Be aware of room modes, or how the shape your room can impact the frequencies of your sound. Room modes have been especially known to cause difficulty with low to low-mid frequency sounds playing on your system. Limit bouncing sound waves. As soon as sound leaves your speakers, it will reflect off the hard surfaces in your room, which can influence the stereo and frequency of your sound. Balance your speaker distance from hard surfaces, which can add low frequencies to your sound when too close. Be symmetrical in your set-up. This will allow you to hear the distribution of the sound between speakers most clearly. [3] X Research source [4] X Research source
Ableton Live Cubase FL Studio 11 Pro Tools[7] X Research source [8] X Research source
Write out the full name like, “Snare Drum 7” Label according to your own abbreviations, like “SnD7. "
Purple for bass Blue for drums Red for vocals Orange for Instruments
A general rule of thumb: if you cannot talk over the volume of your playback, you should turn your volume down. [11] X Research source
While mixing, ask yourself: “What is the goal of the artist or producer who made the song?” The rough mix is also where problems with the mix will be most apparent. Take note of these features; you’ll need to smooth them later in the mixing process. [15] X Research source
When listening, start with your faders at center volume and then adjust tracks to see how each interacts with each other and the mix as a whole.
You may want to use an effect, like reverb, to create fullness in a melodic line. For faster, more rhythmic songs, you may need to bring out the bass line during build sections. Vocals should be clear and distinct from instrumental parts, unless used as a background chorus. Background and accent vocals are often treated as part of the ensemble, not the main attraction or key feature. Your mixing should reflect this. [20] X Research source
Use your fader to subtract tracks to see the impact these have on the mix as a whole. Isolate parts of your mix that sound unclear and find the root track(s) causing the distortion. Later, you will need to balance the offending track, or maybe remove it completely.
Working from the bottom up can help create a more balanced sound and better defined EQ. [23] X Research source
Replace low quality tracks when you are able to save yourself work later on, when you’ll have to smooth out negative features.
By keeping your sound levels low, you can allow yourself more room to fine-tune the mix to your liking. A conservative sound level to start with is -10 dB on the master fader. [28] X Research source Generally, you can protect yourself from clipping by keeping your tracks out of the top limit, expressed by the red zone on your master. [29] X Research source
You’ll have to experiment with your particular tracks to find which can be grouped together in a bus.
Where percussion is concerned, snare drums generally sound more powerful with a boost in the lower frequencies, whereas hi-hats and toms often sound snappier and punchier with lower frequencies thinned out.
Think of the tracks of your mix as members of a choir: each part is separately appreciable, but its goal is work together as a collective.
For specific instruments that aren’t as regularly occurring in your mix, it may be easiest to lower your fader. Filtering out unwanted lower volume percussion can be unreasonably difficult when trying to time fading with each sound’s “punch. " Gate’s are ideal for this situation. Experiment with noise gates to get a cleaner, crisper sound from your mix.
Switch off between sides with rhythm guitar and percussion Place a keyboard track so it is slightly off center. Add other tracks throughout the field to give your mix a richer, more realistic quality. [37] X Research source
Reverb - creates a vibration in the sound, often added to guitars and voice to mask less desirable frequencies and create fullness. Delay - sometimes called “echo,” creates one or more defined sound segments and repeats that segment. [38] X Research source
You can also automate effects returns, which can be useful if you want a reverb or a delay to be less prominent in certain sections of a song.
