Mastering the art of mixing music almost equates to the value of creating your unique musical concept: For beginners navigating through the mixing process, begin here.
In the realm of music production, the art of mixing is a crucial step in bringing ideas to life within a song. This process involves volume considerations, compression, EQ, and panning, all aimed at ensuring that every instrument, melody, vocal, and beat can be heard without hindering one another.
The First Steps
The journey begins by setting all fader levels at 0dB, providing a blank canvas for the mixer to work upon. The focus is then on creating a balanced and cohesive mix that puts the musical idea on show, while a bad mix could bury it forever.
Volume, EQ, and Compression
Adjusting fader levels allows you to hear every track at first, while compression ensures that signal levels remain even, especially for vocals, guitar, bass, and acoustic drums. Compression is primarily used subtly in mixing to keep levels even, taming different frequencies as needed. EQ is used to boost frequencies that are wanted and cut those that are not, with the 20Hz to 20 kHz range of human hearing containing specific frequency ranges for different instruments.
The bass range (60Hz to around 250Hz) covers bass guitar, some male vocals, and parts of kick drum. The lower mid frequency range (250Hz to 500Hz) includes guitars, vocals, and some bass guitar elements. The mid frequency range (500Hz to 2kHz) deals with a lot of vocals, some percussion, and keyboards. The upper-mid range (2kHz to 4kHz) includes female vocals, snares, and strings. Higher frequencies (4kHz and upwards) deal with very high percussive frequencies like cymbals. The sub bass (20-60Hz) is the lowest end of human hearing and is particularly important in bass heavy dance music.
Panning and Placement
Panning lets you spread instruments and vocals across a stereo spread from left to right, keeping clashing instruments away from one another and offering a wide experience for the listener. It is up to the mixer where to place instruments and vocals, but there are some rules to follow if desired. One rule of thumb when mixing a live instrument/band-based piece of music is to picture the band on stage and pan the relative positions of the instruments in that way. Panning can also be used to create depth and width in the mix, making it more immersive for the listener.
Modern Innovations in Mixing
The development of plugins for song mixing originates from the intersection of musical passion and technological innovation. For instance, Steven Atkinson's work starting in 2019 to model guitar amplifiers using neural networks combines his expertise in AI and music, creating highly realistic sound plugins that evolved from a hobby into accessible tools by 2022.
A Balanced Mix
Being a little restrained during the mixing process often yields benefits. For example, modern DAWs can encourage the addition of many tracks, but restraint is often beneficial in mixing to avoid a muddy mix. Generally, low-frequency instruments and the lead vocal stay central, but otherwise, experimentation is encouraged. The process of mixing ensures that all instruments, ideas, melodies, vocals, and beats can be heard without hindering one another, putting the musical idea on show and making it shine.
