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6 Steps For Getting Your Best

Mix Ever
By Matthew Weiss on 06/3/2013 · Mixing

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Audio engineering is a surprisingly competitive arena. Us

VIDEOS meek and mild mixers often find ourselves in head-to-head
competition — or even tougher — competing against some
imaginary beacon of greatness.
PRODUCTS
But this ain’t basketball. We don’t know who wins based on
points. In fact, the only people who really keep score are
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other engineers — “the kick in that song is a 9.2 out of 10, 
but the vocal reverb is only a 7 out of 10.”

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Most people don’t really think or judge music this way.

What makes a great mix? Well, most producers will tell you
a great performance and great arrangement mixes itself.
There’s a reason for this.

A great mix isn’t really separate from a great production,

and a great production isn’t really separate from a great
song. This mix isn’t really the balancing of production
elements. The mix is facilitating the song on record.

This facilitation comes through the balancing of elements,

the manipulation of tone and dynamics, and the
orchestration of space.

But the whole goal is to make the listener hear and feel a
song in the artist’s intended way.

We aren’t really manipulating sounds, we’re manipulating

emotional cues in the form of sound. Let’s break it down:

1. Figure out the Emotions of the

Song
This is the sum of the parts. When you listen to the song,
lyrics and performance, there are feelings and intentions.
Now, some of them will be clear, others will be ambiguous,
and some will be contrasting. But we’ll get to that. For now,
the question is what should the end listener be feeling
when they’re listening to the song.

This may vary from section to section. Or the feeling might

come from the difference between sections.

The point is: Figure out how the song is meant to hit the
listener. The more you can figure this out, the stronger of a
foundation you have for your mix.

2. Figure out How to Support the

Emotions
Emotions are complex. You might have a “sad” sounding
piano riff. If the whole effect were sadness, you might have
a sparse, dragging and/or lightly played drum part (or
maybe no drums). But, you might have the sad piano riff
contrasted with driving drums. This might create the feeling
of fighting through something, or feeling distressed, or a
host of other emotions.

Figuring out how each part interacts gives you context for
your mix. If the parts contrast in feel, perhaps they should
contrast tonally or dynamically as well.

Is the piano supposed to be sad — as in depressed — or

sad as in haunting? Perhaps emphasizing lower tones in the
former and higher tones in the latter will help convey that
intention.

I can’t prescribe any kind of formula for this, that’s the

beauty and subjectivity of mixing.

3. Figure out What’s Important

Once you have an idea of what and how everything is
contributing to the song, you can start figuring out what is
most important to the feeling and when.

This way, if you are, say, EQ’ing separate elements, you

know which element is bowing out of the way of the
other. If the bass has all the inside groove, you don’t want to
EQ the bass to make room for the kick. Or, if you do, you
want to do it because you’re turning the bass up louder
than the kick.

Similarly, if the piano is expressing the feeling you want

featured, and the bass is really just there for support, you
probably want the piano to dominate in the record. In fact,
it might even be good if the piano is masking the bass a bit
in that scenario.

4. Scrutinize Your Vocals

As humans, there is nothing we understand more clearly
than the human voice.

Even if the song is in a different language we hear joy, pain,

anger and love fairly clearly. There is some degree of
universal language that supersedes words.

Find the parts of the performance that convey the feeling,

and bring those out. Check the entrance and exits of words,
notes and phrases. Lots of interesting stuff tends to
live there.

5. Think of Associations
Literal meaning tends to be underwhelming in a song. A
literal meaning in a song would be when the performer tells
the listener what to feel. It can be useful to a degree, but
ultimately you want the listener to find their own emotions
in the song.

One way to do this is to think of associations. An association

is when something makes the listener think/feel something
else. In this regard, the listener digs the emotional response
out from within.

An easy example: putting an echo on something.

Echoes are often associated with loneliness because we

tend to hear echos in empty spaces. If the context is right,
the listener will pull that association up themselves.

6. Focus on Transitions and

Variation
I asked on my Facebook page which main elements make
for a great song. Almost everyone mentioned “contrast.”

We are meant to detect contrast. We have a built-in kinetic

sense that we naturally use to focus our attention on
whatever is changing. And we enjoy change.

Making sure these changes are well orchestrated is

paramount to an effective song — primarily to keep the
song engaging (at the very least).

Conclusion
And that’s how you make the best mix.

Things like compression, EQ, choosing reverbs — these are

all a technical means to an end. The end is the artistic
intention, emotion, and how well it translates over the
listener’s playback system.

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1. Tips for Mixing Rap Vocals
2. Mixing Rap Vocals – Part 2: EQ
3. Mixing with Mastering in Mind: Dynamics
4. 2 Ways to Drastically Improve Your Mixing
Skills
5. 9 Tips for Preparing a Session for Mixing

MATTHEW WEISS

Matthew Weiss is a Grammy nominated and Spellemann

Award winning audio engineer from Philadelphia. Matthew
has mixed songs for Snoop, Sonny Digital, Gorilla Zoe, Uri
Caine, Dizzee Rascal, Arrested Development, 9th Wonder,
!llmind & more. Get in touch: Weiss-Sound.com.

tam.com.br
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Join the discussion…

Tom B • a year ago

If you have solid tracks with a great tune it's not to hard as
long as you have a good desk and decent automation.
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Mike Molloy • 2 years ago

Its the bit that takes the longest to get right. I have been
involved in hundreds of tracks and it still is the most
technically challenging part of music.
1△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Emma Mercer • 3 years ago

I definitely enjoyed this post as i have been trying to come

up with my first-ever mix. I have been trying to this for
months now and i'm not that satisfied with the result.
Although it's a personal thing, i still would want to be able to
have a great mix.

SoundOps.com
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Matthew Weiss > Emma Mercer • 3 years ago

Emma, the first time you try to mix a record is like

learning to swim. Except you're doing it in the ocean,
not the shallow end of the pool. No matter what
direction you look, all you see is options.

My advice is limit your options. Find two elements

(probably vocals and one other thing) - and make
those the center of attention. Mix everything relative
to those elements. This way, at least you have a
target to aim at!
2△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

a • 3 years ago

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