Mixing - Posted on 2015-03-25 by Alexander Schug

I find mixing to be a true test of how well your ears and brain can blend frequencies together so that each sound in the mix has enough room for it to be brightly expressed using certain tools and perimeter settings at the right times. Its interesting how you can actually train your ears to make resampled audio sound better than it was to begin with and also knowing when a sound is sonically incorrect and being able to fix it. Understanding how to distort frequencies properly with Different kinds of EQ, Different kinds of Compression, Expanding, and so on is extremely vital as an enginner. Adding depth to your track or to have a sound feel like it sits in front of the mix by getting the right amplitudes and using the right modulation effects is a huge factor. Also making sure your dynamic signal processing is used in your inserts and your effects modulation is used on your sends. One big thing about mixing is knowing what sounds in your mix should be mono and which sounds should be stereo. Usually vocals are mono so they sit strongly in the center of your track along with the kick drum which should be mono. Panning is very important and i feel that its all up to the enginner to feel out where the sounds are panned and how far right or left they should be. Panning can widen up your mix and with my personal opinion i enjoy intricate panning and panning effects. I have mixed a song that i produced on a protools console with a 192(ADC) and Krk monitor setup with the sub and i also have mixed a song in my Krk headphones strictly on my own computer. After experiencing the two different ways of mixing i find that switching back and forth from monitors to headphones while mixing is the best to do rather than mixing strictly on one or the other. Also i feel that a 192(ADC) is so helpful in acheiving the sound you want in your mix. I can hear a signficant difference as in my sounds gaining a new sharpness and isolation when i mix with a 192. With out one i dont think you can get a nice HD quality. A real engineer knows the difference between a mix on a console and a mix just on your computer. After the very first time i got to use a 192 i dont mix any of my songs without it. I dont recommend leaning on its incredible enhancement but sure understand you will hear a huge boost in quality. Also being able to physically manipulate your faders and nobs on a console really helps you feel out the music in an energy type sense and being comfortable with the acoustics of a room and how sound travels within it really helps to capture a nice blend. There are so many aspects to mixing and the unreal part is that its all based on your judgment. The song will end up sounding the way you imagined it when its released. The hardest part is determining when you have the final mix and are ready to master.