This mini-series of two videos will teach you how to make your music sound amazing, and make it reach broadcast quality or higher.
What I am going to share with you today is gold...
As a composer, self-taught in sound engineering, it took me years to painfully up my game in terms of sound quality and put it all together. Today, with daily license sales, my music tracks are all over the internet and the traditional media reinforcing the message of video producers.
Mixing is a crucial step when it comes to making a music track sound professional. Many count on the polishing of mastering to fix a track and make it sound smashing… This is a mistake… Mastering is what it is, polishing… In other words, your track should sound already fantastic before you send it to a studio mastering (or before mastering it yourself).
Mixing music is an art that can require years of study before reaching mastery. There are schools specialized in this and actually, in the music bizz, the best audio engineers are real stars very much sought for by the most successful musicians out there!
In just 2 articles + videos, it would be arrogant from me to pretend I will make a master mixer out of you. Even a full course would not be enough. However, the first learning steps bring a lot of rewards. Read this article, watch the video, take notes of the main tips and implement those relevant to you. I guarantee you that this will bring value to your music for years to come.
Feel free to either watch the video, or continue reading the article, both contain valuable information for improving the sound of your music.
What is mixing?
Mixing consists in blending all the instruments playing in a music piece onto two tracks, left and right. Sounds easy ? Not so fast… There are three main mix tasks to complete a good mix:
- The volume mix defines how loud is each instrument relatively to each other.
- The pan mix defines where each instrument is located in the stereo space.
- And in my eyes, the most important, the frequency mix assigns to each instrument a dedicated frequency range (or ranges). In our jargon, we talk about setting up an instrument’s 'spectral space'.
STEP 1 - Preparing the mix
The first step is preparing the mix and this involves cleaning up!
- Make sure that you are satisfied with all individual sounds. If you are limited in cpu power, bounce your MIDI generated track to Audio.
- Remove all unwanted buzzes, pops and clicks in audio tracks, and artifacts in synth generated tracks.
- If you have many tracks, which could make the process tedious or unmanageable, group the tracks that have similar spectral ranges and sound (like violins and Violas), after having volume mixed them. Remember mixing must be fun for it to work!
- Label or/and color code. Use the labeling method you prefer, but do set up a quick way to identify all individual tracks!
- Bypass any inserts on the main bus.
- Start your mix with fresh ears (REALLY IMPORTANT! See details about why this point is crucial in the video)
STEP 2 - Creating a rough volume Mix
The objective here is to get a feel for your music by adjusting the volume of the individual instruments.
- Make sure your ears are rested before starting the mixing process.
- Check on each track that there are no unnecessary effects, especially reverb.
- Start by muting all tracks, and then un-mute them one after the other while adjusting their respective volume.
- Make sure to balance the instruments according to the feel you want to give to your music and not necessarily to what is considered “standard”. Be yourself.
- And during that process, keep an eye on the volume of the main bus (I recommend peaking between -6dB and -3dB).
Once you are satisfied, you are ready for the next step
STEP 3 - Frequency mix.
When you listen to a rock band playing, you hear the kick drum, the bass, the guitars, the snare, the keyboards or piano, the vocals, the high hat, the cymbals etc.
How can you make all these blend them so that the result is a harmonious piece of music in which you can appreciate the talents of all players, instead of a big messy noise? You have to separate them, and separate them in… frequency.
Each instrument covers various frequency bands. The bass and the kick-drum will provide sound in the low end, from 50 to 300Hz, but can also show up in the highs at 2,5KHz.
The vocals will be predominant around the Khz but you do have some booming around 200Hz, and sibilance in the 5KHz, while Hi hats will carry energy more in the highs above 3KHz but if you want to keep the Gong sound, you need to keep some of its energy in the lows… And for Synth, they can show up anywhere!
The best way to approach this is to explore it yourself. Fire up your favorite DAW and check out the frequency ranges of your favorite instruments using a spectral analyser. I actually did this using Reason:
If you prefer to rely on general frequency charts made by others, here are a few links to get started:
Instrument Frequency Chart
The Frequency Spectrum Instrument Ranges, and EQ tips
Interactive Frequency Chart
How to approach frequency mixing:
a/ Allocate a spectral space to all instruments.
The point of spectral Mixing here is to avoid instruments treading on each other’s toes by giving each of them some spectral space. Examples:
- Removing the mids of a bass to leave space for a rhythmic guitar,
- Removing the low end rumble of the guitar to leave space for the bass or the kick,
- Reducing a synth pad in the range of frequencies where a melodic piano is playing.
b/ Use your eyes to help your ears.
The best way to do this is to visualize each track with a spectrum analyzer. That will give you a good idea where each instrument is located in the audio spectrum, and where you can cut unnecessary rumble or noise that you do not need in your music.
c/ Consider side chain compression to solve conflicts.
Sometimes, it can be difficult to separate two instruments occupying the same spectral space without altering their timber significantly. Typical examples are a vocal singing over a piano, a bass and kick drum battling for the same spectral space, or the left hand of an organist stepping on the bassman’s toes!
The solution is to use side chain compression. A very common use of this technique consists in handling the low end: bass and kick often conflict as they hit at the same time and in the same spectral range. Side chain compression dynamically reduces the bass sound at the frequency of the kick each time the kick hits! This concept is extremely powerful and can change the full feeling of a track for the better (or for the worse!). It will definitely deserve a full blown article (stay tuned!).
d/ Adopt a clear workflow.
With many instruments to handle, things can become quite confusing. A good prior preparation is essential to keep having fun and remain creative during the process (see step 1). As for the workflow, it’s up to you. Personally, when I start a frequency mixing session, I start dealing with the low end and then make it up towards the high frequencies, one instrument at a time.
Step 4 and Step 5: Refining and Mastering
In my next post about this subject, I will show you the steps to refine your mix. I will also share with you some basic notions to get you started in self-mastering your own tracks. I will conclude this series by giving the golden tips that have helped me much in my career as a music producer.
Do you want to know more, and follow the full 5-hour course on how to produce music with Reason?
Check this link on Udemy for reviews, more preview videos and more info: https://www.udemy.com/producing-music-with-reason/
Then, come back.
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Image credit: Illustrations in this article and in the video were created by me using pictures and visual elements found on Pixabay.com.
Video and music on video produced by me.
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My life revolves around music production, teaching sciences, and discovery through travel.
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