Mixing is part art and part science (part two, time based effects) - Posted on 2012-03-10 by Chris Bell

Assuming you have your mix balanced eq an faderwise and are happy with it, it's time to think three dimensionally. Meaning the panning is your obvious left and right, dynamics are your height, and finally anything time based (reverb, delay...etc) will be your depth and percieved space. Time-based effects can not only add the impression that an instrument was recorded in a room larger that it actually was, but it adds that sense of realism you just dont get with a dry track. I'm not saying wash everything out in delay and reverb, but rather understand the benefits of time based effects and implement them to suit your mixes. For instance say you have two kicks that otherwise sounds great (1 inside and 1 outside the drum) one cool thing you can do is put the reverb on the second kick (outside mic) and blend it with the dry inside mic that will have more attack. That way you get a nice upfront kick with lots of attack and presence, but with the addition of that reverb kick that you can bring up behind it to just make it huge. Also if you want to you can utilize this trick on pretty much anything that was recorded to two seperate channels. Another option for a kick fattener, is to create an aux track in pro tools, add a signal generator and set it to sine wave at say 60HZ. Then add a gate under the signal generator, set it how you gated your kick. Make sure your aux is pre fader. Heres where the magic happens. Go to the kick track send to an open bus, select the same bus on the key input on the aux track. Finally click the little key icon on the gate plugin to let the gate know that the kick being bussed into it will dictate when the gate opens or closes. If set right the low frequency sine wave signal should breath with the kick and the gate should open and close on only the kick hits. All thats left is to balance the two in the mix.