The EM Poll

Crossing the Finish Line

Feb 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Michael Cooper

           

Stuck in a rut during mixdown? Here are ten tips for reevaluating your work so that you can stay on track.

FIG. 1: Place markers with descriptive titles or comments at key points in the song to document your mixdown ideas while tracking.

Of all the processes involved in music production, mixing is arguably the most complex. Changing only one aspect of a mix can throw the entire balance out of whack. For example, raising the level of the lead vocal throughout a song might cause the instrument tracks to sound relatively weak. Similarly, making the electric guitars louder can create excitement but can also blanket the drums to the point where the groove goes out the window. And EQ'ing one track to make it sound huge might make all the other tracks sound tiny in comparison. You fix one thing, only to create a different problem. You fix the problem you just created, only to cause another. And so on.

Considering how all the elements of a mix interact so heavily with one another and how subjective the end goal of a great mix is to begin with, it's easy to chase one's tail when mixing. But while there's no miracle cure to prevent you from endlessly obsessing over a mix, there are several helpful techniques you can use to finish a mix faster and be confident that you nailed it. In this article, I'll discuss some of the techniques I routinely use to keep a mix on track and make it arrive at the station on time.

A Method to My Madness

It pays to develop and stick to productive methodologies — including those borrowed from someone else — when mixing. Having a routine way of doing things keeps you from wandering aimlessly from one task to another and losing focus. While every mix is different and you need flexibility for dealing with unique circumstances that may arise, following a more or less set routine while mixing will move the process along faster and make it less likely that you'll overlook important details.

For instance, I always begin a mix by setting initial levels, EQ, and effects for the drums and bass. Doing so helps me establish my headroom for the mix early on. That's because percussive and low-frequency elements inherently use up the most headroom (that is, they register the highest levels on peak-reading meters) when compared with other elements of the mix having the same perceived volume (see Web Clip 1).

I don't slave over every detail of the drums and bass at this early stage of the game. I only get their sounds in the ballpark, knowing that I'll need to tweak them further once the other tracks are brought into the mix.

After I've got the drums and bass sounding pretty good, I bring up the faders for the other instruments and vocals in turn to set the Scene (or Snapshot settings) for the start of the song. Then I deliberately move through the song in sections from start to finish to automate any needed mix moves.

One engineer I know feels that working on bass and drums in isolation is a waste of time because everything will change once they are placed in context with the other tracks. He throws all the faders up at once and immediately gets to work on the whole enchilada. I've tried that approach, but it's never worked for me — I've ended up with mixes that weren't punchy enough for my taste. To my surprise, however, my all-faders-up friend produces mixes that sound plenty punchy.

My point is that there are many different ways to mix a record, and no one way is the right way. What's important is that you figure out which game plan works best for you and stick to it. Your mixdown sessions will proceed quicker, your decisions will be more deliberate, and you'll get better results.

FIG. 2: The Avant Electronics Avantone MixCubes provide a great reference for confirming that midrange-band elements of the mix are in proper relation to one another.

Always Something There to Remind Me

On projects for which I also serve as tracking engineer, mixdown begins for me very early on. While I'm tracking, I set markers at key points in the song as mixdown ideas come to me. I give the markers descriptive titles or — in MOTU Digital Performer — attach comments to them that will remind me during actual mixdown what I wanted to try at those points in the song (see Fig. 1). Whether it takes a week or a year to get around to mixing that particular song, descriptive marker titles or comments like “Boost gtr hook next 2 bars,” “Mute clashing kybd, beat 4,” and “Double the ld voc here?” will get me back on track in a flash and resurrect my inspired ideas.

Whenever possible while tracking, I'll also start fashioning the best rough mix I can. This places me that much further along in the process of learning what the song needs when it comes to actual mixdown. And it can also inspire creative overdubs whose spark might never have ignited when listening and playing to a ho-hum rough mix.

Check Your Ego at the Door

The mix engineer who is also the artist on the record often creates their own roadblock to a great mix. The most common mistake they make is that they mix for themselves instead of for the song. For example, the engineer who is also the guitarist might tend to make the guitar too loud throughout the song. And if the artist is an insecure singer, they might bury their vocal instead of placing it more prominently in the mix, where it will be most effective. As you mix, continually ask yourself if your parts are being mixed the way that best presents the song.

Of course, dealing with multiple egos can hamstring a mixdown session with endless debate. The longest mixdown sessions are usually those attended by the entire band or by all the performers on the record. On such occasions, it seems that everyone wants their part to be louder, leading to a circular levels war:

Guitarist: “I can't hear the guitar. Turn it up.”

Bass player: “Now the bass sounds weak. Make it louder.”

Drummer: “That made the drums sound wimpy compared to the bass. Bring them up.”

Guitarist: “The guitar is too low again. Turn it up!”

To avoid getting bogged down in such a situation, either mix alone or with no more than two other people in the room. If you have a voice in selecting who else will attend the mixdown session, choose those who have the best ears and the smallest egos. Three people is actually a good group size, because there will always be a tiebreaker when polar-opposite opinions arise.

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