Key Of Grey

Photo courtesy of Gerrysan

June 17th, 2009 – Mixing music for the first time can be an overwhelming experience. You’ve recorded many instruments on many tracks, some with multiple takes. Projects can get unwieldy quickly, so where do you start? I spent time as a mix engineer before I moved onto being a producer, although it’s not my favorite task (mostly because I’m a perfectionist and can mix forever unless I tell myself to stop). Nowadays, I mostly spend what little time I have writing and producing.

All engineers have their own little tricks and ways they like to do things. What works for me, might not work for you. Take my method and make it work within your skill-set and preferences. I will not take this article into extreme detail (ie. what frequencies and what settings I typically use), it’s mostly meant to give you an idea of how I go about mixing things so you can take ideas that work for you.

Before I start mixing, I’m sure to edit and comp all the audio that needs to be edited. All timing issues should already have been taken care of, as well as extra audio that’s just adding noise. All tracks should be as clean as possible, with fully cleaned edits. At this point, I will start my mix with the low end. Generally, this means I’ll start with the kick drum and bass. The reason I start here, is because it’s the hardest for me. Both instruments occupy the same frequency range and can therefore get lost together leading to both a mushy kick drum and an indistinct bass sound. Carving out a niche for each is a tricky process, but one that gets easier with time. Low frequency energy can easily get out of control and overpower your mix, so making sure it’s all reigned in before moving to other instruments is a good idea. Be sure not to max out their gain at this stage (even if you want thumping bass) because your whole mix will need to be lowered later to prevent clipping the master output. Setting the volume so that your meters register around halfway is a good start. If you’re adamant about hearing the bass, don’t turn up the mix, turn up your speakers.

After the low frequencies are mixed, I move onto the rest of the drums. I will work on a good snare sound, and when I’m satisfied with it, I’ll work on the toms and cymbals. For all instruments, getting a good sound via EQ and compression before you fiddle with the volume and panning of each is important. Otherwise, you will have to tweak the volumes to get the proper blend again. After, I’ll work on any rhythm instruments. I will go back and tweak any of the previous instruments I work with to make sure the rhythm section as a whole sounds good. This is especially important if you are doing a “karaoke” mix for an artist. They typically use these for practicing, and live performances where they can’t have a backup band.

I will then move onto mixing any of the lead instruments. This can be a guitar, synth, or any other interesting instrument that I want to “pop out”. Be careful that these don’t stand out too much. In vocal music, no matter how awesome they are, you do not want lead instruments to outshine the vocalist. By virtue of these parts being different from the rest of the rhythm section they will stand out anyway, so be judicious in your mixing here.

In vocal music, the most important part is the singer. This is why I mix the vocals last. If you mix your vocals too early in the mixing process, they will most likely get lost in the other instruments. Likely, you will spend the most time mixing the vocals anyways, so it’s best to have everything else out of the way. When I was first starting out, I mixed the vocals as if they had equal importance to every other instrument. This is the wrong way to go about it; the music is meant to support the singer. Listen to some professional mixes of top 40 artists. You’ll notice that the vocals are mixed pretty loud in comparison, and yet unless you pay attention, you don’t even notice the disparity. This is the calling card of a good mix. Mix the lead vocal first, then blend the doubles, harmonies, and adlibs around it. Make sure they support rather than take control.

Finally, listen to the whole mix many times, on many different speakers and in different places. Gear, acoustics, and even your mood will change what you hear in the music. Try to smooth the edges that are still left. Listen to your mix in the same environments your listeners might. Do they listen using crappy iPod headphones (quite likely), or in their car (definitely)? Make sure your music sounds good with those conditions. You might even listen to it in mono to make sure there aren’t any phase issues if the song is played over AM radio.

Above all, keep in mind that no one is good at mixing when they first start. Mixing takes experience; experience with your own gear set up, and experience with your musical ear. The more you do, the better and faster you will become. Most mixes that I do are for artist demos, soundtracks, or my own music. If there’s a client that needs the absolute best mix, I contract it out to a dedicated mix engineer. He will have more experience than me, and have specialized mixing gear. There’s no comparison when dealing with a person whose job is to only deal with one aspect of the process.

Although I don’t mind mixing, it’s still not my favorite task. I find it hard to leave things be. Knowing when to stop is a good skill, and one that I haven’t yet fully mastered and about the only thing that stops me from tweaking is a deadline. I suppose it’s not so much that I don’t like mixing then, but more that I know the slippery road it leads down for me. Hopefully you won’t have that problem. Happy mixing!