All artists and producers have one thing in common: we all want to have a great sound. We want our final mix to stand out, to be bigger and better than the artists around us. But that's much easier said than done because sadly, there isn't a single formula or creative process that leads to the pot of gold at the end of our rainbow. Don't hang your head just yet! Fortunately for us, there's many steps we can take to control the direction our mix is taking and ensure we're doing everything possible to achieve the best overall outcome. These 6 tips to a great mix are sure to clean up your track and make your sound bigger than life.
1. Magic High-Pass Filter: Make Your Low-End Sparkle
The low-end of your mix can be one of the most challenging elements to conquer. If left unchecked, you'll find yourself with a sloppy low end complete with masking and an overall unimpressive sound. What can we do to clean up our mix and let our low-end really shine through? We isolate it. We remove all other frequencies that are bleeding into our low end. Open your favorite EQ plug-in and find all the tracks in your mix that don't belong to your low end and apply a high-pass filter to remove all frequencies below 80-100hz. This will help to remove anything clashing with your low-end tracks. Apply this EQ setting to your lead sounds and anything that doesn't apply to the rhythm section of your song and watch your low-end come to life!
2. Mix Organization: Maximize Your Efficiency
Organizing your project file is a simple way to fast track your workflow. When songwriting, we tend to carelessly add new tracks until we end up with a jumbled mess when we return to mix. At this point we're left to hunt down each track we want to manipulate. There are some steps we can take to avoid losing tracks and help navigate our mixes with ease. Be sure to name each track, it's much easier to find a guitar solo named "Intro Guitar Solo". Color code your mix, so that each element of your song is a different color. Make your drum tracks black, your guitar tracks blue and your synthesizer tracks yellow...etc. Many DAWs come with notes sections where you can jot down where you let off in your mixing process. This becomes helpful when returning to a mix after a prolonged period of time. It only takes a small amount of time to organize your mix in comparison to the time you'll spend in the long run trying to mix a messy project file. If anything, your mixing engineer will thank you!
3. Automation: Grasp Ultimate Control of Your Project
We are the CEO of our song. We strive to control everything within our project for the best possible results. How can we take the next step to achieving ultimate control over our project? The answer: Automation. If you aren't already familiar, automaton allows the console to remember the audio engineer's adjustment of faders during the post-production editing process. We use automation for gain control, on filters and envelopes, to control attack or decay on effects, you can automate virtually anything. Start using automation to clean up your mix and help control any masking you might find in your project!
4. Monitoring: Your True Sound
Knowing how your mix truly sounds can make or break your final outcome. You might be wondering why your mixes sound great in your mixing environment, but sound sub-par on outside systems. In short, you need good monitors. A good pair of monitors will give you a flat EQ template to work with, as well as a powerful stereo image. But that isn't enough. Once you've chosen a decent set of monitor speakers, you need to familiarize with them. Listen to your favorite sounding songs on them and notice what frequencies stand out. Remember to consider the room you're mixing in, sometimes treatment is needed (even with good monitors) to absorb resonating frequencies. Always mount your monitors on stand-alone stands, this will help with the above resonating.
5. Subtractive EQ: Keep Phantom Frequency At Bay
Subtractive EQ is the practice of using equalization without adding frequency. The problem with boosting is that you're trying to create a sound that isn't present in the original sound. You can achieve the same desired effect by removing frequencies. For example, when the goal is to boost the low-end of a track, try removing some of the higher frequencies instead of boosting the lower frequencies. You'll avoid adding phantom frequencies that may mask other tracks within your project. Remember: less is more!
6. Stereo Image: Paint Your Picture With Sound
Having a stagnant mix can really dull out our final production. Creating a dynamic stereo field helps to keep our listener engaged and feel like they're surrounded with music (literally!) Try panning some of the elements in your mix to the right or left in the stereo field, this can not only help to push sounds through the mix, but also open up space in the center of your mix for vital sources like vocals. Strive to create a 3D picture with sound, with your listener in the middle. Be creative and find the best stereo image for your project!
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