Engineering Sound Mixing Secrets

I’m going to give you a couple of secrets that will help your mixing sound better. If you are having trouble producing a killer mix, try these simple steps and you’ll be amazed at the difference it will make. Mixing tracks is an art form, and it takes a lot of practice to get a good sound. I’m sharing these mixing secrets with you to try and help you get ahead of the curve and be the best audio engineer possible.

Knob Turning – Stop and Listen

Its easy to get caught up in turning knobs and doing things that you think will sound the best. Slow down, stop, listen, and pay attentions to what you are doing. Most mixes done in major studios take 12 to 24 hours or more and most of that time is spent listing to the mix. You go over every little sound and listen to it in detail. Listen on headphones, big speakers, small ones, in the car, and everywhere else you can thinks of. You need to know how its going to sound on multiple devices and not just your mix station.

Its Too Loud.

The human ear hears best at 85dB, but that doesn’t mean you need to do all of your mixing and listening at that volume level. Turn it down a bit and spend so time listening at lower volume levels. You’ll be amazed at the difference it can make.

Noisy Silence

Did you know that silence makes noise? It does, and if not controlled it can get out of hand quick. If a channels isn’t being used, mute it. Anytime there is silence on a channel, mute it. Even if its only for a second or 2 that there is no sound on that channel, mute it. You might not be able to hear the low noise on that channels, but when you multiple that across 20 – 50 channels it adds up.

Ditch Conflicting Sounds

You have to much to do then worry about making conflicting sounds work. If a sound is wrong or not working, through it out. Let the artists come back and do another recording. You need high quality sounds to produce a high quality mix. You need to make the best choice for sound clarity.

Template Are a Good Thing

Most of the highly paid engineers use some type of template to follow when they set up there mix or recording. This is why some engineers get hired out to mix country music, or others for hip-hop. This template is your plan of action. What mics are you going to use on vocals, what channels will be panned where, will you record back up vocals as a group or individual, what type of reverb will you use, the list goes on and on. Don’t ever accept a job without having an idea of how you want to approach it.