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. 

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Mixing in the Mix Box

I saw a great post today from Graham Cochrane over at The Recording Revolution. (Great and informative site) Graham was talking about mixing in the mix box, and I felt this was such an important concept that I needed to share it. The idea is that there is a box that your mix falls in. It's basically the depth and width of your song. How wide does your song go and how dynamic are the instruments?

Today I want to share some ideas that can help make your mix sound wider and have more depth. This will help you to create a huge song without everything being stuck inside the mix box.

The first thing I want to talk about is LCR mixing. LCR mixing refers to panning. The idea is that you either pan hard left, hard right, or dead in the center. I'm a huge fan of LCR mixing and in my opinion it does wonders to widen your mix. I've talked about it before and I'll probably talk about it again. If you're not at least trying LCR mixing, what do you have to lose?

Secondly, you need to create depth to your song using volume. Basically you don't want to have every instrument in your tracks sitting at the exact same level. This will make your song sound crowded and as if the instruments are all fighting for attention. Try to let certain tracks shine through like lead vocals or lead guitar. Create dynamics and by default, you will create depth.

Lastly, I want to talk about adding EQ to your tracks. Not every track needs low end and not every track needs high end. This is what high pass and low pass filters are for. They allow you to clean up the frequencies that aren't being used by certain instruments so that the instruments that actually are in those tracks can really punch through. I generally put high pass filters on almost everything except bass guitar and the kick drum. What you want to achieve here is better dynamics between your frequencies. You allow your tracks that have a lot of information in the mid range to sit comfortably inside the box, while pushing your tracks with high end information up and tracks with low end information down. This adds vertical dynamics to your song.

So to recap, there are three things you can do to help your tracks not fight in the mix box.

1. LCR Mixing
2. Volume Dynamics
3. EQ, High Pass, and Low Pass Filters

Hope this helps you take another step to a bigger and better mix! 

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The Number One Secret to a Great Sounding Mix

So you want to know what the secret is to having a great sounding mix? You want your mix to sound like the top professional mixing engineers? Then listen up because here is the secret... You ready?

There is no secret. 

I'll say it again in case the italics didn't drive the point home, there is no secret! If you want to be a better mixing engineer and you are looking for a cure-all secret to great sounding mixes, I've got bad news for you: there isn't one. The top mixing engineers in the world do not have some super secret technique that makes all of their mixes sound great. The truth of it is to get great sounding mixes, it takes hard work and lots of time. Even then, there is no secret. You just keep working at honing your skills and learning new techniques. Also, be creative! Don't just look for some rule or technique that others do, but come up with your own! I'm not saying don't learn from others, because that is hugely important. But don't be afraid to try new ideas and get creative with music. In my opinion, that's really what it's all about.

Okay, so there is no secret. But there's still got to be things you can do to make your mix sound better. What are some of those things? Well, there's literally hundreds, but I'll list off a few that have made a huge difference in my mixes.

• Trust your ears
• Finish projects
• Put in a ton of time
• Use reference mixes
• Be creative
• Learn from others

The list goes on and on. The point is, there is no one big secret. It takes time, work, education, experience, and creativity to get a great mix. The beauty of it is, you are responsible for your own success. Because there is no secret, you can be just as good as the rest of the mixing engineers out there. The only thing standing between you and your goal is yourself. You have the ability to work hard, learn a lot, and devote a ton of time into your dream. If you are willing to focus on it and keep at it, there's nothing that can stop you. 

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