The Art of Mixing

So I just finished mixing another track for "So Cold" and it truly solidified my opinion that a good job mixing a track is just as, if not, more, important than actually laying the track.

For me, mixing is quite a tedious process as I don't have any professional training in it, so I'm pretty much playing it by ear. I have an idea of the basic do's and don'ts, but I'm not familiar with the terminology nor all the tools that Cool Edit Pro + plugins have provided me.

I just know what sounds good.

I think there's certainly an art to mixing a track -- knowing where to emphasize vocals, adding space, panning, and reverb appropriately, outside effects, and the like adds so much value to the song. I've learned a lot through trial and error, having mixed pretty much every track I've recorded since (and including) the "Can I Get Signed?" CD was released ... and I did that one twice!

It's no secret -- I'm a fan of reverb. I think the extra dimension it adds makes things a bit more profound, and many beats these days have reverb on the instruments so adding it to the vocals in certain places helps the song fit together better.

Panning is a newly-discovered friend of mine. When there's a lot going on in the center of a track, moving some vocals to the left or right just seems to make things fit better in that section of the song. Additionally, when you're working with multiple artists (or multiple voices), it's a nice way to help have everything heard as well.

All in all, I think a good mix job is important to actually completing your track. You can't just lay your vocals down, export to MP3, and think it's all good. Having listened to a lot of underground music today, I think that aspect of music has been forgotten and should be focused on a bit more to create more complete and impressive tracks. For me, it's interesting to figure out where vocals should be emphasized, where an effect should be placed, and also allowing the beat to come into play a bit more as well. It's tedious, it's tiring, but it's also what can make or break a song.

Hopefully, I'll continue to get better at this and have some quality mixes come "So Cold."

N. Talekt