Recording - September 2016 - 31

be spent actually painting. Such is the case with mixing-if all
the tracks receive focused attention to detail on a one-by-one
basis, then the minutiae within them can be addressed with
precision and focus, so that when finally bringing them all
together, the depth of care and detail that's gone into minutiae
informs the greater whole.
A contemporary way of looking at this would be to think of
the effort put into preparing each track as building "metadata"
into that track, and that the metadata enriches the overall
effectiveness of the mix, because no matter where your ear
focuses, there's something of interest to find there.
One important concept to understand, though, is that it ain't
over 'til it's over: I may spend an ample amount of time building metadata into each track, but that doesn't mean that after
I've "finished" preparing each track, that I won't have to circle
back later to make adjustments to the work I've already done.
Learn the rules in two easy steps
I've long held the belief that in digital audio there are only
two rules:
1. Unless you like the sound of digital clipping, avoid those
red channel peak lights!
2. More relevant/more important in the context of this article: everything you change changes everything.
One of the reasons I think it's pointless to try to adhere to a
routine method for mixing is embodied in Rule #2 above: a
routine method suggests finalizing one aspect of the mix
before moving on to the next. In my experience, since every
move you make affects all the other moves you've already

made and will make, until I've made my final adjustment, I'm
constantly revising/tweaking aspects of the mix I've already
worked on-it's a process of successive approximation.
Hopefully as the process evolves, the adjustments become finer
and finer, until a tenth of a dB (the smallest increment of level
adjustment in Pro Tools) becomes the limiting factor on whether
there are any further adjustments to be made.
So with the infinite nature of the task at hand in mind, following are a few relatively finite tasks to get the ball rolling.
Please note that I work primarily in Pro Tools and as such will
be using some Pro Tools vernacular throughout this piece. I
apologize to those of you who use other DAWs; the ideas are
there, and it shouldn't be hard to translate specific terminology
where needed.
A short list of mix preparation processes
Here are the subroutines I perform to prepare tracks for mixing:
1. preparing the work area for maximum efficiency
2. creating a panning scheme
3. cleaning clips: muting/in and out fades and crossfading
4. dealing with noise problems
5. scrutinizing and adjusting for phase issues within groups
of simultaneously recorded (or combining re-amped with
source) tracks
6. modifying the essential nature of a track through signal
processing
7. leveling a track or group of tracks
8. selecting a palette of processor voices (reverbs, delays,
pitch shifters, etc.)

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - September 2016