Mixing is the most mysterious part of any record. Every engineer has there own secrets and tricks of the trade. When i began my internship at NY’s famous Soundtrack Studios many years ago I was blown away by all i learned. After twisting many knobs doing gear recalls for top engineers and seeing what a real record industry mix look liked I began to notice a lot of the same patterns from engineer to engineer. Some of the techniques and philosophies will help you mixing skills tremendously. After you read the article please leave us a comment below. I can’t answer questions about mixing unless you ask them.
Mixing Secret #1 – Stop turning knobs and listening. Mixing engineers spend more time listening to the mix then they do twisting knobs, and adjusting effects. You should be spending alot more time listening. An average major label mix can take any where from 8 to 24 hours or more. Most of this time is spent listening to every small detail looking for problems and ways to solve them in a creative or corrective way. Listen on big speakers, small speakers, headphones and even in the car.
Mixing Secret #2 – Use a Template Most mixing engineers start with a template setup. Every engineer has their standard set up of effects that they begin a project with. This template is where the specific sound of that engineer begins. Each engineer falls in love with specific devices that they almost always will use. One engineer i worked with would use a sony reverb on all the vocals, another would only use the Lexicon 480L on vocals. An engineer will have the studio setup by the assistant with the same gear on the same channels, or bring their own personal equipment that they use on every song. As you learn to mix being building your set up of go to plugins and devices. Its better to know 5 plugins in and out then use 20 plugins and have no idea what they are doing. Find things you like the sound of and stick with it.
Mixing Secret #3 – It’s to loud in here. The best engineers spend most of the time mixing at very low volumes. At lower volumes you can hear much more defined. You will hear frequencies better and smaller differences in volume easier. Try listening at lower volumes. Other benefits to this are less fatigue on you ears and the most important one no damage to your hearing.
Mixing Secret #4 – The sound of silence. When you work on a mix, don’t start with the music. Start with the noise. The first time i sat in on a big analog mix I watched the board light up like a Christmas tree. The lights were the mute buttons for each channel going on and off during the mix. If a track did not have music playing it was muted. But why mute the channel when there is nothing playing? Well just because you don’t hear noise coming from a channel doesn’t mean it isn’t there. If you played that one empty channel of audio you wouldn’t hear anything, but when ten, 20 or even 50 channels start adding up you will hear stuff filling up frequencies of your mix. This is especially important when you are mixing session with lots of live instruments and room noise. Although this is a technique from the analog world you can still apply it in the digital domain by deleting what you don’t need and putting a small fade on the starts and ends of your region. More on this in another post.
Mixing Secret #5 – The switcharoo If an engineer working on a mix doesn’t like a sound… They get rid of it. If a sound is causing a conflict with another element in the mix that can not be fixed and engineer will typically do one of two things. First they might re record the part or replace the sound. If for example a snare was recorded poorly a new one will be put into its place or blended with it. If a part or a sound couldn’t be replaced or layered to sound better it might be removed from that part of the arrangement. The producer, a&r, and artist can fight it out later. Ultimately the best decisions need to be made for sonic clarity not emotional ties to the song. Next week will continue with why your mix sucks Part III. Take a moment to sign up to our email list for more tips and free drum sounds to use in your productions and beat making. Read last weeks post for more information about the mixing process.
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Good stuff as usual man. I’m definitely not an engineer, but I know having a good understanding of mixing will allow me to make better tracks, so these little tips help. So many times it’s more of a “hidden magic” than someone just giving simple tips to help ya out.
Thanks bro!
So true. I have a buddy who assists at capitol and tells that the great engineers (particularly when they do the tracking and mixing), hardly turn a knob or initiate a plugin. These guys get the sound they want from the artist, the instrument, the mic’s placement, etc, before it ever hits tape (or hard drive). Then, when he recalls their mixes, only a few channels have EQ inserted. Oh, to have that kind of skill. And that kind of space to record in. Cheers, and thanks for the great articles.
Thanks for the comment. For some reason people would rather spend 20 minutes trying to eq something then 5 minutes trying to get the right sound or telling an artist to step back 3 inches. I’ve heard 48 Tracks come of a board unmixed that sound better then 50% stuff on the radio, especially hip hop. Every one is in such a rush to finish a song they dont eventry to capture the magic sound anymore.
Thanks again for the feedback
Great stuff dude..Keep em coming..
i enjoyed ur tutorial,i am isaac iwala from nigeria,pls keep up the good wrk and pls post more of such tutorial to my email.
Well done, excellent tips dude.. keep it up!
Got some tips too: http://www.psmedia.com.au/postscript/
This tips are just the visible top of the iceberg…
The template tip… I NEVER use a template or preset, but rather use the same gear because I KNOW how it sounds and what it cand do. Knowing your gear and using templates or presets are completely different things.
The human ear frequency response is not linear, monitoring levels affect the “EQ” of our ears mixing too quiet might make you turn up the bass too much, if its too loud you might enhance high Fqs too much, affect the short term Fq response of your hearing (so you are F**ckd for the rest of the session) and most likely damage your hearing permanently. Using different controlled levels for monitoring is essential to address the problems in all the Fq range.
Eliminating noises is something you do before you mix… is not part of the mixing process, trying to figure out what’s buzzing or huming during a complex mixing session (over 40 tracks) is like trying to find a needle in the hay. In practice these problems should be addressed BEFORE the are recorded, not afterwards and obviously not in the mix! (wonder why some editing softwares have a strip silence feature?)
The only wise answer to what makes a good mix is: IT DEPENDS (obviously this relys on experience, knowledge, constant experimentation and education, there are no magic tricks or gear that will make you sound “pro”, the most expensive mic will sound like S**t compared to a beat up mic you found in a street corner depending on many things.)
Sorry for the rant, keep on the music making!
Miguel thanks for the comment. I agree with you for the most part. Maybe i should clarify a bit when I was suggesting a template I was referring more to the working with the same gear , plugins ect in the setup. I wouldn’t suggest any one use the same presets mix after mix unless for example that was part of the artists sound. I know from experience that many big artists will use the exact same mic, compressor and eq settings with out really touching them for an entire album. Busta Rhymes vocal chain for a long time was U87 NEVE PreAmp EQ, and either a TLA100 or an LA2 can’t remember off the top of my head. Each one was also heavily marked in wax pencil.
As far as noise being removed before the mix. That would be great but with budgets being smaller their are less dedicated “Editing” session and this often gets turned over for the person doing the mix to deal with. For me editing has always been a part of the mixing process. Its not adjusting volume or setting eq. Its all who you look at it though.
Thanks again for the comments.
Gnxmusic, thank you for taking time to give these helpful tips! They have been absolutely helpful in my process of learning the art of mixing. My label name is One Nation and my group name is Epic. We have a very big sound and I believe we can compete with the best of the best seriously. So my biggest concern right now is creating a superb mix. I dont believe in half ass shit at all! Im reading so much material on this subject but theres something sobering about the way you explain your experience. Please send me some more tricks of the trade personally…if not I will absolutely continue to support this site.
Thanks again!
Tanx a bunch for the tips
This article helps me confide in my instincts. I have been putting my beats on cd and listening to them in different systems (car, home stereo, my homeboys stereo..lol..etc.) to make adjustments. I started to feel like maybe I needed to find a new route. Now I know I’m on the right path.
Thanks for the help I know I need it trying to do everything on my own…
what would you recommend for live mixes, seeing as we have about an hour to hour an a half to rehears.
Mixing Secret Number 1 is very important. I think I don’t spend enough time just listening to the song. I usually start mixing straight away and I have noticed on numerous occasions I lose perspective. I think by listening to the song, its easier to get a perspective in how you are going to pan instruments and which ones are the most important to highlight in the mix.
@ Vic. Thanks for reading the article. It is so easy to forget to just listen to whats going on and start there. People start mixing turing knobs putting plugins in some time for no reason. When your mixing a song every thing you do should be calculated and should have a clear reason.
@ Matt. I dont get to do that much live mixing so its tough to make a recommendation. One thing i would try to do is to put the mixing board as close to the audience’s perspective as possible. When your trying to mix something where the band is your not hearing the same thing as the audience. If you do have to mix from a different place then the audience, try to take a walk out into the crowd frequently to take a listen. I have done this in a few small venue gigs and had great results.
@ S Flame – Keep at it. Mixing and developing your ear you have to really practice at.
I’m a beginner mixing engineer in the industry trying to find my own process and template as I learn more and more techniques at my school, Full Sail University. I am new to this process but I am finding myself intrigued with this stage of the industry. I was wondering when you took the internship did you have a strong background on your own template on how you worked on certain tracks? My biggest fear is not to be able to have the opportunity to work with other more experienced engineers? I am a visual learner, so my main question is how can I appeal and put myself in a strong position to hopefully acquire an internship like you did?
“Mixing Secret #1 – Stop turning knobs and listening.”
Stop listening? You must mean “Stop turning knobs and START listening”.
Listening to your tentative mix in a couple of different car stereos is one of the best things you can do. After all, where do most people hear music? I learned a lot of different things in producing, arranging, and directing the mix on my own tunes, but I’ll only pass on one particular trick, because I think it may be a bit unique, as compared to the many out there that may be repetitive, etc. It’s this: when double- or multi-tracking vocals, one particular problem can be the overlay of many different “attacks,” sibilants (sp?), and other dynamics of mixing together multiple different vocal tracks. My secret is this: have background vocalists leave off the troublesome elements of their vocal tracks. For example, if a line the vocalists are trying to sing together involves attacks (such as esses/S’s/words that begin with S, and potentially different attacks and sounds), have the background vocalists leave off the attack! Leave off the beginning of the word. For example, if the first word in the vocal line is “start a fire,” have the background vocalists sing “art a fire!” That way, the key parts of the word’s attack are caught by the lead vocalist, but there’s no competition from mistimed backup vocals. I know you know how to extend this advice, to apply to words in the middle of a vocal line, at the end, etc. Believe me, it works gangbusters! Good luck!
Thanks Joe for the tip.