Author Archive

When you sit down to mix a song, you may find yourself bursting with excitement about delivering the best mix ever that you immediately begin dropping in plugins and tweaking like a crazy person. A little compression here, a little EQ there. You’re just going for it! But what if I told you that there was one crucial step in the mixing process that you can only do once and never get back to if you skip it? Would you be interested?

Hearing A Song For The First Time

I was listening to Grammy winning mixer Dave Pensado over at Pensado’s Place and he said something that struck me as very wise. In describing his process for mixing and how he starts, he dropped this insightful nugget of gold:

There’s only one time to hear a song the first time, and I like to catalogue my first impressions because I trust them. So I’ll begin the process by pulling out pen and paper and noting down the weaknesses and strengths of a song. - Dave Pensado, Mixer (Christina Aguilera, Destiny’s Child, Justin Timberlake)

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The goal of every mix you work on isn’t clarity, depth, punch, or even warmth (whatever that means), rather it is to illicit an emotional reaction from the listeners. In other words, your mix should “move” them. It could make them happy and want to dance, or it could make them melancholy or introspective. Or perhaps it could even help them relax after a long stressful day at work. Whatever it is, your goal as a mixer is to make the song powerful and relavent to the listener.

Getting Lost In The Science

I’ve admitted here before that I’m not a very technical person. I didn’t come into audio engineering from an “engineering” side of things. I can’t solder cables nor can I read a mixing console schematic. I can’t build a homemade mic pre, nor do I fully understand how impedance can affect microphone performance. But I do know what a gripping mix sounds like and I try my darndest to create compelling mixes myself.
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Do you find yourself layering guitar parts in your sessions only have them wash together, sounding vague and mushy? Today I want to show you a simple way to bring some clarity and width back into your guitars. With nothing more than a little EQ we can subtly get that separation and focus you want when you have a dense mix of guitars.

I am proud to be part of the Pro Tools Generation. And when I say Pro Tools, I don’t mean just Avid’s Pro Tools software, but any recording/mixing software. I am part of a generation of mixers and producers who have grown up with and have learned on a DAW rather than an analog console. And today I must address why this is an important distinction to make.

DAWs Are Here To Stay

Like it or not, I think we can just about all agree that DAWs are here to stay as part of our recording and mixing workflow. They cost less than consoles and outboard gear, they don’t break down as easily, they are more portable, and they have instant recall on all aspects of the session. With computers getting more powerful every year and 24 bit converters sounding as amazing as they do now, we can expect to be working in DAWs for a very long time.

That however, is not my point. What we must address is that there is a real difference between a once analog guy who now mixes in Pro Tools or at least has Pro Tools as part of his modern workflow, and a young digital only mixer (like myself) who has always only mixed in Pro Tools and the like. We are two very different animals. Read More →

There is a simple way to get instant separation and clarity in your mix that you might not be taking advantage of. It’s fast, easy to learn, and takes immediate effect the moment you implement it. And best of all it comes bundled free with your DAW, no matter which platform you mix on! Do you know what it is? Your pan pot!

Are You Halfway Panning?

OK, so my intro paragraph might sound a bit sarcastic, but don’t discount what I’m about to say. I get so many people emailing me mixes of theirs for critique. I try to listen if I have time and give some honest, helpful feedback. One suggestion I consistently find myself offering is to stop panning just halfway. What I mean is so many of these mixes I’m hearing where people complain about the lack of clarity and separation, I notice that most of the tracks are jammed up the middle or close to it. What a waste!
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In most cases the lead vocal is the most important part of your mix. The best mixes out there always seem to find a way to get that vocal to sit right on top of everything else. How do they do it? Well there are a lot of small steps to get you there: vocal compression, riding the vocal with automation, and of course proper use of EQ. But today I want to show a super easy “hack” to making sure your vocal always sits on top of the mix nicely.

If you’re like me, you are constantly challenged when it comes to recording great sounding acoustic drums. And for good reason. With so many elements to the kit, it is consistently the hardest instrument to capture with punch, power, and realism. But did you know that recording a mono drum overhead will help you get better sounding drums, faster?

No Phase Issues With Overheads

The biggest problem with stereo miking drum overheads is dealing phase issues. More specifically when your sound source is hitting two microphones at slightly different times you get tracks that are out of phase and create some cancellation of the sound source, resulting in thin weak recordings. Of course this can be avoided with careful placement and measurement. A great way to start is the recorderman method or the Glyn Johns technique.

But what’s even easier is to simply throw up one overhead mic to capture the entire kit, rather than two. You have absolutely no phase issues because you aren’t trying to capture an instrument with two mics, but with one. I know it sounds obvious, but this is a no brainer when you want punchy, clear, and artifact free drum overheads.
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There’s a big debate looming in the recording world and it revolves around analog summing. People say that mixing “in the box” will never sound as good as using analog summing.

So what is summing, and why is analog supposedly better? Great questions. Today I want to briefly explain the issues at hand and help you to realize that you shouldn’t care.

What Is “Wrong” With Digital Summing?

The concept of summing is a simple one really. When you record and mix many tracks together (whether on a console or in your computer) you eventually have to mix them all down through a single stereo track (your master fader) so you can print (or render) a final stereo file. This process of funneling all your tracks together is called summing. Just like in math, when you add things together you get the sum of those parts.

This originally all took place in the analog domain, inside a mixing console. When digital recording and mixing was becoming a reality, people complained of the sound of the summing that was happening inside the computer. The argument goes that when you take tracks that are digital in nature and sum them together digitally, you get an inferior final mix. It is said that digital summing sounds cold, harsh, and broken.
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When you mix, you tend to gravitate to one main EQ and compressor for the bulk of your work. I know I do. If that’s the case, then why go through all the trouble of navigating for and inserting the same plugins on each track? Setting them up as your default EQ and compressor in Pro Tools can speed things up and get you mixing faster.

Tell me something about that fancy new plugin or microphone you want to buy: how well do you know your current gear? If you’re like many people, you probably have only used your current gear for one or two projects and you already want to buy something else. You’re looking for that elusive magic bullet. Instead you should be learning your gear.

Owning Does Not Equal Knowing

Here’s something to consider. Just because you own a certain piece of gear (hardware or software) doesn’t mean you really know it. Just because a certain mic preamp or plugin has been sitting in your studio for two years does not mean it has been put through its paces. And if you don’t really use your gear enough, how can you ever know what it truly is capable of?

You can’t, that’s the issue. Just simply buying a set of studio monitors doesn’t mean you will know how they sound in your room instantly. Or how they will affect your mixes after an afternoon. It takes time to learn gear, which means you really aren’t in a position to give an opinion on something unless you’ve used it enough.
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