Mixing music can be an incredibly inspired process. It is my conviction that it is best to get all of the managerial work out of the way to help facilitate a far more inventive and exciting mixing experience. Use these steps as a guide, make them your own, and I promise you that your final mix will be far more productive.
1. Organize Your Tracks
It is helpful to group your tracks on the multitrack by instrument. Typically, you may have drums, percussion, bass, guitars, keys and other samples or instruments, and vocals. When my colleague worked on the latest Moneen album, he ended up with a ton of guitar tracks. He would blend guitar amps with several mics on each amp for major guitar sounds. It was common for him to have 40-50 guitar tracks per song. As such, organization was key to a successful mix. In the end he ended up grouping the guitar tracks into four unique groups, rhythm and lead tracks for Kenny and Hippy.
2. Edit Prior to Mixing Music
Ensure all of your tracks are appropriately edited before you begin mixing. In today's digital world, we are constantly utilizing playlists and comping the best performances together. Make sure that every edit point has a crossfade as this will aid in avoiding any unwanted clicks and pops.
3. Consolidate
Once you have edited all your tracks it is advised to consolidate them to your session start time. This will guarantee all of your regions will have the same start time which will be a huge benefit if you are going to hire a mixer to work on your music. It will also decrease your computer's processing time. Processing hundreds of crossfades and edits is very hard on a computer. By consolidating your tracks, you are taking away all of the edits and crossfades, by doing so you will free up processing power that can be used for effect processing during your mix. Plus, your computer will run faster during the mix.
4. Clear Unused Regions Before Mixing
Once you have consolidated your tracks it is a good idea to eliminate any unneeded regions or tracks from your session. Keep only what you want to have mixed into your song. This will be helpful if you are hiring a mix engineer as it will ensure that no unwanted sounds end up in your mix.
5. Print Effects
Record any cool effects you are using to their own tracks. You will end up with your original dry track, plus a new, wet track. It is often hard to recreate effects during a mix, especially if you use plug-ins that your mix engineer does not have.
To illustrate this, my colleague was working with a band called A/Collision and they had given him demos of their entire record that they had recorded in cubase. He loved the sound of some of their vocal treatments, so when they were finished recording the vocals, he gave them the consolidated lead vocal track which he had them run through the same cubase plug-ins they used on their original demos. Unfortunately, he was then able to use those effect tracks during the mix -- hitting this point home.
While there are many more strategies to achieve a professional music mix, if you begin with these five, you are off to a great start.
1. Organize Your Tracks
It is helpful to group your tracks on the multitrack by instrument. Typically, you may have drums, percussion, bass, guitars, keys and other samples or instruments, and vocals. When my colleague worked on the latest Moneen album, he ended up with a ton of guitar tracks. He would blend guitar amps with several mics on each amp for major guitar sounds. It was common for him to have 40-50 guitar tracks per song. As such, organization was key to a successful mix. In the end he ended up grouping the guitar tracks into four unique groups, rhythm and lead tracks for Kenny and Hippy.
2. Edit Prior to Mixing Music
Ensure all of your tracks are appropriately edited before you begin mixing. In today's digital world, we are constantly utilizing playlists and comping the best performances together. Make sure that every edit point has a crossfade as this will aid in avoiding any unwanted clicks and pops.
3. Consolidate
Once you have edited all your tracks it is advised to consolidate them to your session start time. This will guarantee all of your regions will have the same start time which will be a huge benefit if you are going to hire a mixer to work on your music. It will also decrease your computer's processing time. Processing hundreds of crossfades and edits is very hard on a computer. By consolidating your tracks, you are taking away all of the edits and crossfades, by doing so you will free up processing power that can be used for effect processing during your mix. Plus, your computer will run faster during the mix.
4. Clear Unused Regions Before Mixing
Once you have consolidated your tracks it is a good idea to eliminate any unneeded regions or tracks from your session. Keep only what you want to have mixed into your song. This will be helpful if you are hiring a mix engineer as it will ensure that no unwanted sounds end up in your mix.
5. Print Effects
Record any cool effects you are using to their own tracks. You will end up with your original dry track, plus a new, wet track. It is often hard to recreate effects during a mix, especially if you use plug-ins that your mix engineer does not have.
To illustrate this, my colleague was working with a band called A/Collision and they had given him demos of their entire record that they had recorded in cubase. He loved the sound of some of their vocal treatments, so when they were finished recording the vocals, he gave them the consolidated lead vocal track which he had them run through the same cubase plug-ins they used on their original demos. Unfortunately, he was then able to use those effect tracks during the mix -- hitting this point home.
While there are many more strategies to achieve a professional music mix, if you begin with these five, you are off to a great start.
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