5 Tips to Make Your Mixes Sound Better
Here are five tips to keep in mind that will help you make a better mix, regardless of equipment or expertise.
1. Reference your work to professional mixes.
See what the pros are doing to balance their mixes to give you a better frame of reference for your own mix.
2. Detail.
Adding spot effects will give your mix an extra dimension to help engage the listener. This can range from strategically placed reverse snares/cymbals, to bass drops. Additionally, why not try reversing your vocals, printing a reverb track of them, and mixing it in just before the verse starts?
3. Subtractive equalization.
Think of mixing like building a sculpture. When you're given a block of cement to carve a person out of, you don't start by adding arms, legs, then a head. What you do is you look at the block of cement and see how you can carve away cement to leave you with a beautiful, naked man. Try to look at your mixes in the same light. Ask yourself: 'What can I remove to make my mix sound better?'
4. Don't mix at loud volumes.
Mixing at loud volumes can not only damage your hearing, it also fatigues your ears much faster. Ear fatigue makes critical listening difficult and frustrating. You will have trouble noticing the subtle differences in equalization, compression, instrument separation, and will usually cause you to ruin your mix if you continue to work on it. Do yourself a favour and mix at volume levels equivalent to normal conversation.
5. Burn a CD.
Listen to your mix through as many different sound systems as possible. A shitty car stereo is a good place to start. Get a couple close friends to critically listen to your songs as well. Often times your friends will pick out details that you might not have even noticed before.
That's all for now, thanks for reading and happy mixing!
