Starting the Mix

Disclaimer

'Mixing is way more art and soul than science. We don’t really know what we’re doing. We’ve all been faking it for 40 years. We do it because we love music. It’s what gets me going every day. It’s the love of music first.' -Eddie Kramer

As always, you really need to find an approach that works for you, through experimentation and practice. There are no right or wrong methods in my opinion, it’s the results that really matter. Take what you read here as a starting point and develop your skills from there. Please, don’t forget that this blog is intended as a conversation starter; I am by no means the last word on any of the topics covered and I hope to learn just as much from you as I can offer, through these posts.

Starting the Mix

Ok, this is a tricky topic. What do you do first when you have files ready to mix? 

This post is focussed around giving you some direction when you sit down at your computer ready to mix. I have created what, for most, is a basic guide, designed to give you some ideas when starting the mix process. As you progress as an engineer, you might develop a mix template with various groups, busses and effects already added, to get you working faster. However, this post assumes that you are starting with a bunch of pre-recorded files and an empty DAW project.

What to do first?

Easy, listen to all recorded material. Make sure that there are no issues, solo individual tracks and listen all the way through – so many people forgo this stage and pay for it later! You are listening for pops and clicks and unwanted distortion, that sort of thing. Does the track use software instruments? Bounce these to audio once you’ve ensured the sound works for the track, this will save processing power as you mix and lock you in to a sound, thus avoiding the temptation to meddle later.

Now I would edit out unwanted elements by cutting ‘silence’ between parts of the performance. You’d be surprised just how much content there is on seemingly empty sections of audio where the waveform looks non-existent. Take care to ensure that fades don’t compromise the attack of a phrase or hit.

Balances and Panning

Now, that the initial work is done, listen to your mix again. This time, with all elements playing, no panning and, ideally, all faders set to, for example -16dB to allow for level boosts from processing later in the mixing process. Alternatively, you could adjust clip gain or add a gain plugin to ensure that all tracks are at a workable gain. This would mean you could keep faders at 0 as a starting point. Whichever approach you choose, the ultimate aim is to ensure the tracks are loud enough, but not so hot that you’re clipping the mix bus. You will also want to leave headroom for processing as you progress. Throughout the mix, you should keep an eye on the mix bus, checking the combined level of your track. As you bring up your faders, you will see the mix level increase, I would try to keep your average level at the mix bus around -10 to 12dB. 

Importance?

Next, think about a hierarchy of importance in your mix. Start with all faders down. You will want to add the most important instruments first then raise the levels of others to sit around them. So, the most important track might be vocals in pop music or drums for hip-hop/dance etc. You can also apply this principle within your groups. For example, think about what the most important drum might be. Your kick for a dance track maybe or snare for rock? Once you have established the most important instrument, raise the fader until your mix bus hits around -12dB, you can then start to bring up the other faders to sit around it.

Drums

Assuming the drums are your chosen starting point, listen to them on their own – adjust the balance as described above. Depending on the genre, you may want the snare and kick to be prominent. Perhaps, start with the kick and raise the fader until the level is at around -12dB on the mix bus. Next, bring up the other drums around it with the aim that the kick and snare remain clear. Now, consider panning the drums. I prefer this to be from the audience perspective (rather than the drummer’s). Thus, hi-hats would be to the right, rack tom slightly to the right and floor tom to the left.  I would pan the overheads (OH) to match this, so OH left would be left as you look at the kit. It would make sense to pan any percussion opposite to the hi-hats as there would be more space in the stereo image for them to occupy.

Once you have a rough balance and pan, you might like to create a ‘Drums’ group or stack (different DAWs will call them different things). This will allow you to make adjustments to the drums using one fader; add processing to every mic at the same time and bus out from the group to allow for parallel processing. I’ll explain this further in a later blog post – so keep an eye out for updates.

Bass

Next, think about the bass. You may have a DI and a mic version – you can process these later, but for now, just use one DI bass to get a feel for where it sits in the mix. Bring up the level with the drum group, playing to balance the levels, so that the bass sits nicely alongside the drums.

Guitars

If you have 2 acoustic guitars, try panning them left and right to taste. I would probably match them at perhaps 60% left and 60% right. Listen back to them and adjust the levels accordingly.

Think about panning electric guitars too but for one continuous performance sound maybe keep verse and chorus panned the same amount rather than changing the panning as the song progresses. Consider increasing the level of the chorus guitars compared to the verse to add emphasis. Are you double tracking guitars? If so, maybe pan each one 40% left and 40% right for the verse and then pan more extreme Left and Right during the chorus to allow you to boost the level, while still maintaining a coherent vocal sound (you can use this technique for synths too).

Keys etc.

You may like your piano/keys etc. to be panned symmetrically opposite to the guitars; possibly opposite the rhythm guitar as they will often occupy a similar frequency range. They may become less intelligible if panned together.

Vocals

Backing Vox

Find space for each backing vocal by panning them left and right to different degrees. You might consider lower pitched backing vocals (maybe male) being panned less extreme than the higher pitched ones (maybe female).

Lead Vox

These are almost always panned centrally and balanced so that they are clear and defined. In pop music, even more so.

Panning Summary

Kick = Centre, Snare = Centre, Lead Vox = Centre, Bass = Centre

Hi-hat 60% right, Rack Tom = 20% Right, Floor Tom = 60% to the Left, Percussion 80% Left to balance the hi-hats.

Backing vocals spread around the stereo image with high pitched further left and right and lower pitched closer to centre.

Doubled guitars? 40%L & 40%R, then wider panning for the chorus.

Not doubled? Consider maintaining a constant between verse and chorus, as discussed above.

Next...

Hopefully now, after taking the time to listen, edit, balance and pan your mix, you are ready to start looking at other aspects of the process. My next post will be centred around EQ and should give you a starting point for bringing your track to life by carving out a place in the frequency spectrum for each instrument. 

Take care.

References:
The Basics of Starting a Mix - Setting Levels - Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro

Mixing Essentials by Paul White