Recording - September 2010 - 10

By not having to figure out anew what different approach might work with every new mix, you are free to mix by feel, guided by the sound and experience. 2. Learn your room Get to know your speaker/mixing room combination. The sound of the room, equipment placement, and speaker choice and placement are all listening system considerations. Make sure your room is symmetrical, and you are in the center of the speaker pair, with a solid phantom image in the center, and wide left and right stereo. Try to minimize distracting room coloration by analyzing and treating the room for mixing. Learn your listening room by, well, listening in there. Listen a lot. Listen to CDs, MP3s, radio, TV, anything you can in your mix room so you know what things are supposed to sound like in there. Once you are familiar with your room, it then becomes easy to spot problem areas and make critical processing decisions when mixing music in that room. Learn to recognize and quantify good and bad sound in your mix room on your speakers, or you may be chasing your tail. 3. Prepare your session Although session setup could be part of your ‘mixing system’, it is worth separate mention because the flow of the mix depends on it, and it can be completed way ahead of the actual mix date. To avoid constant and unnecessary interruptions, make sure the editing is done before mixing. Stopping playback to fix fades, edit mistakes, and tune vocals when mixing is distracting and can kill the momentum. Mixing is a living, breathing activity that takes focus. Each time you have to stop mixing to perform edits or try to remember which track is the final take, you are taken out of the ‘zone’ for a short bit. Develop consistency in your session preparation, and the mixing process will become smoother and more rewarding. 4. Use at least two reference speaker systems Obviously, it is important to have an accurate set of studio monitors to mix on, coupled with a listening environment that helps you make intelligent mix decisions. As a reality check and for additional reference, one or two alternate sets of speakers should be used. The reason this strategy works is simple: You don’t have any control over what system your listener will be using, so your mix must have detail, emotion, and impact on every possible system, whether a single speaker on a clock radio or a club-thumping PA system. So why take chances? Get a baby bear, momma bear, and daddy bear set of speakers. Protect yourself against surprises by listening and mixing on each set for extended periods of time, striving to keep the mix clear and compelling on each set. To further minimize the guesswork, set up a pair of speakers in another room or on another side of the mix room, and have a boom box handy for a reality check. The more speakers you use to check your mixes, the more consistent they’ll be in the long run. 5. Monitor in mono Make it a habit to monitor your mix in mono (while mixing in stereo). I don’t mean mix in mono with all the pan pots centered, I mean set up the mix and the panning in stereo, then do the level balances while monitoring in mono. Monitoring in mono on stereo speakers brings your whole mix to the phantom center, and will force you to sort out logjams with frequencies and levels. It is easy to be distracted by the wide sweet sound of the big stereo image you set up for the mix, and hitting the mono button brings you back to no-nonsense level balancing. You can also spot potential problems like stereo effects that get a wide soundstage by phase-inverting one channel vs. the other, so they vanish in mono, or stereo miking arrays where one mic’s out of phase with the other. Monitoring in mono while mixing in stereo ensures that your mix will translate well to mono playback systems like clock radios, TVs, and many PA systems.

Ten Steps To Better Mixes
Straight talk on getting your mixes to run smoothly and sound great
By Sean Shannon What can you do to mix with confidence, knowing you are handing the client a mix that will work on every system they play it on? Regardless of whether you mix “in the box”, on a console, or use your own hybrid method, here are ten proven tips for better mixes. 1. Set up your mixing system Your mixing system is the method you use to mix, the series of steps taken from start to finish (think flowchart), and involves setting up the usual flow of a mixdown session for speed and accuracy. Starting with channel layout, effect send routing, and track inserts, and ending with a system for printing and recalling mixes, set up a defined process that allows you to work quickly and with a level of consistency that makes mix decisions easier to make. Set up track templates or your patch bay for “normal” effects and usual routings, and save starting presets for any plug-ins and rack gear so that you can access them quickly in the heat of a mix session.
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RECORDING SEPTEMBER 2010

Recording - September 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - September 2010