Why do so-and-so’s mixes sound so fantastic? Well to tell you the truth I’ve never even heard of so-and-so, but here is what I do:
1. Record it right to begin with
If your guitar has a hum in it, or you left the air conditioner on while you were recoding your vocals- there is no easy way to get rid of that stuff without destroying your sound once your sound is recorded.
Pay attention when you record to make sure things are right. NEVER plan to ‘fix it in the mix’. Flourescent lights on where you record your electric guitar should be turned off, air conditioners and heaters should be off when you’re using a mic, etc.
Before you put all your effort into getting that ONE unbelievable take, make sure you’re happy with the sound!
2. Get things out of the middle.
Today almost every keyboard, guitar effects box, drum machine and you name it have stereo outputs. The manufacturers usually design those sounds so they sound ‘great’ which usually means taking up a ton of space left to right.
I’ve seen a lot of folks record all there stuff in stereo and then leave it all balanced in the center. Boring! Not to mention everything gets lost when it’s all on top of each other!
If you take a guitar and lean it to the left whil your keys lean to the right whil your vocals and leads are right down the middle, suddenly your mix becomes quite interesting. And
I’m not talking about 30% to the left or right, I mean 50-80% to the left or right.
You’ll be surprised how much your parts come out. I’ve seen a lot of ‘can’t hear the drums now because the guitar is covering them up’ handle simply with panning, not volume or compression. You’ll be surprised!
The rule I use is ryhthm. Parts that are similar rhythmically I pan together and then put parts that compliment that rhythm panned opposite. I find when I do this it creates space and movement in the mix.
3. Only effect what you need to
If you recorded it right to begin with, you won’t need to add as many effects in the mix to get it to sound right, because it already sounds right!
Listen to your whole mix now that you’ve got it panned out and can hear the different parts. Is there something you want to hear more of? Is something dominating the mix that shouldn’t be?
Find ONE aspect to fix and fix that with a plugin- eq or whatever is needed. Now listen again to your mix with what you changed. Take it easy and don’t go for broke adding plugins upon plugins to things just because they are available to you.
Listen to your mix as an outside observer listening for the very first time. Is there something missing? Fix that ONE thing. It’s easy with all the tools available to go and fix twelve things at once; but when you do that you lose clarity of sound and things get changed that don’t need to be changed.
Example: the drums lack low punch, and the bass is too loud. You could add eq to the drums and add compression to the bass. OR you could just take an eq on that bass and lower the frequency where the drums should have their punch. BAM! Problem solved. Your sound will be cleaner and more dynamic because the instruments had natural dynamics and were clean when you recorded them!
Mixes are very simple things, they become complicated only when you add a bunch of things ‘you’ heard ‘they’ say you should add to them.
Listen with your own ears right now all the way. I promise you’ll make it sound the way you like, and other people will like the way it sounds!
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Great article. Erik gives sound advice here that will undoubtedly help you to get a better mix. Thanks for sharing this!