How to Mix

How to Mix (part 1)

Is mixing difficult? Yes it is. Otherwise, why would record labels pay a top mix engineer $2000 a day to mix just one track? Why would some radio stations insist on tracks being mixed by ‘name’ mix engineers?

To become on of the top few mix engineers in the world, you will have to mix day-in, day-out for years to gain the necessary experience. You will have to mix a wide variety of tracks in different styles. You will need extraordinary listening skills and perception. You will need access to an acoustically treated studio with first-class equipment.

So it’s impossible then?

No, it’s not impossible. Being able to mix to a fully professional standard is perfectly possible. And you can do it in your own home recording studio with inexpensive software and equipment.

Realistically, you may not achieve the ‘$2000 a day’ standard. But the quality of your work can potentially come so close that few listeners would notice the difference. It is absolutely possible to mix to a professional standard in your own home studio.

Preparation 1: Acoustics

This is not a text on studio acoustics, so this advice is brief and basic. It is good advice though, and it will get you a long way on the path to acoustic perfection.

Here are the important points...

a) Hard flat surfaces make strong reflections that will confuse your judgment. You must use acoustic absorption, and provide irregular surfaces to lessen the strength of the reflections and break them up into many weak reflections spreading out in different directions.

b) Soft materials only absorb high and high-mid frequencies. Carpet is a good, cheap absorber. But by itself it will only absorb high and high-mid frequencies. But if you space it away from the wall with wooden battens, and completely seal the space behind the carpet, it will absorb low frequencies too. If you cover about half of the wall space in this way, with varying thicknesses of carpet and varying spaces between the carpet and the wall, you will achieve a significant improvement.

c) Preferably the rest of the wall space should be made irregular. Bookshelves would be a very good solution as the irregularity of the books would break up the reflections.

d) Your room should be as symmetrical as possible. This includes speaker positioning and acoustic treatment.

e) The speakers and your head should form an equilateral triangle. The speakers should be just beyond the reach of your fingertips. This is known as ‘near-field monitoring’. Having the speakers this close means that you hear more direct sound than reflections from the room. Any remaining acoustic problems in the room will be counteracted by near-field monitoring.

f) It is useful to have some absorption on the ceiling midway between the speakers and your head. It is also useful to have absorption on the side walls midway too.

The above advice will get you a long way towards perfect acoustics. Clearly, it isn’t the same as paying to have an acoustic consultant come round. But it will be an excellent start and the quality of your mixes will not be held back by your acoustics.

Preparation 2: Equipment and software

Choice of monitor loudspeakers is less important than you think. That is clearly demonstrated by the wide range of preferences shown by professional mix engineers. If it were so important, then they would all gravitate towards whatever is the best loudspeaker in this application. But there is no one best. And of course, everyone’s listening systems are different so the mix engineer never really knows how his or her mix will be heard.

There are some key points...

a) The monitor loudspeakers must be capable of revealing any defects in the recording or mix.

b) The monitor loudspeakers must not flatter the mix engineer’s work. So if you compared three pairs of speakers, the one with the most ‘wow factor’ would probably be the worst for mixing. The mix engineer has to supply the ‘wow’.

c) The monitor loudspeakers must be reasonably typical of a domestic listening system, faults and all. But with ‘average’ faults and no predominant problem areas.

d) Manufacturers that sell into the pro audio market generally know what they are doing. You won’t come to any harm by buying a pair of monitors from a respected range.

e) It helps if the monitors incorporate their own power amplifiers. If not, use a power amplifier with a rating around twice the rating of the speakers. This is so it has power to spare and it is ‘coasting’ rather than struggling. Bear in mind that it could easily destroy your speakers and stay well in control of the level.

Regarding software, it is possible to achieve professional results with any of the digital audio workstation software’s sold into the pro audio market.

Regarding plug-ins, it is often promoted in recording magazines that you need expensive plug-ins or exotic hardware to achieve a good result. This is absolutely untrue. You can make a professional mix using the standard equalization and compression plug-ins that come free with your DAW software. It is useful however to have a quality reverb plug-in. This definitely does make a difference.

Preparation 3: Have a plan of how to mix

Multitrack recordings can conveniently be divided into two types...

Where the instruments were played live together, perhaps with additional overdubs. For convenience, this will be referred to as an ‘acoustic recording’.

Where the sounds are electronically generated or sampled and microphones were not used, apart from the vocals. For convenience, this will be referred to as an ‘electronic recording’.

When you are mixing an acoustic recording, your main problem will be that the track is thick and congested and you are trying to create some kind of clarity.

With an electronic recording, you will find that the mix naturally sounds sparse and thin, and you are working to give it body and fullness.

We will concentrate on acoustic recordings because generally they are more difficult.

Within a multitrack recording of a song using a conventional rock band instrumentation, background vocals and vocals, there are three classes of tracks...

· The instruments

· The background vocals

· The lead vocal

In the mixing process you should mix the instruments so that they all sound good together. You should then process the vocal so that it sounds strong and full. You should then mix the background vocals so that they blend well together.

Now you have three ‘stems’, to borrow a convenient word from film sound.

If you now balance the stems in level, you should have a good overall mix. You might need to do some blending to optimize the result.

This system works well. You could try and mix everything at the same time with no overall plan. Some people do. But it is definitely a more difficult way to work, unless you are massively experienced and can work almost by instinct.

We can now start mixing... Please read the rest in my other blog