Forte - Playing Outside the Box

It's All in the Mix

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by Michael King

So, you’ve finally decided to try digital recording, and invested some time and money in a home studio, complete with a personal computer, soundcard, MIDI sequencer, mikes, and speakers.

You’ve even recorded some individual instrument tracks that you’re proud of, and you’re ready to craft and polish these gems into a full-fledged song. In order to get that “professional sound” you’re looking for, you’ll need to combine these tracks together in a process called mixing.

Mixing balances, blends, and adds elements to individual tracks to create a finished song. Volume, panning, equalization, and effects such as reverb and chorus are typical elements of the mixing process. They control the audio levels, placement, and the character of each track.

While mixing is a very personal and subjective process, which changes greatly depending on the style of music you’re working with, there are a number of fundamental techniques you should be aware of to help you get the sound you’re looking for.

Know Your Environment

Every home studio is different. Maybe you’ve got a big couch in the back that eats up bass frequencies, or a tall ceiling that adds some unintended echo. The first step to a successful mix is to know your own environment. The goal of a mix is to have it sound good in every possible listening environment. Once you identify the parameters of your own listening environment, you can more easily understand how your mix relates to rest of world.

Mix for the Real World

Another key to a successful mix is to use more than one set of speakers. While your mix may sound great on your high-end monitors or your noise canceling headphones, the rest of the world will likely listen to your music on a lower-end system, such as a car stereo. In order to mix with others in mind, you need to listen to your mix through two other sets of speakers.

Scale the Heights!
Warming up prior to practice or performance is crucial no matter what instrument you play. Warming up with scales and other exercises not only will keep your technique sharp but also serve to limber up the muscles in your fingers, hands, and wrists. But what is a scale? Put simply, it’s a series of notes arranged from lowest to highest, or vice versa. A piano keyboard is laid out in order of the chromatic scale, which means each adjacent white and black key is one half step apart. There are many scales, or arrangement of notes, you can play on a keyboard. Two common scales that a beginning pianist should become familiar with are the major scale and harmonic minor scale. Both scales have a pattern of whole (1) and half (½) steps, which are followed no matter what note the scale begins with. A half step means you move up one piano key; a whole step mean you move up two keys; and one-and-a-half steps means move up three keys. The note you begin a scale with determines key; hence, this is the keynote, or tonic.

The step pattern for a major scale is 1 - 1 - ½ - 1 - 1 - 1 - ½. Above is the C major scale. Click here to listen to an mp3 sample of the C Major scale.	The step pattern for the harmonic minor scale is 1 - ½ - 1 - 1 - ½ - 1½ - ½. Above is the A harmonic minor scale. Click here to listen to an mp3 sample of the A Harmonic scale.
NOTE: The harmonic minor scale is one type of minor scale. Three others are the natural minor scale, the ascending melodic minor scale, and the descending melodic minor scale. The pattern for the natural minor scale is 1 - ½ - 1 - 1 - ½ - 1 - 1. Click here to listen to an mp3 sample of a natural minor scale. The pattern for the ascending melodic minor scale is 1 - ½ - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - ½. The pattern for the descending melodic minor scale is the same as the natural minor scale pattern going down the keyboard. Click here to listen to an mp3 sample of a melodic minor scale (ascending and descending).

“Along with your big speakers, you really should have some inexpensive Roland M8 monitors or a pair of Radio Shack speakers to listen with,” says Erik Hawkins, professor of Berkleemusic’s extension school courses Remixing and Producing Music with Reason. “Not everyone has high end speakers, and while your mix may sound great on the big speakers, when you switch to smaller speakers, they may accentuate the midrange, and you’ll realize you need to turn down the vocal a bit. You need to create a blend that works well in the real world.”

Listen to Your Favorites

The way you mix is also going to change depending on the style of music you’re making. For example, if you’re working on a singer/songwriter arrangement, you’re going to want voice and guitar higher up in the mix. But if you’re working on more electronic-based music, your mix will be heavier on the bass and kick drum.

One way to get the sound you’re looking for in your own mix is see how the professionals have mixed similar styles in the past. Pick one of your favorite CDs in the style of music you’re working on, and choose a mix that sounds good everywhere—in your car, on your iPod, and on your home stereo system. “A trick I commonly use is to take my favorite mixes and load them into a session,” says Hawkins. “I listen to them uncompressed at 44.1 kHz, and I get to know how that mix sounds in my own home studio. Then I compare the professional mix with the mix I’m working on. If I really like the sound of the hi-hats on one of my favorite mixes, I can equalize the hi-hats in my own mix to match it. It’s a great technique.”

Less Is More

Mixing is just like making tomato sauce—add too many ingredients and you’ll ruin it. While adding effects like flanger, delay, reverb, and distortion may give your mix some more character, it’s important that you give the arrangement some breathing room and let the instruments speak for themselves. Use effects sparingly, only where they’re necessary. The last thing you want is a cluttered mix.

You’re the Master

Once you’re comfortable with your mix, the next (and last) stage in the production process is mastering, where you make the final adjustments to the overall sound of the recording and prepare the finished stereo mix for distribution as either an audio CD or MP3 file.

Mixing is a true art form that takes practice and patience, but once you get the hang of it, it can be one of the most enjoyable aspects of the production process. And keep in mind some of the best mixes are developed out of experimentation. Don’t be afraid to take some chances, and remember to have fun!

Seek Out Resources

Many people find the instructor-led online courses at Berklee’s extension school, Berkleemusic.com, to be helpful in developing and strengthening mixing skills. Berklee’s online courses cover every aspect of the production process, from mixing and mastering to remixing and critical listening. Online courses include: Mixing and Mastering with Pro Tools, Recording and Producing in the Home Studio, and Remixing.

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