Today I'd like to share with you three tips that are easy to get in the habit of doing, and will help take your mixes to another level. These aren't fancy tricks for you to use or anything like that. These are tips that make sense, are easy to implement, and yet are extremely helpful. Let's start with tip number one.
Mixing Tip One:
Mix at a low volume level.
One of the easiest and most helpful things you do when mixing, is to learn to mix at lower volume levels. When you get in the habit of mixing at loud levels, you fool your ears and you aren't really hearing what the mix sounds like. Music tends to sound better to use the louder it is. This is because the EQ curves basically change when volume levels change, thanks to the Fletcher-Munson curve. (Go look it up, it's pretty cool.) So when we mix at loud volumes, we are simply fooling ourselves.
What is a good volume level to mix at?
Graham Cochrane over at The Recording Revolution had something really helpful to say about this. His suggestion was to mix at a level where you could still carry on a conversation with someone next to you and hear them easily. I've used this technique and I think it's a really good rule of thumb for what level you should be mixing at. Also, if you can get a mix sounding good and punchy at a lower volume level, it just sounds that much better when you do crank the volume up.
Mixing Tip Two:
Check the mix in your car.
Most people today seem to listen to music in their car. So it only makes sense that we should make sure our mixes are sounding good in the car, right? Following this rule has made a huge impact on my mixes. I can't tell you how many times I think I have a great sounding mix, only to get out into the car and realize that the reverb is way too heavy, or the cymbals are too loud, etc. Once you think you've got a good solid mix and are about 90% there, just do a quick bounce and go check it in your car. If you don't want to check it in your car, at least have a cheap car-like speaker on hand that you can reference your mix.
Mixing Tip Three:
Learn your room and your speakers.
Most likely, you aren't mixing out of a professionally built studio but rather your home studio. This means that your room probably isn't perfect, and your speakers probably aren't perfect either. This is just one of the flaws of having a home studio. And while there's definitely something to be said about acoustic treatment, you probably aren't ever going to have it sounding 100% accurate. However, there are some ways to remedy this problem. You have to learn your room and your speakers.
First, this means you need to listen to professionally recorded mixes in your room and on your speakers. Get used to what it sounds like. Learn what a good kick sounds like. Learn what good guitars sound like. After that, jump in and start mixing. Once you get a few finished mixing, go listen to them on something else. Maybe use tip number two and compare them in your car or in your headphones. Reference them with professional mixes and see what is mixing. Then, what I suggest, is to write down what you need to take into account with your room and speakers.
For example, my monitors tend to make me think the reverb is at a good level when really it isn't. A lot of times I'll think the reverb is fairly subtle and simply helping add some warmth to the track. Later I"ll be listening to it my car only to realize the vocals sound like an 80's song in a cathedral. So what I do is I right down these changes and keep them next to me when I'm mixing. This keeps me in track and makes sure I get a good sounding mix.
If you get in the habit of using these three tips, they will take you a long way as a mix engineer. Thanks for reading!
If you're interested in having me mix or master your music, head over to willsterling.net for samples and pricing info. If you like what you see (and hear), contact me and we'll get started.
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