A few things I feel like every mixing engineer should know:

1. Sometimes the Recordings Mix Themselves

Sometimes the recordings are so good all you need to do is scratch your head after levels and panning and say to yourself, "now what?"

That's what you should strive for when you're tracking, but I understand that it's not always possible. Sometimes you record in subpar situations or get a song that wasn't professionally tracked.

However, don't underestimate the power of a great performance. It may be just what you need for a great mix. A great sounding performance beats a heavily processed mix every time.

2. Sometimes Playing Around Gets out of Hand

Don't over-mix every track. If there's a shaker track, it doesn't need mid/side compression, analog modeling and a modulation effect. Like my buddy Graham Cochrane says, "if you're putting plug-ins and tweaking your shaker track, move on people...it's just a shaker."

3. Automation is Key

Automating the vocals is key to making the mix sound good because otherwise the vocals might sound perfect in one part of the song but buried in others.

If it's perfect in the verses it'll be too loud in the chorus. And if it's great in the choruses you'll have to push up the phrases in the verses.

I know automation can be tedious and I tend to avoid it sometimes if I can. But whenever I take the time to really automate a mix and glue everything together I'm glad I did.

If you need a simple mixing guide to open and reference while you're mixing to make sure you're on the right track (no pun intended...), then check out Step By Step Mixing right here.

Have a good weekend,

Björgvin

P.S.

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