MIXROOM Manual

Introduction

Getting a clear and balanced sound in the mid to high frequencies can be a time-consuming challenge. It can be frustrating to try several different EQ curves and still end up with a muddy, dull, thin, or harsh sounding song.

Introducing MIXROOM, an intelligent EQ that guides you to set the perfect balance of richness and clarity whether you’re working on a vocal, a synth or mastering your music.

MIXROOM analyses your audio and shows you which frequencies could be adjusted to improve your sound. The EQ target suggestion helps you get a solid starting point, from which you can tweak your sound to suit your preference.

Quickstart

 

How To Use MIXROOM in 4 Simple Steps

1. Load On Master or Individual Channel

You can use MIXROOM to EQ anything in your session. It works great on vocals, instruments, grouped buses, or your master channel.

 

2a. Choose A Preset

To get the most value from MIXROOM, start by selecting a preset that best suits the material you’re working on.

2b. Or Create A Target

You can create your own target values to help you get closer to the sound of your favorite tracks. Do this by clicking the target icon in the bottom left corner and importing reference tracks. 

 

3. Shape Your Sound

Now monitor a full-bodied section of your audio. If you’re using MIXROOM for mastering then monitor the drop or chorus. The Target EQ Curve takes out the guesswork and helps you dial in pro-sounding results in seconds. The ‘Add Smart Bands’ button will instantly load EQ bands that match the Target EQ Curve to give you a great starting point. MIXROOM’s unique and specifically designed EQ filters give you maximum clarity & transparency when shaping your audio.

4. Level Match

The EQ adjustments may have changed the perceived loudness of your audio making it difficult to hear whether the changes you’ve made are improving your sound. If the loudness has changed by more than 2dB (decibels) the bypass button will turn orange.

Hover your mouse over the bypass button to open the output gain and level match pointer. Match the gain slider to the level match pointer to match the perceived loudness of your audio before it passed through MIXROOM. This allows you to subjectively hear how the changes have affected your sound.

Hear The Difference!

Whether your audio is muddy, dull, thin, harsh, or even almost perfect, MIXROOM helps you elevate your mix to get the perfect balance of richness and clarity.

 

MIXROOM Controls

Adding an EQ Band

Double click anywhere in MIXROOM to add an EQ band. You can use the dotted lines to help you align the new EQ band with the Hz (hertz) scale and heat map. Bands will be added in the MIXROOM space based on your mouse position relative to the 0dB line in the center of the room. Adding a band using the heat map on the sides of the interface with be relative to the Hz scale.

 

Gain

Most ordinary EQs use a horizontal representation of frequencies and vertical representation of gain. MIXROOM focuses more on how we experience audio in the real world. Louder sounds feel closer while quieter sounds feel further away. Lower frequencies are associated with a ‘foundation’ whilst higher frequencies are perceived as ‘air’. To reflect this, in MIXROOM frequencies are displayed vertically, and gain is represented by depth in the room. Push frequency bands back in the room to decrease gain, and bring them forward to increase gain. The unique and intuitive UI helps you visualize how you’re adjusting the tonal balance of your song. This gives you a more immersive mixing experience, helping you connect more with your music.

 

Frequency

The frequency range in MIXROOM is 320Hz-20kHz making it the perfect companion to our plugin BASSROOM which covers 320Hz and below. Both MIXROOM and BASSROOM have specifically designed filters to give maximum transparency in their frequency ranges. The horizontal line that runs through the middle of the EQ bands represents the frequency of the band measured in Hz. Click and drag this line to adjust the frequency. Double click the Hz line to enter an amount manually.

 

Q Bandwidth

The Q bandwidth control is located at the top and bottom of each EQ band. Click and drag the control to adjust the Q bandwidth and double click to enter the amount manually.

 

Delete

Hover your mouse over an EQ band’s control panel and click the X to delete it.

 

Solo

Click the headphone icon to solo the EQ band. The solo feature helps you identify the exact frequency and Q Bandwidth setting that you want to adjust.

 

Bypass Band

Click the power icon to bypass the EQ band. This gives you quick access to toggle individual adjustments on and off to ensure you’re making positive progress with your sound.

 

High-Shelf

The high-shelf button allows you to switch between a high-shelf and bell filter for that individual band. The high-shelf icon appears on EQ bands above 1.6kHz. Hover your mouse over an EQ band’s control panel to reveal the high-shelf button.

 

Mid-Side / Stereo

Each band has full mid/side capabilities allowing you to shape the balance of your stereo spread. Using mid-side processing is particularly useful for when you want to adjust the gain of a particular frequency in a specific stereo position. Hover your mouse over an EQ band’s control panel and click the M for mid, S for side, and the stereo icon for stereo. Click and drag the stereo icon left and right to set a perfect blend of mid/side.

 

Overlapping EQ Band Rules

EQ bands can overlap each other, especially when they’re at different depths in MIXROOM.

Bring focus to an EQ band by hovering your mouse over any part that doesn’t overlap another EQ band. Once in focus, the band will stay in focus until you move your mouse off the band entirely, allowing you to access and adjust the gain, Hz, Q bandwidth and other controls.

You can access bands completely covered by other bands by clicking the Hz line of the hidden band.

 

A/B Settings

The A/B button allows you to quickly switch between two different states of the plug-in. This enables you to try a different approach to your audio to see what works best.

The arrow above the A/B button copies the active state to the inactive state. This allows you to keep the current settings of the plugin in the inactive state and make a few adjustments in the active state to see if you can improve the sound. You can then jump between A/B to see which you prefer.

 

Presets

The MIXROOM presets can be found in the bottom left corner of the plugin. Find and select the genre or instrument description that best matches the audio you’re working on (i.e Pop, Electronic, Male Rock Vocals, etc). Feel free to experiment with different presets to see which gives you the tonal balance targets best suited to your preference. Once you’ve selected a preset, you’ll see a green Target EQ Curve on the walls of MIXROOM.

 

Creating Your Own Target

You can create your own target values by clicking the target icon in the bottom left corner and importing reference tracks. If you’re creating mixing or mastering targets, we recommend clicking and dragging on the waveform to select the drop or chorus for the analysis, as this is usually the material with the best representation of the full frequency spectrum in the track. 

If you create a great sounding individual channel (such as a vocal, bass, guitar, synth, etc)  then you can bounce and import the audio into MIXROOM to match that same tonal balance in the future.

Use your DAW (digital audio workstation) plugin wrapper to save your presets so you can recall them in other sessions.

MIXROOM will create targets based on all the tracks loaded into the analysis window. You can analyze up to 20 tracks.

The transport bar below the waveform allows you to preview the audio of your selected reference track. You’ll need to enable input monitoring to audition tracks (press play in your DAW). Click + Drag to create and adjust loops. Alt + Click on a loop to delete it, Alt + Click outside a loop to delete all loops on that track.

 

 

Target EQ Curve

When a preset is created or selected, you’ll see a green EQ curve appear on the walls of MIXROOM. This is the Target EQ Curve.

The Target EQ Curve is based on the total accumulating audio of your track analyzed by MIXROOM. To reset the audio analysis, click the burger menu in the top right corner and click ‘Reset Targets’.

Use the Target EQ Curve to get a great starting point, then adjust by ear to tweak your sound to perfection. The algorithm accounts for differences in loudness, so the targets will always be accurate and relevant.

 

Add Smart EQ Bands

The Add Smart Bands button shows when a preset has been selected and MIXROOM has analyzed enough of your audio (usually around 3 seconds). The Add Smart Bands button will instantly load EQ bands that match the Target Curve. Any adjustment targets less than a ±0.5dB change will not trigger the smart bands.

Alternatively, you can double click anywhere in MIXROOM to create new EQ bands and adjust the gain and Q bandwidth manually. The Add Smart Bands button will automatically disappear once you start adding bands, but will still be available in the Burger Menu.

 

Gain Scale 

Hover your mouse over the Gain Scale icon to open the Gain Scale slider. This will allow you to scale the effect of the gain settings of all curves by dragging horizontally. The range of the gain scale is 0% to 200%.

By default, the Gain Scale will be set to 100%, meaning your EQ adjustments will reflect the exact changes made in the EQ interface. If you set the gain scale to 50%, the EQ changes will be halved. In the example below we can see that with the bands at 4dB and the gain scale set to 50%, the gain change is 2dB, reflected by the yellow EQ line.

This can be very useful when you’re working with a preset target that requires further tweaking to work with your material. It’s also a very efficient way to automate the overall effect of the EQ.

 

Audio Input Heat-map

The audio input heat-map sits behind the frequency scale on the left and right side of MIXROOM and displays frequency-specific peaks of the audio. The brighter the glow, the more energy there is in that frequency range. This can be switched off in settings.

 

Burger Menu

Filter Mode

Mix Mode (MIX) filters are best for when your EQ bands have cuts/boosts greater than 4dB and Q bandwidth settings narrower than 1.5Q.

Master Mode (MST) filters are best for when your EQ bands have cuts/boosts less than 4dB and Q bandwidth settings broader than 1.5Q. When in master mode, MIXROOM will not allow you to exceed these thresholds. You won’t be able to select Master Mode when in Mix Mode if your current settings exceed the thresholds.

 

Filter Phase

Linear Phase (LIN) filters will introduce very slight transient effects but no phase distortion.

Minimum Phase (MIN) filters introduce much less transient effects but with some phase distortion.

In all filter and phase settings, MIXROOM’s filtering system has been specifically developed to maximize transparency.

 

Delete All EQ Bands

Click to delete all EQ bands in MIXROOM.

 

Quick Add Bands

Click a number to quickly add that many bands in MIXROOM.

 

Bypass, Output and Level Matching

The speaker icon in the top right corner will bypass MIXROOM when clicked. Hovering over the icon will open the output slider. EQ adjustments in any plugin will most likely increase or decrease the volume of your audio.

The output slider has a level match pointer to help you adjust the output gain to match the originally perceived loudness of your audio before it passed through MIXROOM. 

If your EQ adjustments change the gain of your audio by more than 2dB the bypass icon will turn orange to prompt you to adjust the output gain. So, when you bypass MIXROOM by clicking the speaker icon, you can confidently determine whether your settings have a positive or negative impact on your sound.

 

Display Range

The default display range is ±12dB. The positive display range figure is shown at the base in the center of MIXROOM. The negative display range figure is shown at the back of the room. Click and hold the display range figure to change the range. (±2dB / ±4dB / ±8dB / ±12dB).

If your EQ bands are not within the selected range, you’ll see a circle of the hidden bands color just off the Hz scale. Click on the circle to jump to the range that accommodates that band.

 

Resizing The UI

Click and drag the bottom right corner of MIXROOM to resize the UI.

 

Help

System Requirements

MIXROOM is available in VST, VST3, Audio Unit, and AAX formats.

MAC OSX Requirements

• OS X 10.10 or higher. 64-bit AU, VST 2/3 or AAX host.

WINDOWS Requirements

• Windows 7, 8 or 10. 64-bit VST 2/3 or 64-bit AAX host.

 

Authorization

After you have purchased you will receive an email with a serial code in this format:

XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX

Online Authorisation (Default)

Open MIXROOM in your DAW and click the KEY icon        in the top right-hand corner of the plugin wrapper. This will open an authorization page where you can copy and paste your authorization key. Click ‘Authorize’, and you’re good to go! You will have two activations per license purchased.

 

Offline

1. Copy and paste the license code sent to you via email into the box below that says ‘Product Key’. Your license code will have this format: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX.

2. Click 'Generate' to generate your Offline Activation Request XML. This file will be saved to your desktop.

3. Transfer this file to an online computer.

4. Upload the file to our website (https://www.masteringthemix.com/pages/offline-activation) and you will receive an Activation Response XML file download.

5. Transfer that file onto your offline computer.

6. Click 'Load' then locate your Activation Response XML file to authorize your software offline.

Resetting Your License

You can reset your license yourself by clicking the ‘key’ icon in the top right corner of the software. You’ll see a button that says ‘Deauthorise’. Click that and you’ll be able to use your license on a different machine.

You can remotely deactivate your license if you don't have access to the software. Login to your account, then click “Deactivate 1 activation’ to deactivate your license there.

If you bought your license from one of our licensed resellers then you will have to register your license in your account area first. Login to your account, then enter your license into the ‘Register License’ input box, then click register, and refresh the page. Your licenses may take a couple of seconds to appear.

 

Interactive Help Tips

You can activate/deactivate ‘Tool Tips’ in the settings. Hover your cursor over a feature to show the tooltip.

 

Software Updates

You can see if an update is available within the software itself. Just click the (?) icon in the top right corner of the software and you'll see the version number. If an update is available you'll also see a link to download the latest update.

 

Your Online Account

Purchases made directly from www.MasteringTheMix.com will automatically sync your downloads and licenses to your online account. You can register your licenses bought from our authorized resellers in your account area to give you access to remote license deactivation and the latest installer download links. Click the 'Register Product' tab, enter your license into the box and click submit. You will find your license code and your installer download link listed under 'My products' after refreshing the tab.

 

Technical Support

If you need help with problems or questions, and this help file does not provide an answer, please visit the Help Center on our web site.

If you have encountered a bug in MIXROOM, first of all, make sure that you are using the latest version of the plug-in. You can see if an update is available within the software itself. Just click the (?) icon in the top right corner of the software and you'll see the version number. If an update is available you'll also see a link to download the latest update. If the bug is still present in the latest version, please send us a support ticket and include as much technical information as possible: operation system and version, host software and version, steps to reproduce the bug, etc.