Hey everyone,
I’m looking for some advice on getting some better mixes out of the boxes. I have an octatrack and a digitone. I prefer to do as much in the machines as I can since my computer is pretty much dead at this point, and things always seems to get really chunky around 300-500 Hz. I’ve been using the lowpass and highpass filters, but by the time the mud is removed I’ve usually lost most of the body or definition of the sounds.
Does anyone have any tips or approaches they can share?
Mixing is arrangement. If your works have some serious flab in the mid-range, it’s because your choice of sounds is stacked too high there. This can be solved in a number of ways. Maybe your pad is playing CEG–invert it and play EGC or GCE. Maybe your snare is too mid-heavy, pitch it up a tad. Maybe your melody exists in the middle too much, conflicting with the pad–try it an octave higher. There’s a reason really great, “full” mixes are often rather sparse…Maybe four or five instruments at once. I’ve learned this the hard way 
I have a tendency to be overly dense in my arrangements. Must be all the psychedelia and Phil Specter I grew up with.
That being said, the Octatrack has an EQ as an option. Maybe put it on a specific sound or even on the master. Do a little cut in that range.
Limiting yourself to lowpass and highpass filters is like a surgeon limiting himself to a bonesaw
EDIT: It’s also volume. While you can EQ out certain frequencies, it’s possible your pad is just a little too loud and needs to be turned down a bit. Or your hi-hat is drowning out some higher frequencies and again just needs to be quieter.
Ha! You know it’s really felt like using a bone saw. This is really good advice. Thanks!
Getting the levels right and panning tracks can improve a mix so much, sometimes it’s even all that needs to be done.
In OT I found I end up using EQ frequently on “dry” tracks/samples for a little help attenuating more than cutting. Filter for obvious cutting, but more on sculpting.
But I am growing curious in how plocking different fliter settings/steps could change my approach altogether for separation/emphasis.
Always forget there are 3 LFOs/plocks there for the using.
Mix at different listening levels, being aware we tend to favor how loudness appeals to ears in certain freq’s. There is always gain in attributes and slight DIST for yet another compression option, as it tends to flatten things.
This is I’m sorry to incorrect… You can go very far mixing using just low and highpass filters.
But as you also said, choice in sounds and arrangement is key.
Op, I know you said you want the boxes to do it… Anyway I recently added a second Analog Drive cause they can be had dirt cheap now and having two is really nice for mixing dawless jams cause they have a basic EQ onboard.
The mid EQ is perfect for getting that mud out of the way without making the sounds thin and wimpy. I’m thinking of adding a 3rd Drive to my setup 
I’m not a great mixer anyway so just using highpasses and lowpasses is a little outside of my grasp right now. But yeah I’ve been drooling over the Analog Drive for a while but haven’t been able to justify buying one. Or two or three. It seems like you can just keep adding them and things get cooler and cooler haha
Hmm, yes in some cases you can but I think @GirTheRobot was speaking more generally rather than giving BS, and he gave a lot of other solid advice in his post too.
Whole heartedly agree.
And I lurrrrved Gir’s analogy.
sound selection and arrrangement are the only tools to use if you cannot “mix”. This is how it was done in the days of old, still perfectly applicable.
but on using highpass and lowpass filters, dont overdo them and they can work wonders.
I was in a rush and wrote something on the top of my head… I most certainly did not mean to offend anyone 
Bad choice of words on my behalf.
It’s no worries. I do wonder what you mean by “go very far” with just HP and LP. Like 70% of the way? 80%? What do you do when a not-so-great recording had an awful honky, resonant frequency?
When working just with electronic music it might be a bit of a different case…
Good stuff in this thread! I come from a heavy DAW Background (love using tons of eq, filters, effects, etc…) so I was really worried about how I’d fare using the Dark Trinity to write and perform.
It’s been a challenge, but a very rewarding one, letting all that go in favour of Elektron’s inherent limitations. After 1.5 years I’m finally getting the results I want using most of the techniques mentioned above.
Huge filter usage! After that, its all tonal decisions. The only time I use any eq in the OT is resampling.
I’m preparing my first real set now and listening to it come together so full and raw sonically , it’s made me completely rethink my mixing choices when using a daw.
I also listen to Dataline a lot so my ears are probably bleeding biased 
That’s either a EQ job (which can ofcourse be applied post recording) re-record in case of acoustic instrument, fix the synth patch or replace the track completely.
(Ghetto fix, drown it in FX 
…)
Mixing only using low and highpass filters can get you to your final mix if your source sounds are well made/selected and the arrangement is good.
I use my OT as a mixer for my setup and record 4 mono tracks into my Daw where I apply minimal low/highpass EQ. Most tracks are also filtered/EQ’d in the OT…
When mixing in a hardware only situation you have to keep in mind you’ll have no visual feedback really. It’s all in the ears, I like to keep it simple. I use a 3x3 method, highs, mids and lows then left, center and right. Lows I keep center, mids and highs I move around the stereo field. Also I like to let the sounds breathe on their own a little, in the past I would create a wall of sound. I would throw everything into the mix and things would get lost in the mix.
I use an OT.
I know it’s been said before ad infinitum, but… gain staging.
The OT’s sound on the master buss always seemed somewhat flattened, somewhat degraded. I think when the levels into the master are too high, it starts to lose quality before any distortion is audible.
So I’ve made a habit of turning down the sample volume in the Amp page, which leaves a lot more room to boost frequencies with the EQ/filter on each track. If the master level of each track is not too high, it makes it easier to mix… and gives plenty of room to use the make-up gain on the master compressor, if you’re using it (which I always do).
Now I find that the OT has all the headroom, clarity, bass presence etc. that you would theoretically expect from a 24bit digit sampler.
This is all really good stuff. Thanks for chipping in everyone