Do You Mix With Your Eyes Or Your Ears?

I love being in the digital age of music. It's great being able to sit in your bedroom and record an entire album with hardly any gear. Limitless possibilities are opened up with the addition of plugins and unlimited tracks. We can record at lower volume levels without worrying about losing sound. We can edit tracks with the click of the mouse. The list of benefits in digital recording goes on and on. But I fear we are missing out on a very important aspect of recording. Use your ears. 

If you do most of your mixing in a DAW, then you probably use your eyes quite a lot. Most EQ plugins are graphical EQ's with multiple bands that you can control and change curvature of the lines on the screen. Compressor plugins show you how much a sound is being cut in db levels. The point is, you are probably using your eyes to make most of these adjustments. Is this a bad thing? Well, not necessarily. But what is a bad thing is if you quit using your ears. Sometimes it is tempting to look at an EQ curve and think, "Wait a second, that curve is way too steep." But have you really listened to the sound? So what if it's a 12 db cut. Does it sound good? That's the point I'm driving at. 

Next time you are mixing, try this. Open up your plugins, and when you make adjustments, close your eyes. Most likely your plugin has nobs that you can control so use those without looking at the screen. Only use your ears. This goes for EQ, compression, and whatever other plugins you may be using. Get in the habit of mixing with your ears and not your eyes. 

Ultimately, what matters is what your tracks sound like. Don't fall into the trap of mixing everything with your eyes but make sure to use your ears as well.