Are your mixes feeling flabby, underwhelming and in need of some energy? Do you find your computer running out of power using the plugins you need to make the mix sound how you want it? Perhaps it's time you gave your mixes a health check?
If we're going to use health terms to describe the state of a mix, then perhaps using the analogy further can help unpack the problems and solutions.
First, a real-life story. I was overweight and had many long-term health conditions that included backache, knee problems, gout, stomach issues, regular indigestion, headaches, and insomnia. I got out of breath just walking up the stairs. I took medication for my health conditions and just learned to live with some of them. After all, how could I fix them?
Some of our mixes are like this, full of problems that seem impossible to solve. So we keep finding fixes or ignoring the problems hoping they will go away. We buy another plugin, move DAW, follow a mix guru who contradicts that last one, but we'll try anything! Just fix my mix!
Three years ago, I decided to get in shape. I changed my eating habits, took exercise seriously, and attended to my sleep. I also spent time working on my mental health by cutting out certain things that didn't help. Now I'm 25% lighter than I used to be, can run 5K without even thinking about it, sleep at night and worry less. What happened to all those health conditions? They all miraculously vanished... it's funny that isn't it?
See the difference below. The images are both of me, yet the guy on the left looks like he’s eaten the one on the right. The guy on the right looks 10 years younger but is in fact 10 years older!
Perhaps your mixes suffer bad habits making them the audio equivalent of the guy on the left?
So how can we health check our mixes? Here are several places to look.
1 - Can you trust your mix space?
There are two critical parts to the recording and mixing chain—capture and listening environment. Let's assume you have no control over the first, and you are mixing tracks you didn't record. That's entirely possible.
You don't need a perfect mixing space, but most rooms needs some kind of acoustic treatment to help deal with common problems. It's never been easier to get a room into a reasonable acoustic shape. Acoustic treatment is now reasonably priced and advice plentiful.
Although some feel confident to undertake a DIY solution when it comes to acoustic treatment, we recognise that that doesn’t work for everybody.
Choosing acoustic treatment is more challenging as it’s not possible to demo or test a full solution in your studio before buying a solution with a number of panels and installing it.
To help those currently looking at investing in acoustic treatment in this article we’ve put together a list of top brands that provide great sounding low cost off the shelf acoustic panels and treatment solutions to help you improve the sound and performance of your studio space.
Check out our resources on acoustic treatment for recording studios
2 - Do you know what you are listening to?
It's possible to spend tens of thousands on monitoring solutions. However, plenty of us are working to a budget, but it is still possible to get a sound you know will translate outside the room.
There's plenty of great technology now that can help measure your room and adjust your monitoring to give you a more accurate reproduction of the sound.
We put together everything you need to know about speaker calibration software and hardware in one place. We cover all the top brands making systems to help get your studio sounding better and to help your mixes translate even better.
3 - Is the arrangement mixable?
One of the hardest things for a mixer to do is deal with a bad arrangement. It's almost impossible to mix your way out of a bad arrangement. This is one reason you find mixes with endless plugins trying to deal with parts battling with each other. Sometimes the best DAW feature in these circumstances is the mute button.
Grammy-winning engineer and producer Vance Powell has spoken in interviews about getting sent tracks with tons of guitar tracks. His remedy is often to delete them. In his words, "people need to make some f*cking decisions when tracking."
Before you even hitting record:
Take time to arrange the song.
Consider what happens when the vocals come in and what needs to drop out or change.
Think about how the drums and bass are working with each other.
Check out the song Yellow by Coldplay and hear what happens as the lead vocal comes in at the start of the song. Space is made for the vocal to take centre stage. If you think that only works for pop, listen to punk legends The Sex Pistols, employing the same technique on God Save The Queen.
A well-arranged track is far easier to mix. Mixing a poorly arranged track is like herding cats!
4 - Is the track recorded right?
Hot on the heels of a good arrangement is a great recording. Speak to some of the top mixers around, and they'll tell you that a well-recorded track almost mixes itself.
Too many of us hit record and then proclaim at the end of the take 'that will do!' It won't do, as musicians, engineers and producers we have a responsibility to do the very best we can. So many accuse our industry of using tricks instead of talent - the overuse of some mixing tricks like autotune means we only have ourselves to blame.
There is a rare film of Sinatra recording with an orchestra in the studio, it is pure bliss. The singer, musicians, conductor and recording engineers all striving for excellence to capture the song in the best possible way.
The primary purpose of a tracking session is to capture the performance, the emotion and to make sure the story is told. When we fail to do this then all we are doing is a technical exercise, it may be technically perfect but if it is devoid of any soul, that can't be fixed in the mix.
Another Grammy-winner, Dom Morley, says, "A good performance is easy to mix. People underestimate how important the psychology of a recording session is to get a great performance. You can't fix a bad performance with a plugin; I'm not talking tuning and timing; I'm talking about capturing the emotion."
Dom is so convinced of the importance of this factor he has created a course to help those wanting to capture the soul of a great song when recording.
There's no plug-in that can put back a performance that wasn't there in the first place. A great mixer may make a soulless track sound amazing but will it have any emotional connection? I doubt it.
5 - Have you got a point of reference?
Mix references are a great way to check the track with other similar tracks. Mix references are also helpful if you are mixing for other people. Make sure you ask any client you are mixing for to supply you with half a dozen tracks they would like the mix to sound like. It's also an excellent way to manage expectations.
Mixer Mike Exeter swears by ADPTR AUDIO Metric AB, an excellent plugin that helps you A/B with other mixes right inside the track you are working on.
Metric AB uses the AB button as a convenient way to switch between DAW playback and reference material. It has a one button loudness matching facility to match the level of your reference material to your DAW playback and comprehensive playback controls allowing playback to be synced to the DAW timeline or playback from cue points or loops.
6 - Can you trust the information you are getting?
The keyword in this section is 'trusted' sources of information. There's plenty of people with a YouTube channel and no idea offering mixing advice. Check out the credentials of those offering the advice, that they are trusted sources of information.
An excellent example of this done right is Control Room founded by rock producer and all around good guy Romesh Dodangoda. Not only is he a hard-working producer and mixer with a vast list of credits, but he also gives of his time to help others wanting to get better. Check out Control Room, a fantastic recording community.
Here are three trusted sources of recording and mixing information we recommend;
Summary
I know from first-hand experience that when I was out of shape, I suffered. I had numerous illnesses related to my lifestyle and tried to fix them with pills. It doesn’t work.
Every top recording engineer, producer and mixer I know has got to where they are with sheer hard work. They spent years getting things right and perfecting their process. That’s how they get great mixes.
It might be the case that your tracks are out of shape. You could continue to keep trying the next wonder plugin to try and fix it, like pills they rarely do.
An even better plan is to head back upstream and get the entire process in better shape.