(Yours truly mixing some electronic music live at Cafe Paradiso, Urbana, IL 2010)
I do a fair amount of music production in my
other lives, and I like teaching things to people, so I've decided to start a production tips column. Today, my goal is to give you a primer on mixing tracks. More accurately, I want to teach you how to
think about mixing, give you some some pointers that will help you understand what you're really doing when you mix, and in turn get better, sexier results.
Accurate Information
Before we do
anything, we need to talk about your speakers. A really great producer/engineer could probably mix on Skullcandies and get decent results, but the rest of us need an accurate, neutral(ish) sound source to get the mix down. Why is that? Most consumer speakers, headphones, etc. have wildly varying tonal qualities, so something that sounds good on your hi-fi might sound like shit on your friend's car stereo. It's important to have accurate monitors, and even more important to understand how they sound
relative to other speakers so you can tell what your mix
really sounds like.
Trim the Phat
The most basic mix control is the volume fader, but an even more powerful tool for balancing tracks is EQ. Our perception of loudness isn't just based on raw volume level; it's also frequency-dependent. A useful analogy for thinking about EQ is to think of your track as a picture made by layering different film exposures together. If your exposures all contain a lot of imagery in the same areas of the picture, it can get too bright, or hard to see what's going on. This is exactly like frequencies in individual tracks; audio tracks have a finite volume limit, so when too many tracks in a mix have the same frequency content, the master level has to be lowered to avoid clipping and the mix sounds quiet. This is where EQ comes in; by trimming unimportant frequency information from background tracks, you create more breathing room for lead tracks and get a louder mix.
One of the most important areas to cut is low frequencies. Tracks with a lot of low end sound full and rich, but because bass frequencies last longer (they have longer wavelengths due to their low frequencies), excessive bass can make your mix level too high, even if it isn't actually
loud. Cutting bass (100-200 Hz and below) from all but your most important tracks will buy you a lot of headroom. If you're worried about this ruining your precious tone, fear not: psychoacoustics has your back. When harmonics of a frequency are present, our brains perceive the fundamental frequency; we imagine bass that isn't really there. Plus, if your tracks are all in tune, the low end from tracks that
do have bass will help fill in the blanks.
Is it Always Balanced?
When mixing, you're not just after loudness, you want
punchiness (unless you're mixing classical, in which case you want to put people to sleep): lead tracks should pop out when they come in, and cut through the other elements of the mix. Sometimes tracks pop out a bit
too much, or sound too quiet, and
this is when you want to use compression. A lot of people mistakenly think that compression is the key to more loudness, but what compression really does is
reduce dynamic range. It's like an automatic volume control that can turn volume down and then back up at superhuman speeds. When misused, it can make things worse than they already were. You need quietness to appreciate loudness; get both in there. Letting your background tracks sit at a quieter level leaves room for your lead tracks to be adequately dynamic, and you'll still hear the background when the lead tracks cut out. This can make your mix quiet and may force you to mix with your master volume up (avoid turning it up
too much), but when done properly it ensures that the right sounds are in focus when you eventually crush your mix to hell in mastering anyways.
Thinking a Step Ahead
If your mixes are going to be
mastered eventually, there are certain things you can do to help the mastering engineer out (besides not making a shitty mix). Perhaps the most important of these is to leave some dynamics in your mix; compressing a mix is easy, but expanding it is almost impossible to do. Many engineers suggest using buss compression on your master out with a ratio between 1.5:1 - 2:1, which can help tie your mix together
if you don't overdo it. Sending both compressed and uncompressed mixes to the mastering engineer is a good compromise and just might save your ass.
Had Enough Yet?
Mixing takes a lot of thought, and can get kind of fatiguing. When that happens, take an hour or so to clear your mind and come back with a fresh pair of ears. The most important thing is to
listen, as trite and obvious as it sounds. Can you hear everything you're supposed to? Does something sound harsh/dull/muddy/abrasive? Use yr ears. This post contains a lot of information, and may not make sense to the complete novice, but never fear; I plan to write my next column on using compression to help explain dynamics a bit more. Until then, may your mixes be fresh.
