The mix
Introduction
Once you've played in all your MIDI and recorded all your audio, tightened it all up and dealt with any loose ends it's time to mix.
Studio mixing is the art of combining all the different elements of your track to form a finished piece of music.
Read on for:
Doing it later
Chasing faders
Listening level
Monitor mixes
Storing mixes
'Vocal up' mixes
"Doing anything by committee is always a nightmare scenario. Leave it to one or two members of your crew who can be trusted to deliver a nice, well-rounded sound."
Paul Burns
Studio 64
Middlesbrough
Doing it Later
If you can avoid it, don't mix your track on the same day as you record it.
At the end of a long session your ears will be tired and a day's break from the tune will help you hear it from a fresh perspective.
In fact, it's amazing how different the track can sound after your ears have had a rest.
Mixing is the one area of the recording experience where it's worth running overtime.
An extra £20 to get the mix sounding criss isn't much on the back of what you've already spent, especially when you consider just how crucial it is.
If you find you lose perspective while mixing or if you can't take much of a break between the recording session and mixing it's a good idea to listen to a commercial CD in between.
This will allow your ears to adjust to the different sound and can give you a new perspective on your track.
"If you have the luxury of leaving a gap between recording and mixing it's good as it allows you to mixdown with fresh ears and that can sometimes make the difference."
Jaimeson
Producer
Chasing Faders
Mixing is an art.
It's about controlling the sounds and their volumes so that each one compliments the other.
Tensions in the track are controlled with dynamics and EQ so that all the elements work as one.
When this doesn't happen, it's easy to get into an area where you're 'chasing faders'.
This is when you can't get the balance between the sounds and you turn up one instrument, only to find out it's drowning out another.
So then you turn that one up and the next and the next, until you've worked your way across the whole desk! 'Chasing faders' can happen with new engineers or when there's too many people involved in the mix.
Let one person with experience do the job.
Listening Level
Try listening to your mix at different volumes to ensure it's really working.
Blasting it really loud can make your ears less sensitive to the smaller details of the mix and funnily enough, listening to it very quietly can be a more effective way of hearing which voices really stand out.
Hearing the mix at different volumes is the best way to achieve a balanced sound.
Monitor Mixes
If you're coming back in a couple of days to finish mixing you can take a 'monitor mix' with you to listen to in the meantime.
This is a rough or working mix of the track and can be useful to listen to and play to your brethrens while you're waiting to get back in the studio.
Playing the track in different venues and on different sets of speakers can give you new perspectives.
Just be careful not to over listen to it or it may affect your judgement when it's time to do the main mix.
"Monitor mixes can really help because you can listen to the song in lots of different environments and figure out what needs to change."
Guy Massey
Recording Engineer
Abbey Road Studios
Storing Mixes
If it's possible, try and rent a studio where the desk is digital as this will allow you to totally 'recall' your mix.
It can save you money and is really useful if you've taken a break between finishing recording and starting to mix.
Analogue desks are unable to 'recall', so if you're using one to record and you wanted to take a break before mixing you'd have to start your mix all over again.
Considering how many variables there are, this can be a real mission.
"Digital for recall and analogue for warmth. It's a trade-off but I'll go with digital."
Jaimeson
Producer
'Vocal-up Mixes'
Human ears are designed to be able to pick out voices.
When listening to the same piece of music over and over, your ear will quickly get used to the vocals and as a result you'll probably end up turning them down.
That's because in a 2 hour session you'll probably listen to the track about 30 - 40 times.
Because of this fact record labels usually ask their engineers to deliver what's called a 'vocal up' mix.
As the name suggests this is a mix where the vocals are sitting right at the front and it's this mix of the track that usually gets released.
Record companies will be especially interested in hearing your vocals so make sure you do a 'vocal up' mix of your demo.
"Another useful trick is to listen from outside the control room with the door left open. This can show up balance problems."
Paul White
Editor
Sound on Sound
More... from How to...
Mastering
http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/1xmusic/recording/masteringp01.shtml
Press CDs
http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/1xmusic/distribution/cdsp01.shtml
Press vinyl
http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/1xmusic/distribution/vinylp01.shtml
Send out white labels/demos
http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/1xmusic/promotion/whitep01.shtml
Promote your releases
http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/1xmusic/promotion/promotep01.shtml
(c) BBC 1Xtra 1XMusic 2006
