Let's get to your mix. We've spoken about speakers & other items in the studio, and about how to protect all of those killer songs. Now let's get back into your mix.

When you mix your song, are you looking for the one "killer" mix that will bring you fame & fortune? Maybe that method works best for you and if so, go for it. However, let's think about some possibilities.

Multiple mixes-it's OK-really!

Get a great mix going. Then make perhaps a darker mix, by that I mean a more low end, less high end mix with lots of punch. Then a mix that's the opposite: more bright, and crisp. Take these and put them along side your final mix. Sit back and take a good long comparative listen. You may hear things that you may want to add or subtract from your main mix. Keep in mind that these mixes should all be great mixes, just different types of great mixes. This can also be a big help when mastering to give the Mastering Engineer a couple of different options to work with.

Also, let's not forget that the record label probably wants an instrumental mix as well as a main mix. If you're material is for mature audiences, maybe provide a version with the 'radio play objectionable words' removed to make it easier to get radio play. I'm working on a project right now where from the beginning I knew I wanted an acoustic version as well as an electric version of the song. So I made sure that all of the acoustic stuff got recorded first, then tracked all of the electric guitars and keyboards afterwards. This way, I was able to be sure that the acoustic version would stand on it's own, as well as augment the electric version.

Now when I go to mix, I can pretty much just mute the electric things & mix the acoustic version. Then mix the electric version, using the same vocals for both. It's pretty interesting to hear the mood changes by simply changing the back-up instrumentation. I get to add the acoustic elements to my electric mix as well, which is pretty fun. Another thing about getting to your final mix is something called parallel compression. This may be new to some of you. This is where you have your drums on separate tracks. Using your aux sends, send maybe just the kick, snare, & hat to a subgroup. Then insert a compressor on the subgroup. Make the setting on the subgroup compressor so that it's really squashing the kick, snare and hat combination, then mix that back in with the original drums. You should be able to hear a lot of difference in the punchiness of the sound.

You can try this with different combos of the drum, or different instruments in your mix. While this can be a handy tool, make sure that the integrity of the song and overall mix survive the process.

Yet another handy tool in mixing can be a spectrum analyzer. This tool can show you many things you may not be hearing, or might be having trouble identifying in your mix. A spectrum analyzer is a real-time graph that shows you what frequencies are at what level in your mix.

In the quest to get to an even mix (not to bright, not too boomy) this can be a handy tool. It gives you the opportunity to see what's hot & what's not in your mix.

For instance, you may be having a problem with the low end of your mix being too boomy, and you need to find out where it is frequency wise. A spectrum analyzer can show you this right away. In some software programs, this is part of the equalizer. So as soon as you see what frequency that needs to be adjusted, you can use the EQ to correct the problem.

A phase correlation meter is pretty handy to have as well. This will tell you whether or not your mix is in Phase, or not. This is really important, especially when balancing your mix. This is an easy indicator of whether or not two drum mics are in phase or not, or if a serious EQ of one side of a stereo signal has compromised both.

Now I'm talking about these tools just as easy as can be, and they are pretty easy to use. But they are tools to help you. Not the absolute word as to whether your mix is happening or not. Try them out. See what you think.

Now the question is where to get them. If you like using analog gear, this could get pretty up there in price. Nicely enough though, many DAW software programs have these tools built in. I know that Apple Logic has them, and I'm not quite sure on other programs, Cubase has the Master Edition for instance, etc. I do know that Waves has plug-ins available with these tools that can work with almost anything.

I want to be clear that these are tools I'm talking about using during your mix. Mastering is a whole new topic. On a separate note, I get emails from some of you readers that have led to ideas for columns, which is very cool, as I want to write about things that are applicable to you. It doesn't matter whether it's high-tech, or low-tech, outrageous or cool, I'd love to hear more from you. Email me with suggestions or ideas at makintrax@philgates.com.

Have a great month!
Phil
makintrax@philgates.com
www.philgates.com