The art of mixing: 15 tips for the recording musician

For all you recording musicians out there, I would like to share some tips on things I learned in the past few years, when it comes to mixing.

These tips apply especially to musicians who mix their own music, and I try my best to follow these tips myself. I have learned them from listening to explanations by audio engineers, and also the hard way, from not doing it correctly for many years in a row. Now, I have reached a level where audio engineers sometimes compliment my mixes. Believe me, I am sure this would never have happened a few years ago.

This definitely doesn’t mean I have become an expert! My utmost respect goes out to the true professionals in the business. It is often underestimated how much technical knowledge as well as artistic awareness and talent is needed to become truly world class, at this sometimes mysterious art.

How to grow

I used to truly dislike mixing, and I remember wishing I could focus only on the music. How I wished I could have someone else do the recording and mixing for me! However, this is no longer the case. I have actually learned how to enjoy the process. It takes patience, dedication, and an insistence on quality and balance! If you are new to this, take it from me: you will grow. Perhaps much faster than I have.

I really recommend watching experts like Andrew Scheps, Chris Lord-Alge, Dave Pensado and Tony Maserati explain how they handle their mixes and lift them to perfection. However, I have one important piece of advice: don’t go out of your way to copy exactly what they do! From my own experience, I have learned that watching them and listening to them opens your mind to their mixing philosophies. That’s the main prize you should be going for.

Also, they give you a clear idea of what is possible with all those magical plugins. However, your own growth happens when you really learn how to listen. I actually believe that it is better to keep your focus on making sure that your ears make the final decisions. If you stick to this, your learning curve will become less steep, and you will grow faster. You will be ‘educating your ears’, crazy as that may sound to you.

My fifteen tips for you!

From all the things that I have (slowly) learned over the years, I have tried to distill 15 tips that I find to be of crucial importance. I hope they can make your journey to becoming a good mixer a lot easier. As soon as you are done reading the tips, I will invite you to check out my latest production in the video below the tips. I believe that “Closer To Me” is a release where I really put into practice what I preach in the tips that I have published here. Feel free to comment if you disagree!

Okay … time to share my attained knowledge with you!

The list

Here are a few things to focus on:

1. Don’t mix with your eyes (meters, frequencies, scopes) but with your ears.
2. It only matters how it sounds in the mix. After making your first (EQ & compression) corrections on an individual track, stop focusing on how it sounds on its own, but only on how it sounds in the mix. As soon as it sounds good, leave it alone and move on. You will get another chance to make it sound extra great later on, no worries!
3. Boost as few frequencies in EQ as you can; focus on cutting out unwanted frequencies, especially the ones that get in the way of other instruments. You will notice that the need for boosts goes down dramatically. Then, you will attain the freedom and headroom to tweak your mix with subtle little boosts here and there. You will be surprised how little of that is needed.
4. Mixing recorded audio (which is what I do mostly, since I use mostly real instruments) requires a whole lot more attention than mixing electronic instruments, VST’s or loops. Loops and VST’s are often pre-processed in their most usable format. Don’t get me wrong: I am not dissing electronic instruments or music. There are a lot of tracks that I do that are pretty much electronic as well (check out Love Brain). What I mean is that when you record an acoustic guitar with the objective of it being a guitar in the mix, the listener has a certain expectation as to how an acoustic guitar should sound. If it doesn’t sound like that, the result will be uncomfortable to the listener’s ears. With electronic instruments, you have much more freedom.
5. Whatever track you add has a function. You put it there for it to be heard. One of the most important basics of a good mix is working on making sure that everything that’s in there is truly audible (EQ, volume and pan).
6. Compression doesn’t have to be used on everything. Unless you are aiming for a specific effect on a track, use compression sparingly and only for the final correction of tracks in the mix. If you feel you need to compress, consider using parallel compression.
7. It’s not your tricks, it’s the mix! Barely any listener will care about the technicalities of what you did in your mix. You care how you got that kick drum to penetrate the mix so tightly, but they don’t. It’s not about that: it’s about how that kick makes them feel, and whether it invites them to move. Focus on conveying the feeling rather than the actual sound of a track, especially when it comes to groove.
8. Focus on ENERGY. Believe it or not, it’s often more about energy than about sound. A perfectly balanced mix doesn’t mean that it doesn’t sound bland and boring. Whatever you produce must communicate the energy that you are aiming for with your song.
9. Don’t over-focus on one thing. We hear audio engineers fret and rave about ’the sound of a snare’ or another instrument. You can do that too, but don’t go overboard with it. You may end up exhausting your ears and mind. And remember, trust me, they mean its sound IN THE MIX!
10. The only thing that matters is what comes out of those two speakers! (an Andrew Scheps quote!)
11. The mix is not the place to fix. No mixing technique can fix a boring or bad song. No mix can fix a badly recorded track in a song. Get your arrangements right, and use good quality source material, before you move to the mixing stage.
12. Listen like the audience. Less than 5% of your potential listeners qualify as ‘audiophiles’. A somewhat higher percentage has an above average level of musicality. Do realize that your audience doesn’t listen the way you do, and try to listen their way. If that’s difficult, get a second opinion from someone without a musical background when you think your mix is done. In fact, be sure to always obtain one.
13. No one cares why it didn’t work. Excuses as to why an instrument is sounding bad in your mix, are useless to the majority of your listeners. Your technophile peers may appreciate that kind of information. However, your usual listeners have no idea how many tweaks, countless hours, and incredible efforts it took to produce what you made. They don’t want to know why your guitar sounds thin. All they know is that they don’t like it. Again, focus on the song as a single stereo entity, and imagine it fitting in a radio broadcast while you are working on the mix.
14. Mix like a cook! Mixing has a lot in common with cooking – it’s about ingredients harmonizing properly together. When it comes to audio, it’s about complementing each other’s spaces in the soundscape of frequencies.
15. The Butterfly Effect. ANY change you make on a track (EQ, volume, pan, effects) has an effect on (an)other track(s), never underestimate that!

My own mix

I hope you enjoyed reading this. I would be even happier if you actually find it beneficial! Well, now you get to judge my mixing abilities. You can see if I actually practice what I just preached. Check out: Closer To Me!