Joseph Hearn

Mixing analysis
Importance of mixing
Say youve finished a recording of a live performance and are happy with the
performance and vocals; this would be prime time to start mixing the piece. Proper
mixing is needed in order to have a professional sounding song. A song will never
sound its best without the use of mixing. A good and professional mix will not only make
the song sound professional but can add dynamic, emotion and life to the song.
What is mixing?
Mixing is the technical and creative process of combining all the individual tracks i.e.
instruments, vocals, etc and "mixing" them down to one stereo track. For each
instrument or vocal mixing allows you to change how loud a track is compared to any
other tracks in the mix, what space the track occupies in the mix, i.e. left, right, centre,
back or front and how the tracks sound in comparison to others e.g. clear, thin, bright
etc. Each track can be changed in a mix by using four basic tools:
Volume- volume determines the balance between all the tracks in the mix, for example
how loud the vocals are compared to the volume of the guitars or how loud the piano is
compared to drums etc. The volume of a track can be changed using tools such as,
compressors that control the dynamics of a track or the volume difference between the
softest and loudest parts of the track.
Panning- Panning determines where an instrument is placed in the stereo field, from
hard left to hard right or anywhere in between. The reason panning takes place is
because if all of the instruments in the mix were placed in the centre, then it would be
nearly impossible to work out which instrument is which and as well as this the mix
would sound really cluttered. Spreading out the instruments through the use of panning
makes the mix sound clearer and less compact.

Equalization (EQ) - EQ can emphasis or de-emphasis certain frequencies or an

instrument or vocals. For example, using EQ to boost the lower frequencies of a bass

Joseph Hearn

guitar or kick drum will make them sound bigger and fatter. If air and shimmer where
needed to be added to vocals them you would need to boost the higher frequencies. If
the acoustic guitar in a mix is sounding too strident then cutting the mi range
frequencies may smooth the sounding of the guitar. EQ is often used to define certain
instruments so that they are not fighting within the same frequency range.

Effects- effects can be time based i.e. reverb, delay and echo or modulation based i.e.
chorus, flange etc. Time based effects like reverb and echo are used to add depth to the
mix. Effects are also used to change the original sound of an instrument so that it
stands out in the mix or make the mix sound more exciting.
Mixing tools
The best assets a technician has when producing a mix are his ears, but as well as this
there are a number of audio tools that are used when creating a mix, these include; a
good set of monitors, a good listening environment that can handle acoustics well, high
quality equalizers and compressors, effects such as reverb and delay and a digital or
analog mixing consol. Most mixing that takes place in this day and age is done on
computers using a digital audio workstation e.g. ProTools, Logic Pro X etc, with digital
automation and plugins.
Reverb
Reverb is an effect in which reflections of sound bounce back at you off an array of
surfaces. Unlike echo where you can clearly work out that the original sound is being
repeated, the reflections in a reverb situation create a long decay meaning the sound
continues to ring out once the initial attack of the sound has been played the reflections
then eventually blend together and fade away in the end. Reverb is easy to hear in a
large open room with high ceilings i.e. a church. When creating music you use reverb to
give your sounds a sense of space. By doing this you can make the sounds seem
richer, more powerful and more likely to be distinctive.

Joseph Hearn

Decay/Echo
Delay also known as Echo is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio
storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may
either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create
the sound of a repeating, decaying echo.
Compression/ Compressors
Compression is often used to make music sound louder without increasing its peak
amplitude. By compressing the loudest signals, it then becomes possible to increase the
overall gain (volume) of a signal, without exceeding the dynamic range of a reproductive
device or medium. In other words, compression is the process of lessening the dynamic
range between the loudest and quietest parts of an audio signal. This is done by
boosting the quieter signals and attenuating the louder signals. The controls you are
given to set up a compressor are usually:
Threshold- this is how loud the signal has to be before compression is applied to it.
Ratio- the ratio means how much compression is actually applied to the track. For
example if the compression ratio is 6:1, the input signal will have to cross the threshold
by 6dB in order for the output level to increase by 1dB.
Attack- this is how quickly the compressor starts to work.
Release- how soon after the signal drops below the threshold the compressor stops.
Knee- Knee - sets how the compressor reacts to signals once the threshold is passed.
Hard Knee settings mean it clamps the signal straight away, and Soft Knee means the
compression kicks in more gently as the signal goes further past the threshold.
Make up gain- this allows you to boost the compressed signal
Output- this will enable you to boost or attenuate the level of the signal output from the
compressor.
How I did my mix of my multi-track recording

Joseph Hearn

Once I had completed my recording and was happy with the drums and guitar that I
recorded into my composition I then needed to mix my final recording.
The first step I took in my mix was to make sure that I didnt have any clipping on any of
my tracks. To do this I opened the mixer on Logic Pro X and played my recording, I then
looked at the volume levels for each of my tracks and checked that none of the
instruments volume levels were going into the red zone at any point in my recording. I
found that some of my instruments did go into the red zone, so to stop this from
happening I moved the faders down on the instrument track that was clipping, until it
was out of the red zone. By doing this it made my track sound softer, and decreased the
risk of damaging the speakers, by having too higher output levels.
Once this was done, I then had to add some compression to the drums; this is because
when the track was playing the drums were hard to hear over the other instruments. By
adding compression to my drums this meant their volume was increased, so I was able
to hear them over the other instruments. I had to make sure I didnt add to much
compression because I didnt want the drums to overpower the other instruments, I
wanted them to sit nicely in the middle. As well as compression, I also added reverb to
the drums. I added reverb to the drums as I felt it would give my composition more
atmosphere, and make the overall piece have more life to it.
The last thing I did was make sure that the left and right overheads were panned. The
left overhead I panned to the left and the right overhead I panned to the right. The
reason I panned these overheads is because without the panning of the overheads my
mix sounded cramped and cluttered. So by panning the overheads it made my track
sound clearer and less compact. As well as the overheads I also panned the guitar
audio to the left and the acoustic guitar midi to the right, this is because it meant that I
could hear what the guitars were playing, as they were playing two different melodies
and if I didnt pan them then I wouldnt of been able to distinguish between the two
melodies.
How I mixed the Africa recording
The first thing I did when I was given the Africa recording to mix was, to make sure all
the levels for all audio tracks were not clipping. To make sure they werent clipping I
opened the mixer in Logic Pro X. Once this was open I then lowered the levels of some
of the tracks that were either clipping or overwhelming the other instruments by using
the faders. Once I lowered the levels of the tracks, I then used eq on the drums this is
because there was a lot of dead space in the drums that made them sound fuzzy, so by
using eq the drums then sounded a lot clearer and less fuzzy. After using eq I then put
reverb on the snare, this gave the snare more life and atmosphere as well as improving
the overall track. I then panned the left and right overheads to make the track sound

Joseph Hearn

clearer and less cluttered. The next part I did was to eq the guitars (electric and
acoustic), this is so that they dont sound distorted on the track as this would not sound
good. Once this was done I then used eq and compressors on the shakes and the
congo. This is so that if there were hits played unevenly then they would be evened out
and leveled. When this was completed I then eq and compressed the bass guitar. This
is because I saw that the bass was a bit quiet in the mix so I compressed it to make it
louder by didnt compress it too much as I didnt want it to be too overpowering. The
final stage was to mix the vocals. This included adding eq, compression, reverb and
panning to the lead vocals and four harmony tracks. I added some automation to the
vocals in the chorus as the instruments were drowning out the vocals so they needed to
be brought up so that they could be heard.