13 Tips to Improve Your Mixing

By Zed Brookes on 2/13/2011 Mixing

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Before I get started I just want to reinforce something sometimes a

reduction in parameters actually generates more creativity. Being aware of a
set of limitations, or guidelines, can actually allow you much more creative
control over your final mix. This could mean limiting the amount of effects
that you allow yourself to use, or a more obvious one is to only use a
particular set of effects that suits the genre or style. If you have the
permission to do it, perhaps editing tracks or even muting/removing
surplus instrumentation or vocal is the first step.

Approach-wise, ideally you want all aspects of a song to reinforce together

and create a stronger impact, and if you arent aware of what youre doing,
its very possible (in fact more common than you think) to get a generally
nice balance of instruments that somehow doesnt gel. You can hear
everything, but it lacks the emotional impact.

So heres some ideas to think about next time youre mixing a song. There
are certainly many more ideas and concepts to experiment with than just
this list, but I stopped myself before the post became a novel.

 1- Know What the Songs About

Clues are in the lyrics. Knowing what its about gives you the opportunity to
amplify the concept rather than inadvertently fighting it. That doesnt mean
you have to follow the lyrics with the mix in a literal sense you might do
nothing at all in that regard, but at least you wont be fighting the meaning
Latest Popular Featured of the song without even realizing it, and when it comes to trying to think of
creative mix directions, its yet another clue to help you.
ARTICLES

2- Know the Context of the Music

VIDEOS
Whats the genre or style of the artist? How does it relate to the artists
identity? Being aware of this really makes it much more likely that youll
promote that artists identity and overall concept, plus the artist will be
PRODUCTS
more likely to appreciate what you do with the mix. For example does the
artist exemplify authenticity where a raw, character sound with any
intonation problems remaining unfixed is most desirable? Or is it about slick
and smooth production?

3- Be Adventurous
A mix is not just a simple balance of the levels of the instruments in the mix,
its about featuring various aspects that you think the listener would like to
hear, or more accurately needs to hear at any given section of the song.
Pretend its a movie how do you present each section of the song? Dont
be scared to go over the top with effects, fader moves and featuring of mix
aspects you can always tone it back if need be. Dont be scared to turn the
vocal up trying to hide weak vocals makes it even worse. Even ugly actors
have to have close-ups in a movie to make it effective.

4- Think About Texture & Tone

Its partly tone, partly level, partly how dominant something is in the mix. If
you compress something its texture changes. Listen out for its tonally as a
sound, rather than just checking its variation in level. How pervasive is it
compared to everything else, despite its volume in the mix. How does it link
into the overall texture of the song? Textures are like a tonal colour palette
you probably dont want to mix a neon green element in with some nice
earth tones (remember there are no rules!), but then again you dont want
everything the same shade of beige.

5- Its About Melody

Even in the most distortion-fest mixes, our human nature will use our built-
in pattern-detecting algorithms to extract a melody out of it somewhere,
whether it be in the movement of the harmonics in the wall of guitar noise
or in the groovy bass line. Make sure theres one dominant melody at any
given instant, or if theres more than one, that they arent fighting and
clashing with each other.

6- The Pocket
Its more than something to put your wallet in. Its that magic interaction of
instruments when it all suddenly locks into a groove. Spend some time
adjusting relative timing of instruments to see if you can help the groove
gel. Youll know when it happens because its magic and youll start moving
with the music whether you want to or not. Note that Beat Detective and
other forms of quantization can fight this effect its felt rather than being
on an exact grid. With that being said, if the playing is too loose than a
timing grid can be a step up. Compression, particularly rhythmic release
times can help achieve some degree of further groove gel.

7- Keep it Simple Stupid

Less is more. These things are fundamental truths despite our over-
familiarity with them, often leaving them as meaningless statements in our
minds. Think about the mix as a photo the more people you want to
appear in the photo, the smaller theyll have to be. Dont be scared to bring
the main things to the foreground, and push other things back to the point
of blurriness or being hidden behind the main elements. A good mix is not
about individual band members egos, its about the overall blend. When you
think about it, the individual band members have the least idea about what
the mix should sound like they all hear completely different versions of a
mix depending on where they stand/sit when they perform.

8- Three Tracks
Back in the olden days, after mono and stereo, there were three tracks. One
was for Rhythm (and could include drums, bass, percussion and rhythm
guitar for example), one for Vocals and one for Sweetening which might be
things like brass, strings, lead instruments etc. This strategy is still a great
one to keep in mind for mixing. It forces you to think about your rhythm
section as one cohesive unit, and you need to make that gel together. Bass
needs to lock in the pocket with the kick drum. Sweetening nowadays is
whatever else you need outside rhythm and vocals. Think carefully about
which mix elements fit into each of these three roles, and if all three are
already populated maybe its time to do some cutting/muting. Note that
some instruments such as guitars might switch between modes depending
on what theyre playing at the time rhythm, fills or lead.

9- One Thing at a Time

Rather than thinking of one of the aforementioned three tracks as just
Vocals perhaps its better to look on it as Melody. The melody line often
chops and changes between vocal, instrumental fills and solos. If you think
of these three elements as playing a similar role at different times in the
song, it makes it easy when trying to decide on levels/sounds between the
three. It also highlights that you shouldnt have any of those melodies
crossing over each other and fighting at any point keep em separated with
their own space!

10- Getting the Bass to Sit Right

This can be tricky especially when it needs to work on both large and small
speaker systems. Try mixing the bass while listening on the smallest
speakers that you have, to get it sitting at the right level. Then adjust the
tonal balance while listening on bigger speakers to reign any extreme
frequencies back in.

11- Dont Over-Compress Everything

Listen to the TONE while compressing each instrument and keep it sounding
natural if possible. Pay close attention to the start and end (attack and
release) of the notes of each instrument you compress. Your final mix
should be sitting at an average RMS level of about -12dBFS with peaks no
higher than around-3dBFS. Leave the mastering engineer to do the final
compression and limiting. Remember to leave dynamic range in the mix
contrast! Our ears need some sort of contrast to determine whats loud and
soft. If you hammer all the levels to the max you may as well just record the
vacuum cleaner at close range and overdrive the mic/preamp. Hmmm
Might have to try that.

12- Easier than Automation

In these days of automation, its easy to spend inordinate amounts of time
tweaking automation changes on instruments or vocals between different
sections of a song (e.g. adding more reverb to the vocals in the chorus or
adjusting rhythm guitar levels in the bridge). With todays digital audio
workstations, extra tracks are usually in ready supply, so rather than fluffing
about with automation for a specific section of the song, why not just move
that part over onto another duplicate track instead, then just make
whatever changes you need to suit that section. Much quicker than
continually mucking around with automation on the same track. By the way
make sure your mix is dynamic. A mix is a performance in itself, not a static
set of levels. Dynamics are exciting and emotional!

13- Use Sub-mix Busses for Elements of

the mix.
Some common sub-groups to try are drum subgroups, guitar subgroups,
vocal subgroups etc. Rather than send all your drums straight to the L/R or
Stereo mix, first send them all to an Aux return channel instead. Then send
that Aux to the LR/Stereo mix. (Tip: disable solo on the Auxes) This makes it
simple to do overall tweaks to your mix even after youve automated levels
on individual tracks. You need to be careful about aux effects returns and
where they come back though, as their balance might change slightly if you
adjust the instrument subgroups. And hey, what about creating just three
subgroups Rhythm, Melody, Sweetening? Let me know if it works ;o).

I hope these tips are helpful and give you some things to think about
during your next mix! Feel free to respond or add your own tips in the
comments below!

[This was a guest post by Zed Brookes. Check out his site @
http://dbzeebee.blogspot.com]
You might also like:
1. Quick Tips: Revelations in Recording & Mixing
2. The Importance of Space in a Mix: Part III
3. The Mysteries of Dynamics Processing Revealed
4. Tips for Mixing Toward Loudness
5. 2 Ways to Drastically Improve Your Mixing Skills
6. 5 Dynamics Processors That Arent Compressors

ZED BR O O K ES

Zed is a Scottish-born singer/songwriter who took a wrong turn in the late 80's
and ended up on the other side of the console in New Zealand. A successful
career in radio, studio engineering and production gradually moved him into
education. He now teaches mixing and electronic music production, and is
currently doing an MA based on some theories around music mixing. He still
writes and performs in the darkwave band Darkelle.
4 Comments The Pro Audio Files Login

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Sam J 3 years ago

I LOVE LEARNING AND THE DR IS RIGHT ONCE AGAIN.
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AcademyCurve 3 years ago

Yes, Zed. 13 Rules to live by. Thanks for laying them out so clearly and thoroughly!
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Mauro Gentile 3 years ago

Thank you!
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AcademyCurve 3 years ago

Thanks, Zed, for some great thoughts and focus to always be aware and reminded of.

all the best,

kjb
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