It’s All In The Mix…..right?

So, I have recently gone from composing on a workstation keyboard (Yamaha Motif) to using Logic 9. I never had the responsibility of a final mix, now I do and it scares the sh*t outta me.

My question is; How much time do you all spend perfecting the mix? More than the time spent composing?

I ask because after submitting my first 3 tracks, (in review) I have gone back and listened and realize that the mix needs real work. I need to learn what a great mix sounds like and how to create it. I guess i’m looking for dialogue about how you mix and what you look for in doing so.

Hey, it all depends on your music style, but a nice rule to start with is this:

Mixing is about substract, you should turn down the volume and sometimes even remove tracks from the mix and not to add things, at least at first. It’s quite common to think that you should add as much effects, processors, instruments, etc to every track in the mix, and in fact, what you should try is to turn down every track that is not essential to the melody to “give space” to the core instruments of your song, and then slightly add the rest until they fit around your melody. Then you can add, compressors, fx, etc to give character, warmth, etc but you need to concentrate first on hear the important things.

Also, it’s something you will learn with practice and patience. It will take time, but you will find soon or later what is “your sound”.

Good luck !

Mixing has definitely been one of my weaker skill-sets when it comes to music production, so over the years I’ve read tons of books, guides and magazine articles and watched loads of videos on the subject of mixing.

Personally I try to spend more time now, in the beginning stages of my production, just making sure that the sounds that I’m using are very good quality and sound good on their own. I find this makes mixing down the song afterwards a lot easier, as I don’t have to worry about making each audio track/channel sound better or listenable, but rather on the overall balance of the sounds.

In the end, despite all of the advice and tips that you can gain from those sources, it does just come down to, as Sonicbyte pointed out, giving your song’s core elements space and prominence in the track, so that your listeners know what you want them to hear.

Having said that, if you would like help with mixing in a specific genre, or learning different mixdown techniques, then feel free to ask here in the forums, or track down some of the thousands of articles and videos available on the subject.

A word of warning when it comes to finding advice on this subject (and on anything regarding music composition/production/engineering), though: Be wary of anyone saying that there is one ‘best’/’only’ way of doing things. There’s no one plugin or technique that will make all your songs perfect, of course, and it purely comes down to what works for you and your music.

JType said
A word of warning when it comes to finding advice on this subject (and on anything regarding music composition/production/engineering), though: Be wary of anyone saying that there is one ‘best’/’only’ way of doing things. There’s no one plugin or technique that will make all your songs perfect, of course, and it purely comes down to what works for you and your music.

+1

Sonicbyte said
Hey, it all depends on your music style, but a nice rule to start with is this:

Mixing is about substract, you should turn down the volume and sometimes even remove tracks from the mix and not to add things, at least at first. It’s quite common to think that you should add as much effects, processors, instruments, etc to every track in the mix, and in fact, what you should try is to turn down every track that is not essential to the melody to “give space” to the core instruments of your song, and then slightly add the rest until they fit around your melody. Then you can add, compressors, fx, etc to give character, warmth, etc but you need to concentrate first on hear the important things.

Also, it’s something you will learn with practice and patience. It will take time, but you will find soon or later what is “your sound”.

Good luck !

Very helpful, thank you. I tried your technique of turning everything down and starting with the core instruments. In my case that’s drums, piano, bass-line. From there I began adding. The panning of percussion is a challenge but I’ll get the hang of it. I also learned very quickly that what it sounds like in headphones is not even close to what the monitors sound like.

So many decisions!

This was discussed a few months back:

JType said
Mixing has definitely been one of my weaker skill-sets when it comes to music production, so over the years I’ve read tons of books, guides and magazine articles and watched loads of videos on the subject of mixing.

Personally I try to spend more time now, in the beginning stages of my production, just making sure that the sounds that I’m using are very good quality and sound good on their own. I find this makes mixing down the song afterwards a lot easier, as I don’t have to worry about making each audio track/channel sound better or listenable, but rather on the overall balance of the sounds.

In the end, despite all of the advice and tips that you can gain from those sources, it does just come down to, as Sonicbyte pointed out, giving your song’s core elements space and prominence in the track, so that your listeners know what you want them to hear.

Having said that, if you would like help with mixing in a specific genre, or learning different mixdown techniques, then feel free to ask here in the forums, or track down some of the thousands of articles and videos available on the subject.

A word of warning when it comes to finding advice on this subject (and on anything regarding music composition/production/engineering), though: Be wary of anyone saying that there is one ‘best’/’only’ way of doing things. There’s no one plugin or technique that will make all your songs perfect, of course, and it purely comes down to what works for you and your music.

I am so +1 on your post! Especially on the “best or only way” of doing things. I think I’ll learn and get better as time goes by.

However, I also think it’s important to have an understanding of what the “paying customer” expects to hear or not hear in the music they purchase. For example I am a big fan of strong lows/bass yet I’ve noticed from listening here at AJ that most seem to tune the bass down in favor of mids and highs. True?

As I mentioned earlier, panning seems to be a challenge. With respects to percussion I seem to wanna pan things like shakers far right or left yet it seems to have an adverse effect on overall volume of the track. Trial and error I guess. Thank you for your input. I truly appreciate the conversation.

Reachground said
This was discussed a few months back: http://audiojungle.net/forums/thread/mixing-and-mastering/55557

Thanks. I’ll read that thread

JType said
Personally I try to spend more time now, in the beginning stages of my production, just making sure that the sounds that I’m using are very good quality and sound good on their own. I find this makes mixing down the song afterwards a lot easier, as I don’t have to worry about making each audio track/channel sound better or listenable, but rather on the overall balance of the sounds.

+1

I find mixing challenging as well and am still very much in learning mode, and getting the source as close to 100% right is a big help. I find with acoustic guitar especially if I don’t get a good upfront recording no amount of EQ or other processing is going to make it sound anything but worse. Pick the right mic and pre and you don’t need to do much post processing at all.

The best set of monitors and phones you can afford are a big help as well (although a good set of ears are best :P).

I agree that a lot of the best selling tracks have happy sounding his and mids, but it depends on what the music’s being used for and who is buying. I’d say go with the type of music you like and are best at, then branch out from there.

Everyone has different ways of working but for me, I like to get the sound right from the very beginning as I find this shapes the overall sound that I am looking for, then I tweak as the track develops. I then do a finishing mix and I will make changes then (be sure to rest your ears and generally it is easier to mix at lower listening levels and drink lots of TEA !) when I’m happy with this in the studio I will burn the track onto a disc and play it on at least four different systems , that will be a ghetto blaster, headphones, car, rubbish pc speakers and finally the decent lounge hifi. I do usually make a few small changes at that point and it is usually a low end cut. That way of working is usually done whilst working on my own as working with a others i think it’s more important to work on the creative process first but i always try to get the sound right first as this is much harder to get right at the end.

Hope this helps

I would check out this book as this is a really good book for reference and a good read.