It’s been said that the low end of your mix is “what separates the men from the boys.” But it can be really hard to get right, right?
Every mix poses its own unique challenges, and I never mix two songs the same way. However, here are 6 tips for getting a handle on the low end in your mix. Some of these may seem odd or strange. Give ‘em a shot. They seem to work for me.
Here we go…
I recently finished up a few mixing projects, one of which was for my good buddy Kevin Blaine. (Check out his album Reasons to Try Again, mixed and mastered by me. Great tunes.)
Anyway, as I was working on the final tweaks on these projects, something struck me. When a client sends over a bunch of tracks to mix, it’s essentially my job to be a mind-reader. In other words, I need to take what I’m hearing in the tracks and turn it into what the client is hearing in his/her head.
Mixerman explains this really well in Zen and the Art of Mixing (affiliate link). He discusses in depth the process of really listening to the tracks and letting them guide your mix decisions. In essence, you should have everything you need to mix the song, simply based on the tracks that were sent to you.
Nobody likes to be critiqued. As Home Studio Corner grows in popularity, I get lots of people emailing me telling me how much they love the site and how much it has helped them get better recordings.
I also get a fair amount of criticism. It comes with the territory. 
We don’t tend to pursue criticism. However, a good round of constructive criticism can be immensely helpful.
Do you let people critique your mixes? If not, I think you should. Here’s why:
Mixing is ridiculously fun. It’s one of my favorite parts of the process.
Sadly, though, people tend to put almost too much emphasis on mixing, so much so that they don’t take the time to properly plan, record, and edit their tracks. Those steps really need to come first before you start mixing.
Once you’re ready to mix, though, let the fun begin! Here are 6 tips to help you stay on track with your mixing. This is what I do when I mix, and I love the results I’m getting.
This is a guest post by Björgvin Benediktsson of Audio Issues.
Reverb is the #1 way to make your mixes sound amateurish. I’ve done it, you’ve done it. Hell, even those master mixers went through a whole decade doing it.
Although reverb is really useful to create depth and space in a mix, it’s easy to go overboard. So how can you add depth and space to your instruments without piling on the reverb?
A while back, one of my VIP members was asking some questions about delay in the VIP members forum.
I ended up posting a few delay tips for him, and I thought I’d share ‘em with you here on the blog.
Here are 4 quick delay tips…
Delays (and even reverbs) normally sound better if they don’t have a lot of high end, especially the sibilance in the vocals.
I’ll normally roll off above 5k or maybe even lower.
When I say reverb what comes to mind? How about delay?
For a lot of people who are just starting out with recording and mixing, they may think that reverb is that awesome plugin you use to make everything sound like it’s in a cathedral. And when they think of delay you may think of The Edge from U2.
The truth is, there is SO MUCH you can do with reverb and delay to enhance your mixes, and the most effective ways are usually the most subtle. I don’t use huge cathedrals and dotted eighth-note delays all the time, but I do use both reverb and delay plugins on almost every mix I do.
How do you pick between the two?
To complete this series of EQ mistakes, we’ve got to talk about the big boy. The thing we all WANT to do when we first start messing around with EQ.
We’ve looked at EQ-ing without listening, not EQ-ing in solo, and EQ-ing out of context. Once you’ve really mastered those three, what do you do once you’ve got the EQ open?
The tendency is to say This kick drum needs more low end and high end. So we reach for the low and high bands and start boosting. As I mentioned recently, removing some of the low-mids (around 400 Hz) can accomplish the same thing…and it usually sounds much better and more natural.
