How I mix music

Part #1 ...Whadda ya need?

You need to be able to listen.

Mixing music towards the compositions desire is the key. Basically, it's listening to what the song or presentation itself is calling for. Once elements of the presentation begin to be presented for any artistic piece, the piece itself begins to display a life of its own. One that all the elements combine create. You need to be able to listen to what it's trying to say.

 So, ya offer that you both created & performed the piece. Shouldn't you know it's desire better than anyone else?

To see the impurities in anything created from the depths of our heart and soul is an act of objectivity few of us are capable of.

Objectivity is the discussion:

 Logic and Emotion complement one another. One would not exist without the other.

 The more emotional a subject is, the harder logic will be to apply in achieving a global understanding of the subject's value or lack of

Detach yourself. Listen to what the show (song/part) is trying to tell you. It may be different from your original intent. Be brave enough to explore outside of your expectations. Be objective. It's a good anchor. Are you Brave Enough to know when your ideas are not working?

Once you present the show it no longer belongs to you ...it is now the audiences to own and judge. So, the primary thing you need to mix music is objectivity.

The main mechanical question to answer is:

How does your mixing space acoustics translate to the real world of others? Mixing is labor intensive. It's important to have that effort rewarded by affirmation from various playback systems and in different environments from the one mixed in.

 

This question brings us back to the beginning:

Do you know how to listen?

It is not a smug question. It can be answered privately, just go outside and listen. 

Stand quietly and listen to each sound you hear. Pick them out, qualify them; do some sound closer than others, which ones have more high frequencies’, which sounds are running into the other sounds around it, name each sound, place each sound (is it to the left, right, center, front, back and so on) and finally, how many separate sounds do you hear, what is the number of “tracks” you would need to store them separately?

How many tracks?

Once you are able to rapidly “know the number” of the individual ambient sounds surrounding you, while metaphorically juggling running chainsaws/ reciting flawlessly the NAB announcers test and get coffee for your client, all without missing a beat of any ongoing conversation ...then you'll be ready to move onto something more difficult …mixing music.

Next time: Mixdown structure …knowing the tonal quality of your tools.