Make sure the mixes of your songs are the best they can be! This is very important! You only have one time to give a first impression and you don't want to blow it. A bad mix can make an awesome song sound like trash while a great mix can make an average song sound awesome.Since there are a lot of novice engineers out there, I figured I would give some advice on how to do a good mix. The most important element of a good mix is balanced volume levels. That means how each element of the song balances with each other volume wise. Certain instruments should "fit" in a mix at certain levels compared to others. For example, a string sound is not going to be as loud as vocals. That is because strings typically are more background than the vocals. Unless...that is what you want. Everything in a song has to have it's own space. You should be able to hear each element of the song clearly without overpowering another element. A great mix can be done with no effects at all. Effects are to be used to enhance and add flavor.
There are plenty of books out there to guide you in doing a good mix. But, what I found that was very useful to me was not a book you buy from Borders or Barnes & Nobles. It was only 3 pages in the reference manual of an Alesis Studio 32 mixer. It's a Guideline for a rough mix. You can download the manual by clicking this link: Alesis Studio 32 Reference Manual (Pages 58-60). Up until I read this information, my mixes were pretty good. But, after reading this information, my mixes improved dramatically. It gave me a better understanding on the relationship each element of a song has with another element. Now, it's only a guideline or starting point for a mix. It's not necessarily to be used as a defacto for a mix. You have to use your ears to make the final judgement. Experience over time will develop what sounds good at what level.
Well....I hope this information helps out those of you out there doing it on your own. Have fun learning and experimenting!
No comments:
Post a Comment