Mixing is a major part of the canvas in musical recording.
It is the finality of the work.
It is the color and texture of sound.
In my opinion, the final mix is whatever pleases the creator(s).
What one person defines as a great mix, another may be displeased with.
To me, mixing is the result of an artist's personal taste and perception.
It can also be a "give and take" process among those musicians who share the responsibility of the creation and the actual performance in the recording.
When several sets of ears are involved in the outcome, a mix that everyone is happy with is the best mix.
What are some of the elements of mixing? Personally, I like to start my mix during the tracking stages.
As I found out after some time, the best thing for me is to try to get a good foundation as far as timing and tuning.
Is that really a part of mixing? YES! If you start off with a drum lag or a slightly out of tune guitar, guess how the mix is going to sound.
Preparation surely won't hurt the mix either.
Be ready to "do this" before you and the gang hit the record button.
I have a few back-up CDs with tracks gathering dust because the drums were lagging just a little bit.
It throws the whole continuity and feel off.
It also irritates me when I try to listen to it.
Of course, it also throws the timing off of the other instruments I had tracked.
The best I could do with those recordings were to shelve them and re-record them again in the future.
There were one or two that I did eventually redo.
After some time, I began to get the knack of my digital recorder.
I began to record certain works with a goal in mind as far as accomplishing a specific task.
There were many works of which I tried different editing features, certain effects and instrument placement.
Eventually, I decided to try mixing whatever tracks I had already laid down.
If I only had a guitar, bass guitar and drums, then I would get a mix on the three pieces.
Early on, I would perform different mixes on the three instruments just to see what the machine was capable of doing.
I found that placing certain instruments on the same track number for every song resulted in enhancing my feel for what track to go to when making an adjustment.
For instance, my bass guitar was always on track 7.
My electric guitar was always on track 8.
My digital drums were always on tracks 5 and 6.
The digital drums had a stereo output.
I would create the sound and drum placement beforehand using the controls on the drum module.
I reserved the keyboards for tracks 3 and 4.
Tracks 1 and 2 were kept reserved for vocals.
As I added each instrument, I would create a "quickie mix".
This gave me the opportunity to try out different things as far as setting a mood or coloring certain instruments before the final mix.
Sometimes it resulted in an adjustment that was easy or more difficult.
For the most part, I would end up a couple of steps ahead when it came to the mix.
Placement of the instruments in the stereo field is an important subject when it comes down to mixing.
Once again, it's a matter of taste.
I always tended to keep instruments of rhythm well separated.
A good example would be rhythm guitar and acoustic guitar.
Or, acoustic guitar and mandolin.
In those examples, I would lean toward separating them left and right.
I've always placed my bass guitar at or near center.
Of course, the drums are usually spread left to right.
My lead instruments such as keyboard and lead guitar are usually placed more towards center unless the two are taking turns at soloing.
In that case, I like to keep them apart.
In the case of many instruments, it will involve quite a bit more of effort to bring the mix to fruition.
Sometimes it may be a lot of trial and error.
In all honesty, I had a couple I either shelved or started again after deleting several tracks.
So, there you have it.
I touched on a few ideas related to getting a decent mix.
I could have gone into effects, equalization and compression but I think I'll leave that for another article.
It is the finality of the work.
It is the color and texture of sound.
In my opinion, the final mix is whatever pleases the creator(s).
What one person defines as a great mix, another may be displeased with.
To me, mixing is the result of an artist's personal taste and perception.
It can also be a "give and take" process among those musicians who share the responsibility of the creation and the actual performance in the recording.
When several sets of ears are involved in the outcome, a mix that everyone is happy with is the best mix.
What are some of the elements of mixing? Personally, I like to start my mix during the tracking stages.
As I found out after some time, the best thing for me is to try to get a good foundation as far as timing and tuning.
Is that really a part of mixing? YES! If you start off with a drum lag or a slightly out of tune guitar, guess how the mix is going to sound.
Preparation surely won't hurt the mix either.
Be ready to "do this" before you and the gang hit the record button.
I have a few back-up CDs with tracks gathering dust because the drums were lagging just a little bit.
It throws the whole continuity and feel off.
It also irritates me when I try to listen to it.
Of course, it also throws the timing off of the other instruments I had tracked.
The best I could do with those recordings were to shelve them and re-record them again in the future.
There were one or two that I did eventually redo.
After some time, I began to get the knack of my digital recorder.
I began to record certain works with a goal in mind as far as accomplishing a specific task.
There were many works of which I tried different editing features, certain effects and instrument placement.
Eventually, I decided to try mixing whatever tracks I had already laid down.
If I only had a guitar, bass guitar and drums, then I would get a mix on the three pieces.
Early on, I would perform different mixes on the three instruments just to see what the machine was capable of doing.
I found that placing certain instruments on the same track number for every song resulted in enhancing my feel for what track to go to when making an adjustment.
For instance, my bass guitar was always on track 7.
My electric guitar was always on track 8.
My digital drums were always on tracks 5 and 6.
The digital drums had a stereo output.
I would create the sound and drum placement beforehand using the controls on the drum module.
I reserved the keyboards for tracks 3 and 4.
Tracks 1 and 2 were kept reserved for vocals.
As I added each instrument, I would create a "quickie mix".
This gave me the opportunity to try out different things as far as setting a mood or coloring certain instruments before the final mix.
Sometimes it resulted in an adjustment that was easy or more difficult.
For the most part, I would end up a couple of steps ahead when it came to the mix.
Placement of the instruments in the stereo field is an important subject when it comes down to mixing.
Once again, it's a matter of taste.
I always tended to keep instruments of rhythm well separated.
A good example would be rhythm guitar and acoustic guitar.
Or, acoustic guitar and mandolin.
In those examples, I would lean toward separating them left and right.
I've always placed my bass guitar at or near center.
Of course, the drums are usually spread left to right.
My lead instruments such as keyboard and lead guitar are usually placed more towards center unless the two are taking turns at soloing.
In that case, I like to keep them apart.
In the case of many instruments, it will involve quite a bit more of effort to bring the mix to fruition.
Sometimes it may be a lot of trial and error.
In all honesty, I had a couple I either shelved or started again after deleting several tracks.
So, there you have it.
I touched on a few ideas related to getting a decent mix.
I could have gone into effects, equalization and compression but I think I'll leave that for another article.