Week 7 - Posted on 2017-02-23 by Gino Benedetti

When I came into the studio this week, we talked about the beginning stages of mixing. First off Joey showed me how to put everything into groups. It was very helpful especially setting levels for example because I could move all guitars up or down, or drums, or whatever you need to adjust all together. Also, by deselecting a group we were able to adjust one level so if one guitar was a little low we could easily adjust by deselecting the group. Eventually I got a pretty good balance of all the instruments by soloing the guitar group or drum group or really listening to one or two tracks closely and see how they balance together. Eventually the mix started to sound more balanced with all instruments being heard clearly. Next we talked about panning which gives depth to the song. I started off panning one guitar hard left and one hard right. Then I tried different combinations with the other guitars until the guitar group sounded solid and full. Same with the bass and drums. 

Next time in the studio we talked about eq. Joey told me that there are endless possibilities with eq and that it is a critical part of what he does. He also told me the less eq the better. In other words if you can get a guitar to sound amazing naturally then that is alot better than an ok guitar with tons of eq. He compared eq to painting a picture. You can have a blue sky but there are a million different combinations of blue and you just have to find the right one for what you want to accomplish. Also we need to make sure nothing is masked like if we have a red wall and we paint the same color red over it then you are not going to see it. Then Joey walked me over to show me his live stage and the graphic eq he had at the mixing station. I believe it was a 32 band eq.