This is the most difficult article that can be attempted on "the art of mixing": attempting to describe the different philosophies of blending musical recordings.
The first reason this is so tough is that I can't even know all the possible theories. Like music they can be as individual as those who create them...for instance, think of Jimi Hendrix, who used to lock the engineers out of the studio (so I have been told) to set up some of his wilder patches. Apparently he wanted to keep them secret.
But like musicians, if engineers abandon innovation in order to fit into an accepted style, then you begin to have a recognizable "philosophy".
There is an additional problem of philosophies that cut across each other but are not mutually exclusive. So to mix a metaphor, this article is a bit like touching the tip of the iceberg with a ten-foot pole.
The first round of mixing theory centers around "who is your listening audience?". But not really so much "who" but "what kind of equipment do they listen on?".
It is generally been accepted that teens and young adults are listening on cheaper (less fidelity) equipment: iPods, computers with small ear gadgets, computer speakers, etc....in the old days, it used to be "transistor radios" with itsy-bitsy speakers which weren't physically capable of reproducing many frequencies (especially lows) and sounded rather like a canary trapped in a tin can.
So music that is geared toward young people is often mixed with an eye to making listening this way palatable...The bad news? Put this mix on an "audiophile system" and it's bound to sound horrendous, leaving the listener to wonder if it was "mixed by monkeys".
Of course, at the other end of the scale are engineers who mix for those high-end systems. Often this is done for classical music, but not necessarily the case. The problem here is many subtle details are lost when played on a cheap system.
My approach lies firmly in the third category; to mix so it will sound good on the vast majority of systems. Often I will have a finished tune that sounds just great on super-flat monitor speakers. But my work isn't done until I play it on cheaper home & car systems, whose "peaky" natures often make that mix sound quite different. I don't demand that the mix sound identical to the monitor version, only that things sound good and in reasonable balance, with nothing sticking out or overwhelming. If adjustments MUST be made, I take great care that the changes are small, and the "studio version" is not adversely affected.
Next time I would like to elaborate on those aforementioned "mixing styles", just to give an example of some of the more popular.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
ALL "MIXED" UP....
My mind these days in on a subject that all recording artists, engineers and producers must face to complete the recording process: the "MIX".
This is a huge body of knowledge but more than that, is its own art. Like music itself, there are an infinite number of ways to apply that knowledge to practically unlimited results. This makes the topic beyond exhaustion, and so daunting to write about.
But like music, it proceeds (generally) by certain basic rules, the "fundamentals" of mixing, and from there you learn to master the rules, bend the rules, and eventually to break the rules according to your own philosophy.
And that's where things get interesting. There are so many philosophies of mixing I can't even know them all. As I think this will probably be a series of articles rather than just one, later I will try to mention some of these as examples. But because of so many philosophies, advice I might give in the ways of techniques that are my personal favorites, might be useless to someone else.
However, let's start with those "fundamentals":
First, your mix doesn't even start in the studio at all! It begins with your arrangement. You can't write a chart with most or all of your instruments occupying the same frequency range or you are bound to wind up with a muddy undecipherable mix. As with every rule there are exceptions (especially in music), but usually this is something to stay away from unless you have some specific plan or sound in mind....If your vocal is in the upper midrange you could, for instance, counter it with some higher frequency "lines" or "fills" or even rhythmic percussion to complement it. Then you could support it from below with lower harmonic part(s), and of course the low end can be occupied by a bass instrument which is not going to interfere, being confined to its best range.
This is just an example, pulled out of a very black hat. Arranging is another thing entirely, and this example is like NASA telling you, after decades of moon research, that they've discovered that it is "round & bright".
Next, I believe, is the biggest mistake made by amateur recordists: recording your instruments as well as you can, and then trying to fit them all together "in the mix". I myself have been guilty of this at times, when I don't really have a vision of what the final result is supposed to be...and it causes endless trouble. After all your parts are recorded, you find that no amount of EQ or other processing will make that piano fit in...You may find after cutting all those frequency ranges to try get it to occupy a niche without running over the vocal, what you have left is a thin, nasty-sounding track!! The best option: throw out that beautiful piano part and record it again differently.
So how you record in the first place is a huge step in how your mix will sound. This can only be combated by experience: learning beforehand what the results of particular settings will be, and predicting how it will affect the mix....and that's the hardest part as there are so many settings and therefore choices to be made. That's the "sea of knowledge" one must dive into. No one "knows it all", when it comes to mixing, and like music, in some sense we are all beginners. It is a learning path.
One last bit of advice I find helpful. Generally I choose which parts are the "main body" of the piece. For instance, in a folk or singer-songwriter genre, you probably want your guitar and vocal in the forefront. Then you write your chart "around" these instruments, and build your recording around at least a "reference" of them, that way you can hear as you record, how your new track will either enhance or detract from your goal.
Hopefully, next time I will write another article (probably several) about mixing itself: the different philosophies, general techniques, and ones that I have learned and use along the way. Today, we have only "scratched the surface", something I used to avoid with vinyl records!
This is a huge body of knowledge but more than that, is its own art. Like music itself, there are an infinite number of ways to apply that knowledge to practically unlimited results. This makes the topic beyond exhaustion, and so daunting to write about.
But like music, it proceeds (generally) by certain basic rules, the "fundamentals" of mixing, and from there you learn to master the rules, bend the rules, and eventually to break the rules according to your own philosophy.
And that's where things get interesting. There are so many philosophies of mixing I can't even know them all. As I think this will probably be a series of articles rather than just one, later I will try to mention some of these as examples. But because of so many philosophies, advice I might give in the ways of techniques that are my personal favorites, might be useless to someone else.
However, let's start with those "fundamentals":
First, your mix doesn't even start in the studio at all! It begins with your arrangement. You can't write a chart with most or all of your instruments occupying the same frequency range or you are bound to wind up with a muddy undecipherable mix. As with every rule there are exceptions (especially in music), but usually this is something to stay away from unless you have some specific plan or sound in mind....If your vocal is in the upper midrange you could, for instance, counter it with some higher frequency "lines" or "fills" or even rhythmic percussion to complement it. Then you could support it from below with lower harmonic part(s), and of course the low end can be occupied by a bass instrument which is not going to interfere, being confined to its best range.
This is just an example, pulled out of a very black hat. Arranging is another thing entirely, and this example is like NASA telling you, after decades of moon research, that they've discovered that it is "round & bright".
Next, I believe, is the biggest mistake made by amateur recordists: recording your instruments as well as you can, and then trying to fit them all together "in the mix". I myself have been guilty of this at times, when I don't really have a vision of what the final result is supposed to be...and it causes endless trouble. After all your parts are recorded, you find that no amount of EQ or other processing will make that piano fit in...You may find after cutting all those frequency ranges to try get it to occupy a niche without running over the vocal, what you have left is a thin, nasty-sounding track!! The best option: throw out that beautiful piano part and record it again differently.
So how you record in the first place is a huge step in how your mix will sound. This can only be combated by experience: learning beforehand what the results of particular settings will be, and predicting how it will affect the mix....and that's the hardest part as there are so many settings and therefore choices to be made. That's the "sea of knowledge" one must dive into. No one "knows it all", when it comes to mixing, and like music, in some sense we are all beginners. It is a learning path.
One last bit of advice I find helpful. Generally I choose which parts are the "main body" of the piece. For instance, in a folk or singer-songwriter genre, you probably want your guitar and vocal in the forefront. Then you write your chart "around" these instruments, and build your recording around at least a "reference" of them, that way you can hear as you record, how your new track will either enhance or detract from your goal.
Hopefully, next time I will write another article (probably several) about mixing itself: the different philosophies, general techniques, and ones that I have learned and use along the way. Today, we have only "scratched the surface", something I used to avoid with vinyl records!
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