Hi. I barely know anything about mixing and I've heard it's a crucial part in making your score sound complete. Do anyone of you have some tips or could you maybe link me to some videos about orchestral mixing? I tried Google/YT and nothing useful came up. What plugins do people use the most? As of now I've had a look at FabFilter Q3/Valhalla... any other plugins? Thanks in advance!
1) Completely agree with others who say start with the tools you already have. Standard DAW tools will do almost all the work.
2) YouTube and the internet are filled with people saying you need to EQ everything, you need to put a compressor on everything, you need complicated effects busses for all your parts. I think it's better to try to do less, though. Especially with sample libraries -- they tend to sound pretty good out of the box. My rule of thumb is that I add stuff as I need it, or just to see if it makes a difference, but never as a matter of course.
3) Go to extremes, then dial back. At first, it's hard to get a sense of how much of a certain mixing plugin you need. The differences can be subtle. It's okay to turn knobs all the way up to see what happens; that's how you learn.
4) A/B comparisons are very helpful. Click the bypass button on the plugin; is it really doing anything?
5) Generally, you need less reverb than you initially think.
6) I also agree with the idea that mixing is pretty much mixing; that said, keep in mind that orchestral works -- especially classical works -- tend to have a pretty large dynamic range, and that's part of the aesthetic. Don't over-compress or slam up the limiter.
7) Be wary of plugins that promise to "analyze" and automatically improve your mix. They don't always give good advice.
8) Despite 2), 6), and 7), the Klevgrand Korvpressor is a very nice "sausage" type compressor/limiter to add at the end. Just makes things sound louder and clearer without too much disruption.
9) Learn to use sends/aux/busses instead of inserting plugins on individual tracks. If instruments are experiencing the same compression patterns, or are mixed together in the same reverb tail, it tends to "glue" them together and make them sound like they're in a coherent space/sonic universe. (This is part of why you will often see people on here looking for "dry" instruments -- many people want to put all the various VI's into a single reverb, rather than having the manufacturers' reverb sounds slapping around all over the place.)
10) This is the worst for someone like me who likes to start writing by just banging around on various instruments that have the right emotional connotations, but try to keep in mind that a good mix starts with orchestration/instrumentation. There's only so much room in people's ears for any give band of frequencies. (The low range can get especially crowded.) Figure out what sounds you want in each range. That way instruments aren't competing with each other.
11) Bass sounds should be in mono or basically centered.
Those are all the tips I can think of at the moment. Good luck!