the snare, guitar bus and bass again might come up with a different result? I use Superior Drummer Death & Darkness -> a custom death kit and EZ Bass -> metal. Do I have to analyze the snare, guitar bus, bass and song again? Or will loading the snare, guitar bus and bass captured in song 1 will transfer their settings to snare and bass in song 2?

Of course I want all songs of an album to have the same sounds for all instruments. Please explain how I can get the same sound across songs.

SeelenPuls ~ Poetic metal from Austria: SeelenPuls.at
Grummelgnom ~ Sociocritical metal from the forest: Grummelgnom.at

• This post was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by LeanderL.

[LeanderL]

John, any advice please?

SeelenPuls ~ Poetic metal from Austria: SeelenPuls.at
Grummelgnom ~ Sociocritical metal from the forest: Grummelgnom.at

[John]

Hi,

I would say that without Analyzing the Track when using the AI assisted presets, they’re “just” presets, like regular presets. If you apply one of them, they will affect your audio as any preset would but wouldn’t affect the sound “as intended”.

If you have one song with a particular Snare, use an AI assisted preset, tweak it a bit, save it as a User Preset, then open another song where the same Snare is used and apply your User AI assisted Snare preset, it should sound like the Snare in the other song. If the Inputs are (or sound) the same across songs, the presets should sound about the same. Things that may matter and affect this if one song had very hard-hitting, dense patterns and the other one was more soft and had sparse hits but that’s the same AI-assisted or not.
The more similar inputs and playing style used across songs, the more similar output results you can get without bending your back but again, that goes for non-AI-assisted presets as well.

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[LeanderL]

Thank you! For mastering the entire song (and I have an album with e.g. 6 songs), should I put them all in the same DAW, project, pick the loudest part of these 6 songs, then apply the mastering plugin OR should I have one song only, let EZ Mix listen to it, export it…open the next song, let EZ Mix listen to it, export it etc.?

I am not sure how I can have an entire album with the exact same or very similar boost, sound etc.

SeelenPuls ~ Poetic metal from Austria: SeelenPuls.at
Grummelgnom ~ Sociocritical metal from the forest: Grummelgnom.at

[davidge52]

I’m relatively new to EZMix but here’s how I do things.  Using Ableton Live each song is it’s own DAW project with each instrument on it’s own track.  Once I’m happy with the overal basic mix I apply iZotope Neutron 5 to bounce each MIDI track to a ‘mastered’ track, but you could just as easily use EZMix to do the same thing.  When I’m ready to create the “Master” for each song I apply EZMix3 to my DAWs main output to master all of it using the AI mastering plugin.  That’s what I have the mastering plugin listen to to create the final mastered output.  Once it listens to the sample and gets applied it will give me the range of different ways it could be mastered and I audition them to find the one that best matches the sound I want for that song.  Once that’s complete I go back to the DAW and have it export the song to an MP3 file that’s now LUFS adjusted (which gives all songs the same LUFS volume levels) and that’s my final mix.

Operating system: Windows 10

• This post was modified 1 month ago by davidge52.

[John]

LeanderL wrote:

Thank you! For mastering the entire song (and I have an album with e.g. 6 songs), should I put them all in the same DAW, project, pick the loudest part of these 6 songs, then apply the mastering plugin OR should I have one song only, let EZ Mix listen to it, export it…open the next song, let EZ Mix listen to it, export it etc.?

I am not sure how I can have an entire album with the exact same or very similar boost, sound etc.

I guess both would work equally well but myself, I would prefer having the songs in separate Projects and then start with the same AI assisted Preset. If you have mixed the songs with similar tone and energy, they should end up sounding very similar that way but of course, your ears will judge if there are any fine tunings that need to be made.

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[davidge52]

LeanderL wrote:

Thank you! For mastering the entire song (and I have an album with e.g. 6 songs), should I put them all in the same DAW, project, pick the loudest part of these 6 songs, then apply the mastering plugin OR should I have one song only, let EZ Mix listen to it, export it…open the next song, let EZ Mix listen to it, export it etc.?

I am not sure how I can have an entire album with the exact same or very similar boost, sound etc.

I agree with John’s comments above.  For myself I’m typically dealing with songs that have a rather varied character and often have different instruments.  For example, one song may have electric guitar as the dominant supporting instrument and is supported with organ, drums, bass, and horns and is a fairly upbeat song with higher energy levels.  Another song may be a slower song primarly supported with simple piano, bass, lighter drum patterns and a string section.  In that case once the AI helper listes to each song it’s likely going to provide a different set of mastering options which is what I’d think you want in that case.  Similar styles of songs tend to get similar ranges of AI selected presets as it should.

Of course you can always use the same EZMix presets or any preset you choose yourself, but I let the AI lead me in these cases because it’s more of the expert than I am in that regard.

Dave

EZmix version: 3.2.2
Operating system: Windows 10

[LeanderL]

Ok, thank you! 🙂

SeelenPuls ~ Poetic metal from Austria: SeelenPuls.at
Grummelgnom ~ Sociocritical metal from the forest: Grummelgnom.at

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