Getting A Nice Mix

I'm going to give you guys a little insight to how I create a Balanced Mix.



Starting Your Mix

The first thing that I do when mixing is set the levels, and pan. I find this important to do before using e.q. compression, or anything else because this will let the frequencies build up and expose any problems of clashing frequencies you may run into.



So I start with the vocals muted and work completely on the instruments (you can come back and adjust if needed, later). I start my mixes with all my faders down and will bring my kick up first and let that peak the master buss at about -10. Then I bring in the rest of the drums.



Now, I bring in reverb and delays. I like to set my reverb to tempo. Read this http://www.gearslutz.com/board/rap-h...echniques.html for instructions on how to do this.





Bringing in the Bass

I find that in a lot of amateur mixes, this can be one of the biggest problems.



I like to bring in the bass after my drums are mixed. Getting a good kick to bass relationship can be difficult, but trust your instincts. Don't "cut" to make room for the kick, that will only create problems with achieving a balanced mix. Now, with that said, if you have an 808 kick, and a bass, you might want to side-chain a compressor to open room up for the Kick when it hits. You want to be able to hear the kick when that bass is going.



Instruments



Now, I bring in pianos, guitars, leads, synths, strings, and all other instruments slowly. I bring them up, I try to find the sweet spot so everything sits just right. Sending them to the reverb return, and constant level adjustments will get them to set in. Sometimes you will need to ride faders. You want the mix to have an exciting points, you want it to build up. A couple dB's higher in the hook possibly when all your instruments are playing. This is important so things aren't all monotonous. This is equally as important as the arrangement. You have to keep the listener interested.

Bringing in the vocals.



Now that we've got the instruments all mixed, it's time to bring in the vocals. First thing I do is bring in the lead vocals. I find the spot where I like them and automate the levels so they sit ontop of the mix. So say the vocalist goes to low on a part and you can't hear them, just bring it up for that part. Or maybe there is just more instruments playing and they are building up to go into the hook, just ride the fader so that the vocals maintain the same relation that they had with the mix when there wasn't so much playing at once.



After all my lead vocals are done, I bring in adlibs, harmonies, background vocals.



You don't want your adlibs to over power your lead take, and you want background vocals to sound like... background vocals. Usually, more reverb on the background vocals so that they are farther back in the mix.



I send all the vocals over to a stereo buss and compress them slightly (this will give them a cohesive sound:"glue"). People often misuse and misunderstand compression. Instead of looking at compression as "leveling out the sound and trimming peaks", you should look at it more as a tool to shape the sound. Here is a great guide to using compression http://www.futureproducers.com/forum...d.php?t=352940



E.Q.



There is corrective e.q. and creative e.q. So far in this mix, we haven't used e.q. Now, the reason for this is because it can create frequency balance problems. So, we have all of our levels set pretty well. There may still be a few kinks, but that may be caused by frequencies all building up in a certain area. Lows and mids are a problematic area for this. Listen to the mix, figure out where what frequencies are clashing, then find the instrument, and cut those clashing/annoying frequency build ups. You might want to set a HPF on the bass and/or kick from 40hz down so the low end isn't muddy.



That is corrective e.q.



Creative e.q. would be more like the "telephone effect" where you cut out from 800hz down, and 2khz up and boost in between.



Or maybe you want to muffle a sound, set a LPF and cut out all those high frequencies.



Maybe you want that "Drake Effect" where the music gets muffle, and the vocals have the telephone effect.



Just set your e.q. to muffle the instruments, and set the e.q on the vocals to the "telephone effect" and automate those plug-ins with a "Master bypass" so they only turn on for certain parts.