Copyright 2017 by Kevin de Wit

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2 Copyright 2017 by Kevin de Wit All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below. Published By: Kevin de Wit 60 Bellbird Close, Pakenham Victoria, Australia, Contact: Published in Australia

3 Introduction When you are first getting start in the field of Mixing it can be quite confusing to what you should learn and what you should do to mix a song in its most basic form. If you search online, you are most likely going to get shown a lot of very highly technical skills that are something you will want to learn later in your development. Right now, you should concentrate on the very basics and what will give you a fairly good mix. I am assuming you are new to mixing and if you are not, then just confirming that you do these steps on every mix is worth it. I am going to list the items that I believe are essential to every mix. There are many more techniques that you should learn further on but if can master and do these basic techniques then you are going to be getting fairly good sounding mixes already. These mixes are not going to win you a Grammy, but without these steps you will definitely not win a Grammy. These are the first steps I do with every mix I work on and it gets me 80% to the final product. Copyright Page 3

4 Step 1 Organize your Session One of the first steps I do to start a mix is to import all the tracks and start to organize them in a structured way. I have a set template that I follow on every mix. It is laid out with the tracks in the same order. I have the same busses, effects tracks and color coding system. I make sure that all my tracks are labelled with sensible and clear names. This makes it easier for me during the mixing session to quickly find everything and to not have to think too much about what tracks there are and where they are located. Copyright Page 4

5 Step 2 Gain Staging Every track in a song is going to have a level that the artist has recorded it at. Commonly most artists record their tracks too loud and are quite often clipping. Clipping is where the track tries to go over 0dB. Going over 0db in the digital realm is bad. It causes digital clipping, which sounds horrible. To avoid the mixing process from causing any digital clipping or any further digital clipping it is a good idea to bring the level of the tracks down to a range that is only just going into the yellow section on a meter. Do this clip level adjustment on every track in your mixing session at the start of your project. Copyright Page 5

6 Step 3 Vocal Tuning Vocal tuning has become so common place these days that listeners find it uncomfortable to hear a natural voice that doesn't always hit the note spot on. Vocal tuning can be used subtly where you wouldn t notice it was done at all or can be used as an effect where it is so extreme that it makes you sound robotic. I like to listen to the vocal tracks and make a call early on if I am going to tune the vocals or not. If the decision is to tune them then I get started on that and make it as subtle as I can while still getting the vocals in tune. This might sound harsh but the reason I like to do this early on is because it makes it easier to listen to a song over and over again if there isn t out of tune vocals. Copyright Page 6

7 Step 4 Volume Volume in this step is not referring to the volume of the song but is referring to how loud an instrument or vocal is compared to another one. Getting the right balance of volume between instruments and vocals is essential in mixing. This step alone can get your mix to go from one big mess to something that actually sounds like a real song. I would recommend spending a fair bit of time on this step. Not only are you going to get a great volume balance across the tracks, but the process in doing this is also going to allow you to get to know the song better, because you are going to have to listen to the song to volume balance it. Copyright Page 7

8 Step 5 Panning Panning involves setting an instrument somewhere in the stereo field. If the track is a mono instrument, then you can place it anywhere from the center to the right side or to the left side. You don t even need to go 100% to the right or left, you can place the track somewhere in between. With a stereo track, you are generally setting how wide the track is. A default setting would be 100% right and left, but you can narrow this down to anything between e.g. 50% Right and 50% Left. This step along with the volume step really set the scene for the song. You want to find a place both volume and panning wise for each instrument and vocal. Copyright Page 8

9 Step 6 Filtering Filtering is a process to remove unwanted sounds/noise from an audio source from the top or bottom of the frequency range. A HPF is probably the most common filter used during mixing. A lot of the time I use one at different levels across all my tracks to remove unwanted low end rumble. A HPF basically filters (removes) any frequencies under the frequency setting you have applied. For example, if you set a HPF on a vocal track to 100Hz, then it will filter out any signal under 100Hz. A LPF is the exact opposite, it filters high frequencies or as the name suggest lets low frequencies pass through. This is not as commonly used as a HPF but I still use it quite often. For instance, I will place it on a kick drum a lot of the time. The kick does not need any frequencies up above 10Khz. Copyright Page 9

10 Step 7 EQ EQ is one of the most used techniques in mixing. Every audio source is made up of lots of different frequencies. Some are good and some are bad. The use of an EQ plugin allows the mix engineer to remove any unwanted frequencies from a track or to boost wanted frequencies. EQ is also used to balance the frequencies of your mix. Instruments that have excessive build up in certain frequency ranges can also make it seem too loud in the mix. It can also cover up or mask other instruments because they are both using the same frequency range. Used right an EQ plugin will allow you to find a spot in the mix for every instrument and vocal to sit nicely without clashing or masking any other instrument or vocal. Copyright Page 10

11 Step 8 Compression Compression is a tool to control the volume fluctuation of an audio source. If a singer is changing their notes from loud to soft and back to loud the use of a compressor can bring the level back to a more consistent level. Think of a compressor as a volume fader that is automatically being moved up and down depending on the level of the signal it detects. The main purpose you are going to want to use a compressor for is to make sure every track is sitting nicely in the mix. This is going to keep everything sounding balanced and heard. Copyright Page 11

12 Step 9 Effects There is an almost endless supply of effects you can use in a mix. This is the step where you go from making a song work to making a song sounding exciting and entertaining. The main two effects you are going to use in every mix is reverb and delay. Reverb is used to give some space to an instrument or vocal. It gives the listener a sense of where the performance was done e.g. concert, studio etc. It is also going to make virtual instruments sound more real. Delay is similar but it will also be used as a styling effect to add texture and fill in gaps between vocals etc. Copyright Page 12

13 Step 10 Automation Automation is a technique that allows you to have volume levels, panning positions and basically any settings to change during the song automatically by the software. Automation is very useful for bringing out little runs and interesting parts of each instrument, which makes for a more interesting and exciting song. For example, a single guitar track might be panned to the right through most of the song but then it does a solo. During this solo section, you might decide to change the panning to the center and also bring the volume up. The right use of automation can be the difference between a lifeless amateur mix and a professional mix that instils power and emotion. Copyright Page 13

14 About the Author Kevin de Wit is a Mixing and Mastering Engineer working with artists and bands all over the world. He is the owner of KdW Mixing & Mastering, an online business dedicated to providing audio related services. Kevin has been working in the music industry in one form or another for over 25 years. He has also been working in the IT industry providing architectural designs for large corporate enterprises. When Kevin isn t working in either music or IT, he is a single father of two children and loves to play guitar and record his own music. He has a very unique family with one child suffering from Severe Autism and the other a Mild case of Asperger s. He lost his wife to cancer when the children were very young, but none of this has stopped his will to survive and succeed. If anything, it has given him more drive and determination than ever before.