The second edition of Step By Step Mixing comes out tomorrow so I thought I'd send you a quick excerpt from the section on mixing philosophy to get you excited about all the new material inside.

Look out for the announcement in your inbox tomorrow, and also remember to join me for our Q&A session on Facebook live at 10 am PST tomorrow morning. Just go to the Audio Issues Facebook page during that time and join the live session!

See you then,

Björgvin

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Critical Listening and How to Visualize Your Mix Before You Even Begin 

There are multiple ways to start mixing and start balancing the tracks together. A great way to begin is to simply listen to the song and listen to what you hear with all faders up. That way you notice immediately if anything is too loud or too quiet.

Look at all the tracks you’re working with and think about what your end goal should be. Is it a big EDM track where you have to sift through countless tracks of samples and rhythm before you can actually get going on your mix. Or is it a sparse track with guitar and vocals and percussion that all need to be big in the mix.

The type of production you’re working on will influence your mixing decisions. The big 100-track EDM song will require a lot more sculpting with EQ than the sparse, 4-track acoustic song that can fill up the mix easily without any of the instruments crowding the mix.

The same thing will apply to your use of compression and effects. Big pumping compression effects might be exactly what you’d like to hear in an EDM mix… but the acoustic guitar won’t sound so good when it’s pumping really hard. It’ll just sound out of place.

Keep a critical ear on everything that’s happening in the tracks and pay attention to how each track relates to the overall mix. However, and this is why it’s so important to listen with a critical ear when you approach a song you’re about to mix, you need to make sure that the best parts of each instrument are highlighted.

As you’re listening to the song, do this exercise I like to call: Think tall, wide, and deep:

Tall – Frequencies

With your eyes closed, what needs to be tall? Which elements need high frequencies and which need low frequencies?

Which instruments can you trim the top off of and place in the low end? Which instruments can you filter the fat out of and make shine in the high end? What needs to be all-encompassing in the middle?

Wide – Panning

Think about where each instrument should sit from left to right. You need to fill out the stereo spectrum, so pan your instruments around your canvas. Artists are supposed to fill out their canvases, not just paint in the middle.

The same goes for you. Don’t place everything square in the middle of the stereo spectrum; instead, spread it out and find a good spot for each individual instrument.

Deep – Reverb, Delay and Effects

Think about which instruments need to go back and which you should pull forward. Mentally visualize moving them closer or pushing them further away. Think of the mix like a 3D image.

With volume, reverb, and effects you can place anything anywhere in the room. For example, if you want the drums by the rear wall, you know that you’ll need to add some reverb and lower the volume of the dry drums. You push back with reverb and effects; pull forward with more volume and short delays.

Once you’ve visualized all the elements in terms of highs and lows, left and right, and front and back, you have a better idea of where you’re headed and what you need to do.

This exercise in critical listening is something you can do without using any plug-ins. So make it a habit for all of your future mixing sessions: Just listen to the song all the way through and take notes on where you want everything to go in the frequency spectrum, the stereo image, and the depth of field.