– Producer’s Desk: 5 Home Mixing Tips
I’ve been doing a lot of mixing recently, and that tends to get my head in a very detailed listening mode. So when I hear other home recordings during these times, lots of things stick out to me and I thought I’d list a few items here that might help you improve your own home recordings.
Before we dive in, though, remember that of the 4 stages of recording (pre-production, source recording, mixing, mastering), what I’m touching on here is only the tip of the iceberg on the 3rd stage. So by the time you get this far you’re already in the deep end of the pool. These tips aren’t going to make a bad song good or save a poor instrument tone (“you can’t polish a turd”). But if you’ve got your parts recorded well already, these should at least remind you not to make the most common mistakes when actively listening to your mixes.
1. Vocals out front – There are very few styles where the artistic choice of blending the vocal into the other instruments makes good sense. Being able to hear the words and the melody being sung clearly is generally paramount. Especially when it’s your own voice, it’s easy to be self-conscious and back off it a little. Fight that tendency! Put it out front and let it lead the way – all other instrumentation should be in support of the vocal.
2. EQ & compression – As I said above, I strongly believe in getting your source as good as possible when recording, and that includes pre-EQ and compression. Get your signal as smooth and good sounding at the source, rather than at mixing time and you’ll be way better off. Now that being said, if you have to do a little “fix in the mix” still consider it part of the source recording and put EQ and compression as early in the signal chain as possible. For EQ, the rule is always “cut first” but I’ll admit that I break that pretty regularly, especially if I’m just looking for a little added presence/clarity in the highend. Be careful with compression at this stage! You still have another compression point in mastering and you can get wacky “pumping” dynamics results in your final product. There’s a lot more to say about EQ and compression at a later date, but the bottom line for now is – minimal use during mixing is best!! Train your ear to really be able to understand these two tools better and your recordings will benefit greatly.
3. Reverb/FX – FX can be so easy to overuse because they sound so cool! Unfortunately, it doesn’t take much for your mix to become a muddy mess. Some concert hall reverb here, a sweeping chorus there, some epic delays everywhere…you get the idea. But leaving your mix bare also can feel unnatural and sound jarring. So what’s the happy medium? I have two thoughts on that: First, for a particular part special effect, have a vision up front for what you are going for, keep the effect to that part, and treat it as the source sound for that part. When you are just fishing for cool sounds is when you can get into the most trouble and overeffect something that doesn’t need it. Second, for everything else that doesn’t require a special effect to achieve the intended source sound, approach it as if you are just setting an overall mood. Generally a light, fairly short reverb is all you need to just make it sound like instruments are being played in a lively, natural room. Then, depending on the mood, some delay on the “solo” instruments (lead vocals, maybe a solo guitar or something like that), will add a really nice touch. Keep it light though, and make sure your delay is timed correctly to the beat of the song (60/beats per minute for the correct quarter note millisecond number to enter into your delay unit – or divide in half for eighth notes). For this use, stay clear of delay units with analog knobs for the delay time setting – make sure you can enter a specific number of milliseconds.
4. Panning – it may seem odd to list panning as its own category, especially given it’s not quite as involved as, say, EQ & compression. But I do believe that good use of panning is a bit of a lost art, at least in home recording. There’s one end of the spectrum that way overuses their panning abilities, making the user disoriented and dizzy. Unless it is an extremely short, specific usage that really fits the context well, I find aggressive pinging around the stereo field extremely annoying and distracting. The other end of the spectrum is having everything right up the middle (or nearly up the middle) or the equivalent when you double a part and hard pan the two equally. The effect is still a single monolithic wall of sound coming at the listener. Here’s my point: There’s a lot more space to use here than I think most people realize – learn to use it to your advantage. There is an immense amount of clarity you can bring to a part by giving it it’s own space in the stereo field. A part that is hidden with everything up the middle, suddenly rings clear with even a 50-75% push to one side, no additional volume necessary. Shift harmony vocals off to the side a little. Percussion like tambourines, shakers, etc. can come through clearly without overpowering a mix. Really imagine your stereo field as a 180 degree space and you will be amazed at how much added clarity your mixes will receive.
5. Fine details: lip/tongue clicks, amp noise, crossfades & fadeouts, etc. – I realize there are times when stylistic choice determines the roughness of the details in a recording. And live recordings (or recordings that try to feel live) are certainly in a different realm for these kinds of details. But on those recordings that have an obvious intention of trying to be polished productions, the details really do count, and in this day and age of DAWs they’re pretty easy to take care of. I recommend looking at the source waveforms in your mix and being a stickler for cutting any parts that are unnecessary. Just clip them and delete them – to me it’s just part of keeping a clean house. Then as you hear other noisy anomalies (string noise, ringing snares, you name it), use your volume automation to fade, crossfade, or otherwise avoid the problem area and smoothly come back to your regular part. The better you get with your automation tools, the finer you will be able to make these kinds of adjustment sound transparent. That’s the goal afterall, right? For people to hear your music as you intended, undistracted by the inevitable imperfections of recorded performance. Dial your ear to detect and eliminate these details and you will be well on your road to that goal.
Well, I hope you enjoyed these tips and maybe learned a thing or two. Please let me know if you have questions or topics you’d like me to address in the future. I’d love to hear from you!
Additional mixing topics to discuss in the future:
– Virtual instruments
– Signal path optimization
– More on EQ & compression
– The great auto-tune debate
