Mixing down music is a complex art, full of subtleties and often dependant on individual tastes. This is a primer on different techniques to use when mixing down your music.
Instructions
1. Decide what elements are essential to the mix. This includes the important instruments in the arrangement as well as peripheral sounds that make a recording special. Listen to your song carefully. Decide what elements are absolutely essential. Figure out what instruments and sounds add something magic to the song. Get rid of sounds that detract from the overall vision of the song. This is often a difficult decision, but a necessary one to make a song as direct as possible. Of course, if you're mixing down a sound collage or an experimental piece, the rules apply in a slightly different way.
2. Determine the volume of each instrument. You'll obviously want crucial elements to be the loudest, while accompaniment can be a bit quieter. Even when you set the volume levels correctly, you may still find yourself with a muddy mix. This is where the next step comes in.
3. Pan instruments and sounds to different areas of the stereo field. Important places to consider are middle and hard left/right. Anything panned to the middle, only the left or only the right speaker will stick out in the mix more than other instruments. In general, it's wise to keep these areas reserved for essential elements of the mix. With other instruments and sounds, experiment with different placements within the stereo field. Try placing instruments just a bit to the left or right of center and see how they sound. Stereo placement makes a great difference in the overall clarity of a mix. Sometimes, though, the music may still seem a bit muddy.
4. EQ individual tracks. This is where mixing can really get tricky. There are no hard and fast rules on equalization, but you'll find that certain instruments occupy different frequency ranges. For example, bass guitar holds much of its sound in the lower frequencies, often at 100hz or lower. The pluck of a bass lies in the high-mid range, around 2hz or so. If you have a parametric EQ on your mixer, you'll be able to experiment with a boost or cut in different ranges. One theory is to cut if you want an instrument to sound better and boost if you want it to sound different. Be judicious, though. Too much boost can overload the overall volume and too much cut can rob the instrument of interesting frequencies.
5. Add effects sparingly. Try adding reverb to individual instruments to give them a sense of space. A small delay can relay thicken a vocal track. Experiment with different combinations of effects to see what suits your taste. Sometimes you'll find that adding the right amount of reverb involves bringing the effect up to a level that sounds good to you, then dialing it back just a little. Unless you're mixing down music that needs to sound cavernous, reverb should be used sparingly. Try different types of reverb on different instruments. Many engineers will use two or three reverb settings on a snare drum alone, then add that to the rest of the drum kit.
6. Make sure that your volume levels are consistent. If the volume levels of individual instruments are all over the place, there are a few remedies. You can do a fader ride, which is moving the fader up and down in accordance with the track volume, or you can compress individual tracks. Compression is an effect that limits the dynamic range of an instrument. Too much compression sucks the life out of a performance, but smart use of compression both controls the dynamic range and makes the performance seem more consistent and professional.
7. Record the mix and give it a listen in different sources. Whatever recording device you are using, mix down and record on the appropriate format. Listen to the mix in your car, in your home stereo, in a portable device and wherever else you are able to play the mix. It will sound different in different systems. By listening closely, you'll hear what elements of the song need to be louder, quiter, EQ'd and what effects need to be added or taken away. Then repeat the previous steps until you have a mix that you like.
Tags: instruments sounds, volume levels, what elements, Decide what, Decide what elements