I see a ton of ads, posts, and videos that promise to reveal the top 10 rules for mixing. One often sees these things as headlines for audio articles or posts. They’re nice clickbait. They usually accompany an article that outlines the most remedial aspects of audio or an article about how getting caught up in rules ends up damaging your mix.
I don’t like this diametric view on rules. It has the same fault as the argument that if you learn some basic music theory, you’ve limited your creativity in writing music. In both cases, the issue is mindset.
The truth is there are rules about mixing audio, rules you MUST know to avoid problems. They are largely related to the physics of acoustics, aspects of human perception, and current and historic technology.
Then, there are conventions. These often apply to styles or genres of music. You really need to know these for the styles of music you want to mix. These are the “rules” that you can bend or break, though students will always do best to learn the conventions before breaking them.
Finally, there are mix tricks. These are often severely over estimated in the mind of students. Mix tricks, as the name implies, are not at the core of a good mix. They do not make the difference between a good mix and a bad mix, though they may make a good mix into a really good mix, or a really good mix into a great mix.
OK, so speaking of articles that don’t really say anything other than the obvious… Get on with it!
Mindset is the key.
When we are learning any new task, we need to allow time to actually learn it. We need to be vulnerable to failure, but we also need to try to succeed. In the case of mixing, I often find that students skip over the most basic aspects of the mix when they are learning on their own. Without that foundation, their future development is limited or stunted.
If you want to mix well, learn the soundstage. With four tools, you should be able to craft an accurate soundstage based on a given soundstage design:
1. Faders
2. Pan Pots
3. EQ
4. Delays
Doing this requires a set of skills, both technical and aural. You need to be able to accurately recognize elements in the soundstage, identify ways in which they match the intended design and way in which they don’t, then use the appropriate tool to correct the inaccuracies. It seems basic and remedial, but if you can get this down cold, your mixes will improve dramatically.
Elements of the soundstage:
- Lateral location (controlled with pan for point sources and delays for spread or wide stereo sound sources)
- Lateral width (varies from a point source to a spread or wide stereo image; stereo width in this basic approach is created with panned delays)
- Distance (depends on the level of timbral detail in each instrument, so the mixer’s control is largely handled with EQ to remove or subtly increase timbral detail)
The last few elements in this type of “Core” soundstage mixing are:
- Track cleanup (use of EQ and filters to remove objectionable spectral elements that are interfering with the mix)
- Musical Balance (the balance between musical elements of the mix, set with faders and fader rides/automation).
Now, this is not going to sound like an epic modern radio mix. It isn’t meant to at this point. This is where mindset comes in. By setting our expectations appropriately for the task we are attempting to accomplish, we have a meaningful relationship to the “rules” of the task. Our goal in this type of a mix is to become fluent with a core aspect of mixing. It may not have all the bells, whistles, and “wow factor” of a CLA or Andy Wallace mix, but it should have the same type of crafted soundstage that we hear from those and other top mixers. Musical elements should be reasonably balanced in a way that conforms with stylistic norms. In other words, everything has a place. It is a listenable mix. It can be done in a reasonable time frame (meaning it can work on a tight budget). It is also a foundation on which we can build those epic mixes.
Comments are closed