Useful Mix Assistant Software?

The Lounge Other Gear
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I’ve been having a look around at a cateogry of VSTs that is new to me. I know a few folks here use a variety of tools to help get a quick mix, focussing more on the creative end of the process, either in HW or SW.

I very much prioritise creative tools (Shaperbox, Portal) and spending time on that vs mixing. I know that mixing is an important aspect of this whole music shebang, but as someone with little time I have to make choices about what I will and won’t focus on. My goal is to make nice tunes and find a way to to mix & master them them to an acceptable standard, and maybe learn something by watching what the tool does. FabFilter might be in my future, but that’s for another day.

So far I’ve found 2 groups of tools. One is the mixing bundle type package that I feel is meant to be some sort of school in how to mix using best practices and whatnot (although often labelled as AI as everything is these days.) I already own Ozone due to buying Komplete and I rate it because I can just make a tune and approximate a master in pretty much no time. I’d like to investigate the potential with some of the other tools that are similar in the mixing space.

What I’ve seen so far are either compenents sold in bundles (eg: FAST, Neutron 4 etc) with some sort of “assistant” tech in them. And then there are the similarly marketed inteligent EQs. I know they all play a slightly different role, but I have heard people rate Gulfoss specifically, but also Soothe 2 and Trackspacer (and sometimes in combination.)

What I’m interested in is which (if any of these) you have found useful in getting a mix. Bonus points if you use them because you are more about making tunes & need something to get you to the end result due to a lack of interest or time in doing the whole mixing thing.

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I think Neutron is the closest to what you’re looking for. I own Gulfoss and it’s good but it doesn’t speed up or automate the mixing process, it just makes it sound better

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Thanks, this is useful. I got the trial of Neutron and it does seem to do what it says on the tin. What I did with it was use it on a handful of existing tracks that I’d already somewhat mixed and then used it to clarify the mix. I guess having Ozone as well there’s a familiarity to it so it might be the best shout as you say.

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You either learn how to mix or pay someone who has learnt how to mix to do it for you. Not saying it because I’m one of those you can hire to do it, but because these “ai” (:roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes:) tools are just a gimmick. They might be useful to be used as a starting point to someone who knows how to mix, but won’t be able to mix your tunes for you. :man_shrugging:

I own neutron, is a fine bundle of mixing tools that’s worth the money if you are willing to learn how to mix, so by all means go for it :+1:

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May I be honest to you? If not, don’t read further, please … :wink:

What you want is “running without wanting to learn to stand first” … IMO it’s not a good idea.

From my experience I can tell that most up-to-date versions of DAWs have very good mixing and sound shaping facilities, which are sufficient for pro-results. There is no need for 3rd-party plug-in packages. “No need” doesn’t mean that there are no great packages out there - I use Ozone for years now :wink:

I also can tell that many tools offering one-button-solutions, many presets, or even AI capabilitis are often delivering worse results compared to somebody only knowing his mixing basics.

I was surprised (negatively) about Ozone’s help, if used to let it do, what was in the AI-wizard’s pockets :wink:

My advice would be, invest some hours and get your head around of some basic mixing-truths. You don’t need to become a pro-mixing engineer to have a decent and also a personal sound, which will always pass for a good demo qualtity at least. I liked this book to get me started: “Mixing Secrets for the small studio” by Mike Senior. Or get free of charge advice from the “Sound on Sound” web-site.

Time will improve your capabilities by gaining more experience, without stealing your time for beeing creative.

If you need pro-mixing quality before you release your music, ask a pro to do the job. That’s why pros are there :wink:

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Appreciate the comment. I don’t want something to directly do it for me, but point in the right direction so I can tweak. Thanks!

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Mastering the mix make some pretty good stuff. You need to get a half decent mix before they will work well but I’m now using them on every song.

The other thing that is excellent is Metric AB - the volume matching reference song and the loudness stuff are really helpful.

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I found the AI assistant in Ozone really quite bad and I was better of starting from scratch.

I’ve found the Fabfilter tools C-2 L-2 and Q-3 very easy to use and to learn and you get very good results, but starting with a preset that sounds like what you are trying to do and then giving it a bit of a tweak. They are expensive though and you can probably use the EQ and Compression in your DAW. As far as I’m aware most DAWS don’t come with a really good limiter (although I think Maximus in FL is supposed to be OK)

I use Smooth Operator which does some of what both Soothe and Trackspacer do. They are very specific tools which you need to understand what you are using them for and why. I’d stick to regular compressors and EQs and stuff first. Gulfoss I haven’t used, but I’ve heard it’s very good, but it’s designed to give an extra 5% of sparkle to a decent mix as I understand it so might not be what you are after.

I think the first technique to learn is just chopping off the bass by high passing everything that doesn’t need bass. Makes a huge difference to cleaning mud.

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Thanks for your input as always. Yeah, the Ableton limiter gets a lot of stick as it doesn’t take much to over-do. I’d agree that the AI stuff in Izotope can be quite hit or miss. From playing around with it, I found feeding the assistant a reference was quite useful, but I also took the suggestions as a starting point that I would then tweak. Neutron is similar, in that the AI assistant stuff can be pretty ropey when it listens to a track, but the visual EQ stuff and the unmask feature can be quite nice. Mindyou, it’s interesting that you feel FF is easy to use, it looks a tad intimidating from the outside, but maybe that’s just from the UI side of things.

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It’s kind of complex as you want it to be.

The limiter is pretty simple and really good visually so you feel like you understand what’s going on and what it’s doing.

The compressor and the EQ are as complex as you want them to be. If you just want to shelve off low end or do some basic compression it’s really simple, but they can do insane super complex stuff if you want and they have loads of amazing Dan Worrell videos to help you.

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Mix assistant software is more Mastering assistant software… so it’s all a bit grey.
Obviously there’s now a big market for people wanting to upload their (‘mastered’) mixes direct to streaming platforms, and that’s what these assistant plugins seem to be targeting.

Mixing is mixing… no AI tool is going to do the fundamentals of MIXING for you… the creative stuff… automation, individual track EQ, choice of reverbs, relative levels, riding/automating the levels of your lead instruments, parallel compressing your drums, pushing the vocal aux send to a delay to emphasise a key emotional line/lyric, etc, etc… that’s mixing, that’s the creative process of a mix.

Then when you get to that point, where, regardless of the ‘expected’ sonics, it sounds and feels good to you, you’ve got a mix.

I would generally then record STEMS as Drums, Bass, Instruments, Vox (submix stereo files).

If you’re really serious, at this point you can send it to a mastering engineer, no need for an AI Mix Assist plugin, and they’ll usually do their thing to clean things up and make it presentable to the world… giving them stems gives them the best control.

Or, you can then use something like the iZotope suite to run it’s analysis and give you a releasable master… (I don’t mean to sound dismissive of this, I think iZotope’s Ozone and Neutron are really really good, but still need a human ear to tweak the results they give.)

An additional note… I know that my mixes always come out bass heavy and treble light… that’s just how I interact with a mix, and I’m ok with that, it’s more about getting the right vibe at the mix stage.
Mastering engineers and Ozone both end up tidying up the bass end and increasing high end on my mixes, and I’m good with that… there’s no fkn way on earth I would want to sit and mix for hours at high volume with the type of sound a mastered mix comes back with.

TLDR- learn to mix properly and understand the difference between mixing, pre-mastering and mastering.

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Yeah I watched the Jeff Manchester videos on their stuff, and the feel I got from it was he wasn’t saying “press the button and done” - which they could have done. I guess what I took from it was that their tools get you in a ballpark (either via a reference or an approximation of how certain instruments are mixed/mastered) and then you take over and tweak to taste. I also assume from what I’ve seen and used the GUI is set up to show you what’s going on (eg: layering track 1 over track 2 and showing masking freqs etc.)

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…sonibles smart eq, compressor and limiter and a little bit of gulfoss’ overall realtime frequency micro magic…
that are my mixing engineer assistants…

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Yep! I use Gulfoss on every track I do. The difference is usually quite subtle, but it’s great at revealing detail and taming a bit of harshness. But it really is just a final polish (a very very good one though!)- you need to have a decent mix going into it.

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There’s a relatively new tool, roexaudio.com that mixes for you, worth a shot.

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I know youlooking for a tool, but have you thought about a very well layed out template?

With all basic mixing tools set at useful starting values like low cuts and subtle compression?

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I use the Izotope tool chain. Underrated MVP for me is Tonal Balance Control. It can really help you identify what needs fixing, especially in the context of poor home studio conditions.

Neutron is also great. The AI can mis-detect, but if you correct it manually, it still gets you to a nice starting point and quick controls to tweak. Also, don’t sleep on the presets, especially for drum and mix bus.

Ozone is good too. Once I got Neutron and Tonal Balance Control it did way less to my sound, because I learned how to mix better. A good thing.

Also take the time to watch Izotope’s YouTube tutorial content. It is thorough, and can teach you a lot about mixing and mastering just in itself.

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Thanks! I think this one has won out for me. I am re-watching the “everything in Neutron” videos at the mo. I think it’s the right balance of tweakability and learning while also keeping the emphasis on writing. I also kinda like the way you have it all in one interface with a bunch of tools for various jobs, assuming as you say that you don’t just accept the suggestions without tweaking them. I like the reference track pool idea as well. Kinda unifies the workflow. On the 2 mixes I’ve tried, I feel it’s the right way to go for now.

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