When I was a kid, I started playing keyboard, and along with playing keyboard inevitably came a love for music production. As an aspiring producer, I began devouring publications on playing keyboard and writing music, delving into interviews with famous artists who talked about their songwriting and recording process. One day I was watching an interview with Shaggy, who mentioned the name of the person who mixed his album.
Mixed? What did that mean, I wondered? So I asked the nearest person to me at the time, which happened to be my mom. “Mixing is when they take the recordings of each instrument and adjust the volumes to make the sound you hear in the recording,” she explained to me.
“Wait,” I asked, “you mean they record everything separately?”
This was my introduction to mixing, starting with the revelation that songs weren’t just recorded live in a studio by a whole band standing around a few microphones (at least not anymore–my mental picture of recording may have been shaped by years listening to reggae recordings which did involve much more “live” instrumentation). After all my years of listening to music, I had never known. With that revelation in mind, I knew from then on what “mixing” meant. Well, sort of.
There was much more to it than I thought
For the next several years, I thought mixing was simply a search for the right volume levels. While that’s not completely untrue, it was still a very incomplete picture. It wasn’t until I started interacting directly with professional mix engineers that I finally began to fully understand how important–and complex–mixing really was.
I tell this story because I think it’s pretty common for musicians–and very common for non-musicians–to underestimate the power and importance of mixing and mastering in the world of music. It just so happens that it’s an aspect of recording that, when done right, most people don’t even notice. However, just because it’s an unsung hero of the recording process doesn’t mean it’s not extremely important. But to really understand how important it is, you need to know what it is in the first place.
Mixing is more than just adjusting the volume levels of individual instrument and vocal tracks. Of course, that is a big part of mixing, but it’s by no means the whole story. Mixing also involves:
Panning
In addition to volume levels, mix engineers decide where in the stereo spectrum to place each instrument. Music is recorded and played back in a stereo field, meaning there are left and right speakers and sounds can be placed accordingly. It is imperative for all instruments to be panned to a proper place in order to get a clean mix. Not only does that help individual parts stand out and be heard clearly without infringing on another song element, but it allows for the mix to sound balanced between the left and right channels.
EQ
When you layer multiple instruments on top of each other, you start getting a “muddy” sound as they take up the same audio frequencies. A good mix engineer knows how to EQ highs, mids, lows, and everything in between so that a mix will sound “clean” and each instrument takes up only its intended place in the song. It takes a trained ear to recognize when certain frequencies should be cut or boosted for particular tracks.
Effects
Musicians sometimes record with effects, but the vast majority of effects processing goes on during the mixing process. Things like compression, reverb, delay, and many other effects are chosen and tweaked by the mixing engineer, who helps make what might otherwise be a dull or lifeless recording into something full and lush. Engineers must have a slew of professional quality effects processors and plug-ins at their disposal to ensure a great mix.
Automation
It would be nice if mixing was as simple as setting the volume faders in one place and letting the song finish, but unfortunately it’s a lot harder than that. Because different tracks need to be at the forefront of the song at different times–lead vocals here, guitar solo there, etc.–things like volume levels, panning, and effects need to be automated. Automation is what the mixing engineer does to program certain fades and pans into different parts of the song, so that each time it plays, that cool keyboard phrase in measure ten will come up to the exact same level every time the mix is played back. This can be a very specific and complicated process, so it’s best left in the hands of a professional!
Mastering
The process of mastering a song is becoming rapidly abused as home studios and YouTube musicians become more popular. Sometimes they create something that sounds great on computer speakers, but if it ever gets played through a home stereo, you might notice that it doesn't sound as polished. Mastering is the link between the pro audio industry and the hi-fi industry. The idea behind this is to take something that sounds good on professional grade studio monitors, and make it sound equally as good on a home system. Especially with the changing trends in the music industry, having your songs and album mastered can be the difference in getting noticed instead of getting brushed under the rug with other amateurs. The goal of mastering is to balance issues and enhance audio characteristics of your music - it's like putting the icing on the cake. This is the final step before your song or album goes to be distributed to consumers. Mastering takes time and precision to ensure that your tracks are consistent and properly compressed so all of them sound the same when they are playing back-to-back on an album. Equalized levels need to be even on each track before they can be compressed into audio files, or they won't sound consistent. Can you imagine having to adjust the volume every time a new song starts to play?
No, we can't either. That is why having your music professionally mix and mastered is so important to the quality of your music. It is better for the listener's experience, which is who you want to impress!
We hope this post has shed some light on what may have been a slightly mysterious step of the recording process to many musicians. As you’ve probably gathered, mixing and mastering is an extremely crucial part of producing a great recording and should be done professionally for the sake of your song’s future, you know the importance of quality. Order our Elite Mix & Master package today to get our award-winning engineer to make your song sound top notch and ready for all digital platforms!