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13 Tips to Improve Your

Mixing
By Zed Brookes on 02/13/2011 · Mixing

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Before I get started I just want to reinforce something –
sometimes a reduction in parameters actually generates
more creativity. Being aware of a set of limitations, or
VIDEOS guidelines, can actually allow you much more creative
control over your final mix. This could mean limiting the
amount of effects that you allow yourself to use, or a more
PRODUCTS
obvious one is to only use a particular set of effects that
suits the genre or style. If you have the permission to do it,

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perhaps editing tracks or even muting/removing “surplus” 
instrumentation or vocal is the first step.

Approach-wise, ideally RECOMMENDED

you want all aspects of a song to
reinforce together and create a stronger impact, and if you
aren’t aware of what you’re doing, it’s very possible (in fact
more common than you think) to get a generally nice
balance of instruments that somehow doesn’t “gel”. You can
hear everything, but it lacks the emotional impact.

So here’s some ideas to think about next time you’re mixing

a song. There are certainly many more ideas and concepts
to experiment with than just this list, but I stopped myself
before the post became a novel.

1- Know What the Song’s About

Clues are in the lyrics. Knowing what it’s about gives you the
opportunity to amplify the concept rather than
inadvertently fighting it. That doesn’t mean you have to
“follow” the lyrics with the mix in a literal sense – you might
do nothing at all in that regard, but at least you won’t be
fighting the meaning of the song without even realizing it,
and when it comes to trying to think of creative mix
directions, it’s yet another clue to help you.
2- Know the Context of the Music
What’s the genre or style of the artist? How does it relate to
the artist’s identity? Being aware of this really makes it
much more likely that you’ll promote that artist’s identity
and overall concept, plus the artist will be more likely to
appreciate what you do with the mix. For example does the
artist exemplify “authenticity” where a raw, “character”
sound with any intonation problems remaining unfixed is
most desirable? Or is it about slick and smooth production?

3- Be Adventurous
A mix is not just a simple balance of the levels of the
instruments in the mix, it’s about featuring various aspects
that you think the listener would like to hear, or more
accurately needs to hear at any given section of the song.
Pretend it’s a movie – how do you present each section of
the song? Don’t be scared to go “over the top” with effects,
fader moves and featuring of mix aspects – you can always
tone it back if need be. Don’t be scared to turn the vocal up
– trying to hide weak vocals makes it even worse. Even ugly
actors have to have close-ups in a movie to make it
effective.

4- Think About Texture & Tone

It’s partly tone, partly level, partly how dominant something
is in the mix. If you compress something – its texture
changes. Listen out for it’s tonally as a sound, rather than
just checking it’s variation in level. How pervasive is it
compared to everything else, despite it’s volume in the mix.
How does it link into the overall texture of the song?
Textures are like a tonal colour palette – you probably don’t
want to mix a neon green element in with some nice earth
tones (remember there are no rules!), but then again you
don’t want everything the same shade of beige.

5- It’s About Melody

Even in the most distortion-fest mixes, our human nature
will use our built-in pattern-detecting algorithms to extract a
melody out of it somewhere, whether it be in the movement
of the harmonics in the wall of guitar noise or in the groovy
bass line. Make sure there’s one dominant melody at any
given instant, or if there’s more than one, that they aren’t
fighting and clashing with each other.

6- The Pocket
It’s more than something to put your wallet in. It’s that
magic interaction of instruments when it all suddenly locks
into a groove. Spend some time adjusting relative timing of
instruments to see if you can help the groove “gel”. You’ll
know when it happens because it’s magic and you’ll start
moving with the music whether you want to or not. Note
that Beat Detective and other forms of quantization can
fight this effect – it’s “felt” rather than being on an exact
grid. With that being said, if the playing is too loose than a
timing grid can be a step up. Compression, particularly
rhythmic release times can help achieve some degree of
further “groove gel.”

7- Keep it Simple Stupid

Less is more. These things are fundamental truths despite
our over-familiarity with them, often leaving them as
meaningless statements in our minds. Think about the mix
as a photo – the more people you want to appear in the
photo, the smaller they’ll have to be. Don’t be scared to
bring the main things to the foreground, and push other
things back to the point of blurriness or being hidden
behind the main elements. A good mix is not about
individual band members’ egos, it’s about the overall blend.
When you think about it, the individual band members have
the least idea about what the mix should sound like – they
all hear completely different versions of a mix depending on
where they stand/sit when they perform.

8- Three “Tracks”
Back in the olden days, after mono and stereo, there were
three tracks. One was for “Rhythm” (and could include
drums, bass, percussion and rhythm guitar for example),
one for Vocals and one for “Sweetening” which might be
things like brass, strings, lead instruments etc. This strategy
is still a great one to keep in mind for mixing. It forces you
to think about your rhythm section as one cohesive unit,
and you need to make that gel together. Bass needs to lock
in the pocket with the kick drum. Sweetening nowadays is
whatever else you need outside rhythm and vocals. Think
carefully about which mix elements fit into each of these
three roles, and if all three are already populated – maybe
it’s time to do some cutting/muting. Note that some
instruments such as guitars might switch between modes
depending on what they’re playing at the time – rhythm, fills
or lead.

9- One Thing at a Time

Rather than thinking of one of the aforementioned three
tracks as just “Vocals” perhaps it’s better to look on it as
“Melody”. The melody line often chops and changes
between vocal, instrumental fills and solos. If you think of
these three elements as playing a similar role at different
times in the song, it makes it easy when trying to decide on
levels/sounds between the three. It also highlights that you
shouldn’t have any of those melodies crossing over each
other and fighting at any point – keep ’em separated with
their own space!

10- Getting the Bass to Sit Right

This can be tricky – especially when it needs to work on
both large and small speaker systems. Try mixing the bass
while listening on the smallest speakers that you have, to
get it sitting at the right level. Then adjust the tonal balance
while listening on bigger speakers to reign any extreme
frequencies back in.

11- Don’t Over-Compress

Everything
Listen to the TONE while compressing each instrument and
keep it sounding natural if possible. Pay close attention to
the start and end (attack and release) of the notes of each
instrument you compress. Your final mix should be sitting at
an average RMS level of about -12dBFS with peaks no
higher than around-3dBFS. Leave the mastering engineer to
do the final compression and limiting. Remember to leave
dynamic range in the mix – contrast! Our ears need some
sort of contrast to determine what’s loud and soft. If you
hammer all the levels to the max you may as well just
record the vacuum cleaner at close range and overdrive the
mic/preamp. Hmmm… Might have to try that.

12- Easier than Automation

In these days of automation, it’s easy to spend inordinate
amounts of time tweaking automation changes on
instruments or vocals between different sections of a song
(e.g. adding more reverb to the vocals in the chorus or
adjusting rhythm guitar levels in the bridge). With today’s
digital audio workstations, extra tracks are usually in ready
supply, so rather than fluffing about with automation for a
specific section of the song, why not just move that part
over onto another duplicate track instead, then just make
whatever changes you need to suit that section. Much
quicker than continually mucking around with automation
on the same track. By the way – make sure your mix is
dynamic. A mix is a performance in itself, not a static set of
levels. Dynamics are exciting and emotional!

13- Use Sub-mix Busses for

Elements of the mix.
Some common sub-groups to try are drum subgroups,
guitar subgroups, vocal subgroups etc. Rather than send all
your drums straight to the L/R or Stereo mix, first send
them all to an Aux return channel instead. Then send that
Aux to the LR/Stereo mix. (Tip: disable solo on the Auxes)
This makes it simple to do overall tweaks to your mix even
after you’ve automated levels on individual tracks. You need
to be careful about aux effects returns and where they
come back though, as their balance might change slightly if
you adjust the instrument subgroups. And hey, what about
creating just three subgroups – Rhythm, Melody,
Sweetening? Let me know if it works ;o).

I hope these tips are helpful and give you some things
to think about during your next mix! Feel free to
respond or add your own tips in the comments below!

[This was a guest post by Zed Brookes. Check out his site @
http://dbzeebee.blogspot.com]

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2. The Importance of Space in a Mix: Part III
3. The Mysteries of Dynamics Processing
Revealed
4. Tips for Mixing Toward Loudness
5. 2 Ways to Drastically Improve Your Mixing
Skills

ZED BROOKES

Zed is a Scottish-born singer/songwriter who took a wrong

turn in the late 80's and ended up on the other side of the
console in New Zealand. A successful career in radio, studio
engineering and production gradually moved him into
education. He now teaches mixing and electronic music
production, and is currently doing an MA based on some
theories around music mixing. He still writes and performs in
the darkwave band Darkelle.
 Universal PicturesRoger Waters: The Wall4x de R$24,23Compre Agora!-3%R$ 96,90R$ 99,99
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Balik • 6 months ago

I'd like to add that with a lot of questions I get, I've learned
that way too many people are focused too much on what
Plugins to use rather than understanding the fundamentals
and functions of the Plugins. For example, I get people
asking me all of the time what the best Stereo Bus
compressor is, and I in return ask them if they know how to
use compression properly. I guess what I'm saying is that if
you don't understand how compression works, it doesn't
matter what you use.

http://BalikBeats.com
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Sam J • 5 years ago

I LOVE LEARNING AND THE DR IS RIGHT ONCE AGAIN.

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AcademyCurve • 5 years ago

Yes, Zed. 13 Rules to live by. Thanks for laying them out so
clearly and thoroughly!
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Mauro Gentile • 5 years ago

Thank you!
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AcademyCurve • 5 years ago

Thanks, Zed, for some great thoughts and focus to always

be aware and reminded of.

all the best,

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