14 Mixing Tips
14 mixing tips
1. Take a break
Probably the most obvious but most overlooked tip for mixing, take a break and rest your ears. You’ve probably heard your mix a million times and you’ve gone “earblind”, not knowing when to stop. Not only that, but long mixing sessions can cause ear fatigue which will mean you won’t make accurate mixing decisions.
Whether it’s stopping for a drinks break, a walk around the park, or stopping for the night and returning the next day, you can come back with fresh ears and hear your mix in a new way.
2. Variety is the spice of life
Why limit yourself to the instruments you have in your studio when creating a mix? Maybe your song calls for an exotic instrument or a unique sound you can’t replicate with real-world tools in your studio.
Take advantage of modern sampling and virtual instruments and inject new sounds into your mix to reinforce what’s already there or to create an entirely new part.
3. Use only one reverb sound
Putting your mix into a space is crucial. It provides realism and depth to your mix, so listeners feel the emotion in the track. To do this, you’ll need to add some reverb. But don’t make the mistake of using multiple reverbs to get the “best” sound for every track as this won’t sound cohesive.
Try using only one reverb type, like the brilliant Arturia Rev-LX24, to create this realistic sense of space that will glue all elements of your mix together. You can even use a very small amount on the master output!
4. Sidechaining
A more advanced technique, sidechaining two instruments with overlapping frequencies is a great way to add clarity to your mix. The most common sidechain is between a kick drum and bass guitar or 808.
Using a transparent dynamics processor like Sound Radix POWAIR, you can duck the level of your bass guitar whenever the kick drum plays, letting the kick cut through when hit, even when sharing the same frequency range. It’s an elegant alternative to tedious automation for every hit.
5. Bring up the impact
Though I’ve just mentioned that automation is tedious, when used properly, it’s one of the most useful tips there is. Automating the impactful high points of a song can really bring out the last 5% that helps your mix stand out.
Whether that’s the chorus, or crescendo of a huge cinematic build-up, automating the volume of these sections up by as little as 1dB will make the large sections even larger than life.
6. Get creative
Another automation tip. A song isn’t static, so your mix shouldn’t be either. Creative automation can be used to add movement to your mix for all the standout instruments, song sections or FX.
Experiment with creative panning with Soundtoys PanMan, moving sounds across the spatial field, automate send-levels to your reverb FX to add more atmosphere in different sections, or try experimenting with adjusting the feedback level of delay tails on a lead vocal.
7. Never mix bass first
This is something I’ve learned through experience. Because of how our ears adjust and perceive audio, if you mix bass first, you will inadvertently mix everything afterwards with way too much bass. In addition, you might also fatigue your ears much faster mixing bass first.
There’s no rule on what to mix first but starting with a drum kit is a good idea as it occupies the full frequency spectrum, letting your ears adjust to the full range before moving onto other instruments.
8. Prepare your session
Before you dive into mixing, it’s a great idea to prepare your session first to improve your workflow and remove any roadblocks that might slow you down when you’re in the zone. Take the time to colour-code your tracks for quick visual references of where instruments are in your session.
Set up subgroups of multi-mic instruments like drums or orchestras for greater macro control. Create sends and insert your favourite FX that you always use in your mixes and trim silences to ensure a cleaner mix both visually and sonically by removing any unwanted bleed or noise.
9. Don’t rely on mixing in Solo
Avoid relying on the Solo function when mixing individual instruments. The goal is to make everything fit together in the mix, not just sound great alone. Soloing a track and EQing it in isolation can lead to you using up essential frequency ranges needed by other instruments, or risk over EQ’ing it, making it sound unnatural.
Since elements like drums, bass, and guitars compete for space, it’s crucial to carve out frequencies to allow each to coexist. Listeners hear the entire mix, not soloed tracks, so practise EQing with everything playing to make cohesive decisions.
10. Pay attention to the stereo field
When mixing, you have a full stereo spectrum to play with – so use it wisely! Instruments should live in their own frequency and stereo field in a mix, meaning they can be picked out and identified by the listener with ease.
You can pan guitars, synthesizers, and cinematic effects to the sides, whilst keeping low-frequency instruments like kick drum and bass guitar mono for maximum separation. Simple stereo analysis tools like NUGEN Visualizer make it easy to see stereo spectrum overlap, even if you can’t audibly hear it.
11. Leave plenty of headroom
This one is simple. Don’t clip your outputs! When you’re in the zone and mixing a huge number of tracks, it can be quite easy to lose track of your levels. Grabbing a detailed metering plugin like Blue Cat DP Meter Pro and having it on screen at all times will help you avoid hitting the red.
By leaving plenty of headroom in your master output, when it comes time to master, you’ll have more room to add volume later to compete with loud commercial releases. As a tip, you should aim to leave at least roughly 6dB of headroom on your master output.
12. De-ess your reverbs
A great trick to avoid harsh sibilance in your reverbs while letting you achieve that lush, warm reverb tone is to de-ess your reverb sends. Adding a strong de-esser to your main vocal track can sound unnatural and often adds the “lisp” effect to vocals, so instead, adding a heavily de-essed reverb send lets you retain the clarity of the dry vocal while blending the warm and lush tones of the reverb together.
One of the best and easiest de-essers for the job is the FabFilter Pro-DS. This gives you much more control when working on tracks like a lead female vocal.
13. Parallel processing
When you can’t quite add the sustain and punch you want for your drums, or can’t keep vocals extremely consistent, set up a send to a parallel bus instead of reaching for another processor on your main track.
Using a super aggressive compressor like the Universal Audio Distressor, you can set the blend fully wet, using high compression ratios to add the consistency you need and blend this with the original track for the best of both worlds.
14. Reference. Reference. Reference.
When referring to referencing, I’m talking about two different meanings. The first is referencing your track against other commercial releases within the genre to compare the overall sound quality and frequency balance of your mix
The second is referencing your mix on other playback systems, such as a car stereo, during different stages of your mix.
One of the easiest ways to do this is with Melda MCompare, which allows you to load multiple reference tracks in one plugin to A/B. Both of these kinds of referencing will give you an idea of what elements you might need to change to get the best mix possible, whether that’s adjusting the dynamics, EQ balance, or the levels of individual instruments.
FAQs
How do I get better at mixing?
To get better at mixing follow these key tips and rules:
- Less is more
- Reduce frequency clashing
- Reference on multiple playback systems
- Try cutting EQ before boosting
- Reference your track against commercial releases
- Don’t rely on mixing in solo
- Mix over multiple sessions
How do people get their mixes so loud?
Producers get loud mixes loud by using compression to control dynamics. Compression reduces the loudest peaks of a track, allowing the overall volume to be increased without distorting. This creates a smaller dynamic range, making the mix sound louder and more impactful.
What should a good mix sound like?
A good mix should sound balanced, with no element too compressed or dynamic. Each instrument and vocal should be discernible, and the mix should cover the full frequency range, from deep lows to crisp highs. The mix should also preserve the song’s musicality and emotional impact.
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