Mixing Insight

[ggalen]

Most of you professional engineers probably already know this and it will seem so obvious.But to me, a solo musician, it was not.My "light bulb moment" was that I realized that in a mix, an instrument may need to sound crappy! If you solo the track out of a great mix, you might see the guitar is actually thin and weak...but only because that is its "part" in the larger sound of the overall recording.The analogy being like playing a rich chord: the individual note only has to play it's role: one frequency.And in a great mix, the guitar may be only filling a narrow frequency, and adding to the rhythm.By making the individual tracks more simple, the over mix can be both rich AND clean.I was muddying up my mixes for years by making each track sound good SOLO.OK, I get it now!

[hummingbird]

May 8, 2008, 8:26am, ggalen wrote:Most of you professional engineers probably already know this and it will seem so obvious.But to me, a solo musician, it was not.My "light bulb moment" was that I realized that in a mix, an instrument may need to sound crappy! If you solo the track out of a great mix, you see the guitar is thin and weak...but only because that is its "part" in the larger sound that is the recording total.The analogy being like playing a rich chord: the individual note only has to play it's role: one frequency.And in a great mix, the guitar may be only filling a narrow frequency and adding to the rhythm.By making the individual tracks more simple, the over mix can be both rich AND clean.I was muddying up my mixes for years by making each track sound good SOLO.OK, I get it now! Hey - that's a good insight! Makes me think. (Ouch).

[mazz]

Glenn,I remember when I discovered this for myself and my mixes improved immediately. Way to go!Mazz

[milfus]

well its more than that, the key mind set, is to always look at the mix as a whole, never consider a single element once you are in the mixing phase, even like the vocals, the vocals can be the peak of the mix, but you still want to look at whats supporting it, and sometimes even let things by it, once you lock in the "gestalt" view in your head when you mix, you instantly make better mixes, because you just consider more, you are there tho, good stuff

[ggalen]

In a related idea, I remember hearing a studio musician talk about recording with Prince.Prince told him to just play this one, simple, funky phrase...and DON'T GET FANCY."Just play that one thing nice and clean", Prince said, "and don't worry: the entire song is going to cook!"As milfus says, you have have to listen the the "whole", the gestalt.You are just one note of a neat chord!

[mazz]

A great arrangement (of a great piece!) makes a great mix much easier to attain.

[wodinlord]

Well, I wouldn't say "crappy", but yes every instrument needs to have its own EQ niche and place in the sound field, including depth front to back and placement side to side. I have generally always worked with guitar/bass/drums bands and I always start mixing with the drums and get them working and then the bass, EQ'ing it to fit in with the drums and then bring in guitars and keep going like that. Soloing each instrument and then trying to fit it in with just level, generally ends up with everything fighting for the same place in the mix. Everything can't be fat in the bottom and crispy on top, it turns to mud. Carving EQ out of things is just as important as adding EQ. Another one of those things that I thought I discovered starting out about 30 years ago and then soon found out that pretty much all good mixers do that in some variation. Actually, the principle works the same doing audio master mixes for movies or TV. Every sound has to have its own little place to exist to be heard. That you found out on your own, shows you have a good ear. More discoveries to come, I am sure.Wodinlord

[ggalen]

Wodinlord,I guess I meant the guitar sounds crappy when everything but it's "required" frequencies have been subtracted...it then sounds crappy to listen to as a solo instrument...but it works wonders in the mix.Remember, you are talking to a guitarist here, so I have my ideas of what a guitar can sound like solo. --- Glenn

[wodinlord]

Galen,Man, I certainly did not mean that as anything. I knew what you meant. I just need to learn to write messages that convey my jovial tone of voice better. LOL Maybe more of these will help. Sorry it came across wrong.I am a guitar player too and I constantly find that the guitar sound I love when I write a song is usually way too big and full spectrum when I get through recording all the other instruments. Sounds great by itself and gives me what I need to write, but I end up replacing it by the time I finish, because it takes up all the room. But, that is why, more and more, I record the guitar track clean and use plug-ins while I am writing and building the track and then re-amp or fine tune the plugs at mixdown to get it just right. Which actually, might sound crappy to me by itself after all. The guitar track, that is, not the mix

[ggalen]

WodinLord,Oh, no problem at all. I was smiling when I wrote it, too.Hard to convey in posts, though, isn't it? It's just such a revelation to me that a specific instrument doesn't need to sound "normal and full" in a mix for the entire mix to work beautifully.