Many of our users have asked for tips in improving their mixes, and we thought that it might be good to create a comprehensive guide covering different areas in detail. Bookmark this one.

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TECHNICAL MIX PREPARATION

Track arrangement and labeling

For effective mixing, reorganize your tracks into cohesive groups; same type of instrumentation should be together (drums, guitars, synths, vocals etc). By relabeling all tracks with simple descriptions and color coding them, you can improve your workflow during mixing. Listen to the tracks and familiarize yourself with the music and song structure while preparing them.

Referencing

It’s crucial to have a mixing goal and a reference track with a professional sound. Pick a genre specific song that represents audio engineering and mixing perfection to you and copy a WAV. file as your first track in your project. Benchmark your work frequently during mixing.

Timing

Arrange your song parts in correct tempo and timing in relation to each other on the timeline. Every hit, beat, and accent should sound uniform, start and end in correct time and have a sense of natural groove that feels good. Remember, quantizing to grid doesn’t necessarily equal great timing (human feel). Also, check that all tracks are all in phase with each other.

Comping

Make your vocals and other lead parts shine at any means necessary. Go through all individual takes, and compile the final performance from the best performance elements that serve the song most favorably. Look for perfect timing, feel, and interpretation of the lyrical content and pronunciation with the final mix in mind.

Tuning

Recorded live performances are rarely perfect. Once you have your final vocal or solo comp, you might have to polish it further in your DAW. Even minimal corrections with e.g. Auto-Tune or Melodyne can yield a big positive effect to overall sound quality. With instruments, be sure to constantly check your tuning while tracking. Small choices, such as choosing a particular pick or lighter pair of drumsticks, can have a big impact on the source tone and help during the mixing phase. Get it right at the source, and you shouldn’t have to worry all that much about instrument tuning and EQ issues when mixing.

Using groups and busses

If you have a large amount of individual tracks and prefer to use instrument groups or subgroups, you should set them up before actual mixing. Choose a means that you are most comfortable with and that fits to the production at hand. You should also set up your send and return busses for auxiliary effects processing (e.g. reverb/delay/sidechain compression).





VOLUME & STEREO FIELD

Setting track volume

Setting appropriate track volume levels (gain staging) is one of the key things in the art of mixing. If you have control over the recording process, make sure you record with a healthy input signal (control this with gain control in your audio interface / preamp) rather that overly hot signal (close to 0dBFS).

Be cautious and keep your levels conservative, around -20 dBFS (24-bit recording), and you’ll retain solid headroom. As an average starting point, your tracks volume meter should be around -18 dB to -24 dBs up on the green side. Otherwise, when you start processing the tracks during mixing, you end up clipping everything anyway, if your individual tracks are too loud. Digital clipping in your DAW sounds bad, and it should be avoided as opposed to clipping generated by vintage analog hardware that can actually give desired color and warmth to any audio source.

Initial balance in Mono

Before proceeding to panning, it’s beneficial to start by finding a rough mix balance in mono. When doing this, use only one monitor speaker. Surprisingly many listening environments use mono signal, and therefore it’s highly advised to do mono mix checks throughout the mixing process in order to understand the audience perspective and also cure potential phase issues.

Panning

Panning relates to stereo image and is another crucial element in your mix. Where should you place your tracks in the stereo spectrum? There are absolutely no rules to mixing but the general consensus, in the professional recordings, seems to be that kick and snare drum, lead vocals, and bass guitar should be in the middle (no panning).

Multiple channels of recorded drums are usually panned as you were looking at the physical drumkit from the front or from the perspective of the drummer. However, guitars, synths, and many other elements are usually panned quite heavily left of right. For real width, try to find opposing instruments with slightly contrasting frequencies. You’ve got two speakers to spread the music, use them. Aim for a musical and full sounding mix where every element can have clarity, balance, and separation. Also try to build contrast between song parts, so that the track is not equally wide throughout the song.

Gating

Gating prevails as a powerful way to reduce noise buildup and shaping the incoming audio signal in the studio or live. The gate is used to automatically mute the audio signal, when it drops below the user defined threshold in decibels, and therefore closing the pathway when only undesired noise is present. The gate can be harnessed to many tasks from channel and ambient noise reduction to effects processing. Similar to a compressor, typical gate settings usually include; threshold, ratio, attack, release, and hold.

The gate settings

Threshold

As opposed to compressors, the attenuation of the audio signal happens below the set threshold value, and when the gate begins to close. The threshold needs to be set as low a value as possible to maintain the integrity and attack of the sound.

Attack

When the signal exceeds the threshold value, the attack setting defines the time it takes for the gate to get fully opened. Slow attack times vary between 10-100 microseconds, and fast times vary from 200 milliseconds to one second range. Attack should be set as fast as possible without causing distortion or changing the initial impact of the audio signal.

Release (or decay)

This is opposing value to the attack, and defines the time it takes for the gate go from “fully open” or unprocessed state back to signal attenuation or muting below the threshold value. Release times are generally slower than attack times, varying from 1-10 millisecond to 2-5 seconds. Setting the release right is very important for natural transition in sound.

Hold

Some gates have this setting in order to control how long the gate will remain open when the signal has exceeded the set threshold. Once the signal drops back below the threshold, the gate will be held open for the duration of the “hold time” value before it starts closing. Fast attack and release times may cause problems (chattering) that can be cured by setting a correct hold time.

Ratio (or Range)

Ratio controls the amount of signal attenuation that happens when the gate is closed. Some gates don’t mute the signal altogether but lets the user set the amount of attenuation in decibels. The benefit of this control is that the gate doesn’t have to open from zero (or muted state) and can therefore provide more natural transition to gating.

Sidechaining

In order for a gate to operate, it must know when the signal exceeds the threshold. Usually, the signal detection circuit uses a copy of the original signal being gated to do this. Sidechaining the gate means that you can use external signals to trigger the signal detection circuit of the gate. This can be used with great effect to create rhythmic parts, instrument specific eq, or set to control a part or element in the mix creatively.





EQ

Surgical EQ (noise reduction)

Get rid of any additional noise on your audio clips and tracks; clicks, pops, count-ins and outs, breathing noise, sibilance, etc. Always insert de-esser on vocals. Prepare all audio clips with fade-ins and outs to further reduce noise floor and bring sounds in and out, smoothly. Pinpoint any hums and hisses, introduced to the signal during recording phase, and try to eliminate them by “cutting”.

Sculpting EQ (sound enhancement)

EQ is definitely one of the most critical balancing acts of mixing and has great value, in terms of the final result. With EQ, you can help different instruments and audio elements find their place in the mix. Certain instruments rival each other in the same frequencies, and with proper arrangement and by using EQ, you can make them live together in harmony.

EQ moves can be subtle or more drastic, depending on the issue. Generally, you should make room for the kick drum and bass in the mix to populate the low frequencies. Therefore, almost everything else will benefit from rolling the lowest sub frequencies out with a hi-pass filter. Usually, issues are remedied by subtractive eq or “cutting”, and good qualities are enhanced by “boosting”.

Remember, EQ’ing is always program dependant. You should search for problem frequencies by making narrow hi-dB boosts and sweeping to locate them. You set the final level of cut or boost by listening critically and trusting your ears. However, a properly recorded quality performance with great source sounds might not need EQ at all.

You can adjust the cut or boost by selecting the shape of the EQ curve (e.g. shelving or bell), Q-value (width of the curve), volume (+/- dBs), and slope (dBs / octave). Learning to apply EQ and it’s settings and parameters properly, will yield big results over time, so we encourage you to invest time in it. Alway listen critically within the context to maintain balance in the mix.





COMPRESSION

How it works

Compression or dynamics processing refers to modification of dynamic range and shaping of transients in audio production by lessening the difference between quietest and loudest parts. Compression is one of the key elements in mixing. It’s commonly used, in its various forms, when processing individual tracks, effects, mixbus, and also in the mastering phase. Compressor types are: Tube, Optical, VCA (Voltage Controlled Amplifier), FET (Field Effect Transistor), Vari-Gain, and digital software plugins.

The basic compression parameters

Ratio

Ratio expresses the degree in which the compressor reduces the dynamic range by attenuating the incoming audio signal. Ratio is a constant value in decibels. For example, ratio of 3:1 indicates that an input signal, exceeding the set compression threshold by 3dB, will be attenuated to 1dB over the threshold. Typical compression ratios extend to 8:1. Above that, compression begins to form towards limiting, which is taken care of later in the mastering phase.

Threshold and Knee

The level after which compression starts to affect the signal is called the Threshold. The compression (attenuation) only occurs when input signal peaks above the set threshold.

The knee describes the compressor’s transition between the uncompressed and compressed signal. Typical compression knee settings are “soft knee” for smoother transition and “hard knee” for more aggressive compression.

Attack

When a signal peaks above the set compression threshold value, attack time adjusts how long it takes for the signal to reach state of full compression. Attack times are often referred to as “fast” “medium”, and “long”, and they vary from microseconds to milliseconds, depending on the compression unit or software. Fast attack times may introduce distortion to the input signal.

Release

Release is an opposing value to attack, and describes how long it takes for the compressed signal to recover back to its original non-compressed state. Too short release times will cause the compressor to “pump” when compressor activates itself and then deactivates (releases) the signal in cyclic motion. This is generally not desired but it is sometimes used as an effect with e.g drum mixing.

Output gain

Applying compression will result in attenuation of the signal. To maintain the original signal level, one must use “make-up gain” to compensate for the lowered output after compression. Many compressor units show the compressor’s gain reduction visually in dB meter, so it’s easy to apply the correct amount of output gain to bring the volume back to original level.

Benefits of compression

Compression allows you to control the maximum signal levels and maintain higher average loudness in mixing modern music. You will reap the benefits of compression by applying it subtly to different musical parts and elements during the mixing process. As a rule of thumb, try to avoid adding excessive amounts of compression to any single source of audio, unless applied as a specific effect. Learn all the described settings by doing hands-on experimenting. Take your time with it and dig deep in order to understand how compression really works.





EFFECTS PROCESSING AND AUTOMATION

Reverb

Adding sense of space to your mix is certainly the cornerstones of your audio processing duties. A little bit goes a long way. Reverb is a great tool, giving depth to different instruments and vocals. Long reverb pre-delay and reverb decay settings equal further back in the depth of the mix and vice versa.

A noteworthy tip for using reverbs is to cross-pan the reverb with e.g. the instrument track itself. Another useful tip is to always clean the reverb tails by placing EQ after a reverb using hi- and low-pass filters. This helps to avoid clutter build-up and give pristine sounding reverbs. Try different reverb types (room, hall, plate, etc.) and decay times, mix and match for different instruments. Control the relationship between dry and effected signal with the mix knob. Use an aux or bus on time-based effects, so avoid adding them directly to audio track. Usually, shorter reverbs with decays under a second (in varying degrees) sound the biggest.

Delay

With delay you can further enhance the sense of depth in your tracks. Delay happens when the input signal is recorded and then played back after a specific amount of time, either once, multiple times, or in a repetitive pattern. In many cases delay is used in combination with a reverb for a big impact in spatial sense.

Mix level of delay (dry / wet) makes a big difference in perceived sound and its position in the mix. Shorter delays usually work the best (under 100 ms) in giving track a sense of bigness. Experiment with different times, settings, and dry/wet levels to find a sweet spot. Syncing delay times in your DAW to in order track tempo or tapping it in yourself is another cool way to add depth in a more stealthy way. Delays offer mono and stereo tweakability, too, so try to find what works best in the context of your song.

Automation

Often overlooked, but the Pro’s use it and you should, too. As a mixing tool, automation has proven to be one of the most powerful tools, available, taking care of work, a compressor simply can’t. Riding volume throughout the track is a simple but effective way to take full control of the elements, creating “push and pull”, within the track, to make everything have its time and place. Automation tools are readily available in your DAW and can be applied to virtually everything from vocals and guitars to panning and effects.





PREPARING FILES FOR MASTERING

Mixing aftermath

You are now sure you are satisfied with the final mix. Remember to check your mix in mono, too. Do everything you can to complete the mix and check every detail. Before you prepare to bounce your mixdown to a stereo file in lossless format (24-bit WAV. or AIFF), the master bus should ideally be clear of any processing. If you did mix directly into compressor, you should take out any limiter software before mastering, and always switch off dithering on plugins in the master bus.

It’s very important to check potential clipping between all plugins. Go through your song and insert a loudness meter on the master bus to make sure everything is going smoothly. Insert start and end marker points with enough silence on both ends, and render your mixdown between -3dB to -10 db of headroom without any peak clipping on individual tracks or on the master bus. However, prepare mentally to revisit the mix during the mastering phase if you still end up finding serious issues. You can’t fix mixing issues with mastering.

CloudBounce mastering offers a great tool for checking your progress during mixing and helps you decide when the mixing is done. After that you can render the final master for publishing.

Bonus mixing tips:

Choose a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) you know and that’s capable for the whole mixing process from start to finish. Luckily most DAWs enable professional results with built-in plugins. Learn to work with what you got, and don’t worry about the latest gear on the market.

Mix at lower volume to avoid fatigue and to get an impactful mix. Remember to listen to it in different environments and with different speakers (laptop, car, boombox, hi-fi stereo, PA etc.), and don’t forget to check your low-end levels with a good quality subwoofer. If it sounds great on low volume, it will thunder when cranked.

Take breaks frequently and do other things. Eat, drink, and sleep enough and keep yourself active. Come back to mixing with fresh ears. Have an “eyes on the prize” mixing mentality. Always mix with your vision of the final product (and mastering) in mind.

While EQ carving and other finetuning benefits from soloing a track, most listening should be in context of the song. Many times, you end up making better decisions. Also, concentrate in doing more subtractive EQ’ing, and be cautious with boosting.

This is a big one; trust your intuition and make faster decisions. Make a quick rough mix with dry sounds to get a feel for the song. Commit to just a couple of tools (EQ; compressor, reverb, etc.) so you don’t have to spend time, choosing what to use. Most plugins readily in your DAW are up for the task. Focus on the actual mixing job, and not just “noodling around”. Trust your ears. If it sounds good, it probably is.

Always use a high-quality reference track. It helps you keep your vision and sound up to par and more cohesive during mixing. Keep thinking sonically in 3D: horizontal (panning), vertical (volume), and depth (reverb, spatial image) and try to paint an exciting picture with sound where things move, pulse, and groove, come in and out.

If you have a acoustically decent and fairly even sounding work space, studio monitors are probably your best bet. You can definitely mix with quality headphones with an even frequency response. It’s much cheaper, mobile, and not depending on time and place. If you don’t have a good sounding room, headphones are a viable option.

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Now that you’ve got a hang of the mixing workflow, it should be put into practice. The true masters of mixing have put the hours in, and you should too. We laid down the basic MIDI and audio tracks and tools such as EQ, Compressors and Stereo Widening, and grouped different instruments together. Create better mixes with this free template.

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