Are you spending more time mixing than you would like?
Are you more focused on getting every piece of the puzzle perfect instead of getting music out to your fans?
Mixing can be a paralyzing process but it doesn’t have to be, Lets talk about it!
Mixing quickly can transform your mixes, help you get your music online faster than ever, AND give you a better perspective as to how your audience will listen to your music.
Quick Mixing is an approach that focuses on communicating the message of the song FIRST, by paying more attention to whats important to the song’s story. In This Article, I’m going to share 6 tips to help you mix faster and with better results. I will explain the benefits of setting limits to your workflow to maximize your productivity and output, and help prevent chasing your tail with more subtle mix decisions.
1. Set Time Limits
When working in a DAW it’s really easy to get side tracked. We can get distracted focusing on one small detail that makes little difference to the emotion impact of the song. (Most of these little tweaks should have been done in editing!) It’s also easy to wear out our ears by denying them regular break periods.
It’s great practice to set a timer during the Mixing session to give yourself a time frame to work with.
For a quick mix, set a timer for 20 minutes and challenge yourself to create the best mix you can. Start by focusing on Volume Balance. Then, take a 5 minute break and let your ears rest. Come back to your song refreshed and ready to dive in again.
Focus on reacting to things that stick out of the mix, lower faders until you have a balanced representation of the song.
Turn down whats loud rather then turning up what you can’t hear. This will provide more headroom to your tracks and won’t overload your mix bus.
Using Time Management Techniques trains your mind to maintain focus, enable flow, and allow your ears a chance to rest in order to remain more objective to the needs of the song.
2. React from the Gut
Listen to the song and position the faders in a good balance, if something really draws your attention, turn it down. Make sure every piece is contributing and has its place between the speakers.
If you don’t like, or aren’t using something, get rid of it. Its not necessary to try and fit everything between the speakers. If you can tell the story with a few less guitar layers, or only one set of Drum Overheads than great, it saves you the extra faders to balance, as well as extra processing.
Make decisions and commit to them.
3. Listen like your Audience
Your listener needs to hear what’s necessary in communicating the message of your song. It most music, this is the vocals. Nothing should compete with the lead vocal.
The song should groove without you having to strain your ears to hear a specific instrument.
The important elements (Kick, Snare, Vocals) should be audible from outside the mix position. After all, many listeners listen outside of the near stereo field of studio monitors. Headphones, earbuds, Laptop/Phone speakers, and your Car system are great to check to get an idea of how your mix will translate in the real world.
4. Stick to the Basics
There are a limitless amount of plugins for mixing and mastering. I recommend sticking to the basics used by mix engineers for decades. A handful of plugins can be enough to make a great sounding mix.
Subtractive EQ – Equalization will help you to control problem frequency areas in each instrument and better focus the frequency distribution across the stereo field.
A Subtractive approach can filter out frequencies that are not needed and otherwise clutter the mix.
Compression – Compression reduces the dynamic range of an instrument, Compression can make a track sound more consistent, have more confidence, and a greater perceived volume. Compression is also famous for adding character and attitude to tracks.
Additive EQ – Equalization can also boost frequency ranges to enhance a recorded track. A combination of Subtractive and Additive EQ will allow your tracks to fit together in a smoother more musical way by avoiding frequency overlap; a phenomenon called ‘masking’.
Reverb – Reverberation mimics the early reflections and ambience of a room using a mathematical algorithm. Short Reverb times (under 1sec) can be used to make a track lift out of a dense mix. While long Reverb (+3sec) can add a sense of depth and make instruments sound as if they are performed within the same space.
With Reverb, less is often more as it can quickly muddy up a good mix, so use it sparingly.
Delay – Delay adds echoed repeats of a signal at a fixed time interval. It is often used in pop music on a vocal to repeat certain words or phrases. This can be a great alternative to reverb for adding depth.
Saturation – Saturation is one of my favorite effects and can work wonders on just about everything. Saturation adds additional harmonic content to make a more complex waveform, It can range from subtle grit to creamy distortion.
Some saturation plugins mimic the soft peak compression of tape recorders. This helps reduce the ‘pointy’ sound of the transient while still keeping the loud, fat nature that saturation adds.
These are the essential tools to mixing and are used by every engineer in the business in some combination. Having a firm understanding of these basic mix tools is building a solid foundation for you to make informed mixing decisions.
Automation – The special sauce of pro mixes. Automation allows you to draw in the dynamics of each instrument. It an make a huge difference in the emotion of a song. Imagine you are the conductor and you get to control each instrument within the orchestra.
The accumulative effect of automation across a mix creates a more natural ebb and flow the the music; much like the musicality of a live ensemble.
5. Don’t Obsess over Small Details (your listener won’t!)
You hear things differently from the average listener, that’s why you’re a music producer 😉
It’s really easy to feel self conscience about the quality of your mixes. We often obsess over making your mix perfect, but your listener won’t give it that much thought. In fact they won’t consider any of the things you often think about when you listen to your projects. It all just music to them.
They don’t know your music like you do
They don’t care about your music like you do
Your job is to make the experience of your song as enjoyable as possible for the listener.
6. 80/20 Rule
What is the 20% of your effort that will yield 80% of a ‘perfect’ result?
What is the 20% of your track that is responsible for 80% of your problems?
Focus your time here!
Perfection is often the enemy of Production. Get your songs finished and release them to the world!
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