A Basic Guide For Mixing Rock Music

When mixing music, especially when you’re just getting started, it’s helpful to have a guide--some kind of step-by-step plan in front of you to follow. That is the purpose of this brief article. Below you will find the basic steps I use every time I mix a song. I hope you find it helpful.

As you begin it’s helpful to remember that mixing is an art form. While there is a bit of science involved and the more you learn about the scientific laws of acoustics, frequencies, etc. the better you will become at mixing. But, in the end—it all comes down to the ears of the mixing engineer.

This article is just a very basic guide. I would encourage you to do further study on musical frequencies, EQing audio, acoustics, using a compressor, etc. You can do a web search for just about any aspect of the mixing process and find loads of helpful articles on the subject. Become a student of mixing! It will pay off big-time. In the mean time this guide will get you started in the right direction.

NOTE: This is general advice, so feel free to ignore it if you are going for a specific sound.

FIRST--RECORDING: I'm assuming you have all the tracks recorded. Don’t devalue the importance of getting a great recording. Learn all you can about acoustics, rooms, miking techniques, etc. A great recording is easy to mix and master. A bad recording can easily become a nightmare that all the mixing in the world can’t fix.

SECOND--EQing: You want to cut out any frequencies below 100Hz--from all instruments except the BASS GUITAR.. you want the bass to carry those low frequencies. By cutting these frequencies out of the other tracks (guitars, keyboard, vocals, etc.) you will: a) keep your mix from becoming muddy down low, and b) allow the bass guitar to really shine through in the mix. You may or may not want to apply this cut to your kick drum. It all depends on the recorded sound of the kick drum and the sound you are going for. But generally speaking, kick drums benefit from rolling of all the frequencies under 50 Hz. These are inaudible frequencies. They are important—in that they are “felt”, but they can also be “trouble makers” because they can easily over power a mix making it “boomy” and hard to manage. So, rolling these low frequencies off of everything except the bass guitar is generally a good thing. You can also give the kick drum a boost around 10K to enhance the sound of the beater and get that cool “click” sound so popular in modern hard rock and metal music.

THRID--DO AN INITIAL ROUGH MIX: Set the instruments and vocals in the stereo field where you want them by panning things to the left and right to taste. Always keep your kick drum, bass guitar, and lead vocal in the dead center. And set the volume of each track to a level that sounds relatively good to you. THIS ISYOUR STARTING POINT. From this point on you begin adding effects and tweaking things to taste.

FOURTH--MORE Eqing: At this point you are going to be making smaller changes to tracks in order to help them blend and work together. You won’t be cranking on the faders. You’ll be much more subtle in your approach. The best method for tweak tracks and getting them to blend is “negative EQing.” In negative EQing you cut frequencies at specific places in order to let other instruments shine through in the mix.

This is where you need a “spectrum analyzer”. You can pick a free plugin VST version online for free or very cheap. Just do a search for “Free Spectrum Analyzer.” I would also recommend that you pick up a parametric EQ. A graphic EQ will work for this, but a parametric is better. If you aren’t sure what the difference is between this. Do some research. Look up some articles on both and educate yourself.

Now, let’s say you want your vocals to shine through. You would first solo your vocal track and turn the Spectrum Analyzer on in that track. Observe the frequency range for the vocal track. Where is it the strongest and best sounding? Most vocals are strong and sound best somewhere between 1 & 6 K. So, you identify the “sweet spot” in your vocal track … say it’s at 4K. You would then go in and cut the 4K frequency in the "competing" tracks (guitars, bass, etc.) minus the drums – I generally don’t mess with the drums. You don’t need to make a BIG cut… just about 1dB. You’ll be amazed what a small amount will do. Then go listen and see if your vocal cuts through better. If you’re happy—great. If you want more, simply go in and make the cut a little bigger. Continue this process until you get it dialed in.

FIVE—REPEAT THIS PROCESS FOR EACH INSTRUMENT: Locate the “sweet spot” frequency” – the place where that instrument sounds best and make a little cut in the competing instruments to allow it to shine through.

A COUPLE OBVIOUS THOUGHTS:
Yes—you will occasionally run into a situation where two instruments sound best within the same frequency range. In this case—you simply have to experiment. Try cutting frequencies here and there (not in a permanent destructive fashion—of course) and see what sounds best. Often times you’ll find that the cuts you make won’t necessarily sound good when the track is soloed, but when everything is played together is sounds great!

Also—you will want to give special priority to certain tracks. For example. Your rhythm guitars can handle a lot of cuts and still provide a nice solid rhythm section. So don’t stress about making the rhythm guitars “shine through” in the mix. You want to focus on the “spot light” tracks like, lead vocals, lead guitar, and any other track that you just feel is especially important to the sound of that song.

Feel free to apply ANY effects – phase, flange, chorus, reverb, delay, compression-- etc., you like in the mixing stage--THIS IS THE TIME TO DO IT. It won't affect the mastering process at all.

Once you get a track sounding the way you want it--mix the whole song down to a single stereo wav file and send me that file.

THE ONE THING YOU DO NOT WANT is "distortion"... i.e. when you listen to the tracks--you shouldn't hear them "crackling" or "breaking up" anywhere... if you want to know what digital distortion sounds like... just crank all your tracks up above "0 dB" and you'll get a taste... it's nasty... and mastering can't fix it.