M-AUDIO Pro Tools Recording Studio - Manual (Page 845)

Chapter 40: Basic Mixing 827
Chapter 40: Basic Mixing
In addition to the final mixdown, mixing tasks
can occur any time during a session. This chap-
ter covers Pro Tools mixing, including audio sig-
nal flow, output and bus paths, sends, and sig-
nal routing for submixing and mixdown.
During mixing, real-time plug-ins and hardware
inserts provide effects and signal processing (see
Chapter 41, “Plug-in and Hardware Inserts”).
Mixing Concepts
Mixing involves making decisions about ele-
ments such as volume levels, panning, and ef-
fects in your studio. While you can control
many variables in your studio (such as speakers
and room acoustics), you cannot control the lis-
tening environment in which your final mix
will be heard. The following tips will help you
make your mix sound as good as possible to as
many listeners as possible:
Alternate Speakers and Reference
Monitoring
Listen to your mixes on a variety of
different speakers to gauge how well the mix
will translate to different playback systems.
Reference Mixes Make audio CDs and MP3-en-
coded files of rough mixes and audition them
outside the studio in different listening environ-
ments.
Format Compatibility Monitoring Check stereo
mixes for compatibility with mono playback
systems, and multichannel surround mixes for
compatibility with stereo playback systems. (see
the Pro Tools Sync & Surround Concepts Guide).
Metering and Calibration
Meters provide a visual display of signal levels.
They tell whether signal is getting to a channel,
and how loud or soft a signal is relative to (above
or below) “0.”
By calibrating all your equipment to standard
reference levels, a consistent level can be
achieved (and metered) among different record-
ing devices in a studio, throughout a facility, or
throughout an entire production chain. For ex-
ample, a level of –18 dBFS coming out of a DAT
deck should play and meter at –18 dBFS in
Pro Tools.
Calibrating Audio Interfaces
(Pro Tools|HD with 192 I/O Only)
If you are using a Pro Tools|HD system with a
192 I/O audio interface, use the Calibration Ref-
erence Level option (in the Operation Prefer-
ences page) to set the reference level when
Pro Tools is in Calibration mode.
For instructions on calibrating a 192 I/O
Audio Interface, see the 192 I/O Guide.