Mixing Your Music: An Introduction
Quality mixing brings your music to a professional level.
For us musicians, making music is about passion. We can’t help but do it. We work hard to get our musical ideas out of our heads and into the ears of others. Our music is personal too. We want to convey it to others with the same passion that it was made with. This is why the right mix is so important.
Mixing music is about presenting music to listeners in its best form. I often quote a mentor of mine, Bill Stevenson who once told me, “Your mix should sound like the band on their best day of rehearsal in the best room in the world playing the best instruments.”
What is mixing? Put simply, mixing is combining all the individual elements of a composition into a cohesive whole. It’s definitely more complicated than that but that’ll get you started. Oftentimes the first step when mixing is to listen to the composition from start to finish and get an idea of the vibe or mood of the composition. When I pull up a mix session for the first time I always do a quick volume balance and just listen. Then, it’s important to address each element individually. Evaluate each sound and massage them into the best versions of themselves. Carving out problem frequencies with eq and managing dynamics with compression is a good place to start.
Then it’s time to get creative! Add effects to the individual sounds to give them character. Reverb and delay can make a sound feel further away. Distortion can add aggression and bite to the sound. Once each element of the composition has been looked after it’s time to start combining them into that cohesive whole I mentioned earlier. Volume can be used to establish the attention a specific element demands. Panning is important for placing each sound in its own space within the mix. Now that everything is combined, processing the entire mix with compression, eq, or any other effect can serve as “glue” to hold everything together. Sort of like putting a filter on a photo! It’s important to be creative when mixing as it’s an artform in and of itself. Make it your own and bring your personality into the sonic landscape of your mix.
Why is quality mixing important? The right mix presents your music in its best form. Quality mixing brings your music to a professional level. There is a lot of music out there and competing amongst the massive music market requires high quality mixing. If your songs don’t sound professionally done then they’ll be overlooked. It’s important because without it you won’t have a record you’re proud of and your record won’t be able to compete with the records that have high quality mixing.
How do I get professional sounding mixes for my music? Well of course you can hire an experienced mix engineer like myself to mix your music for you. Or you can get a DAW and start learning! There is content all over the internet that can help you understand how to use the tools of the trade and learn to hear like an engineer. This blog, for instance, will go on to cover all sorts of mixing topics in detail. Topics like building your mix template, compression, eq, plugin suggestions and reviews. Feel free to reach out to me if you'd like professional help with your mix or just want to talk shop!