21 pro mixing and processing tips

Get your music up to studio quality

It’s all very well having great ideas and getting them recorded and arranged, but if you want your music to sound professional, you’ll need to blend everything together successfully at the mixing/processing stage.

Unfortunately, the pitfalls when you’re doing this are many, and getting all the elements of your track to sit together is difficult. Fortunately, MusicRadar is on hand to give you 21 pearls of technical and creative wisdom…

1. There’s a very practical reason that you should start with heavy elements such as the kick drum and bass when mixing – headroom! Set your kick and bass levels so that they only register about a quarter of the way up the level meter when it’s set to 0dB. This will leave lots of room to boost later – and you’ll always want room to nudge your kick up!

2. Try to keep your master output level well below 0dB – peaking about halfway up the meter is fine – so as not to risk any digital clipping or distortion. In these days of noise-free digital mixing, you can always raise the level later before limiting it.

3. You can help different groups of sounds to gel coherently (drums or vocals, for example) by routing them to a bus and processing them as a whole. It’s also useful for keeping the CPU load down and makes gating and compressing the group easier.

4. Mixing is the one part of the creative production process where you need to have the volume quite loud, as you won’t actually hear the proper relationship between sounds otherwise – this is particularly true with dance music. Work in spurts to check this, though - don’t just leave it loud all the time. You can’t fix broken ears.

5. Be careful of any effect that makes a signal louder, as the volume increase alone can give the illusion of a ‘better’ sound. Compression is a good example of this. Louder isn’t necessarily better, so always be sure to A/B your new and old settings to make sure that you are actually improving the sound rather than just boosting it.

6. If you compress the life out of all the elements in your track then that’s exactly how your finished mix will sound too. And while this is a standard technique in dance music these days, even in that genre there are limits. So dial back the settings a little sometimes, and use sidechaining to add some bounce and life.

7. In the analogue mixing days it was common practice to place a compressor on the main output to keep the signal below 0dB and add a bit of weight, but with modern digital mixing you can keep things low enough not to peak and still preserve the range. Don’t risk squashing the life out of your music – leave those sorts of decisions for the mastering engineer.

“Always be sure to A/B your new and old settings to make sure that you are actually improving the sound rather than just boosting it.”

8. Before sending your track to anybody (or burning a CD), always check your mixdown back after bouncing. Even with software, little errors can creep in that aren’t audible during real-time playback. If you come across a glitch, rendering the problem section separately and pasting it into the mixdown will do the trick…

9. Always trust your ears first and foremost. Music isn’t for looking at, so if something doesn’t appear right onscreen, or looks like it has too many (or too few) effects, close your eyes (or switch off your monitor) and play it back. If it sounds right, it is right; if it sounds wrong… well, you figure it out!

10. Unlike with your final mix, you shouldn’t always shy away from overdriving the odd channel. We’re not suggesting that you max everything out into the red all the time, but if you have one or two elements sneaking into that range and they don’t sound bad (or sound better, even), then why worry? Trust your ears!

11. When two instruments share a range of frequencies (vocals and guitars, for example), apply an EQ cut to one to make the other pop through. For example, some attenuation in the 300Hz-3kHz range of your guitars and synths will help the vocal cut through.

12. The easiest way to home in on a problem frequency that needs cutting is to apply a boost using a parametric EQ and sweep the frequency back and forth until you hear the problem area get louder. Then use the Q control to narrow it down and, finally, turn the boost into a cut.

13. Many producers try to beef up the bass with low-shelving boost, but this can just make the sound muddy. Instead, try cutting out about 1dB with low shelving, then use a little bit of notch boost (1-3dB) and sweep the centre frequency between about 80Hz and 120Hz, as this is where the weight and punch of the bass is – the rest is just rumble!

14. Synthesizers are capable of throwing out some weird harmonics, so sometimes you might need to detune them slightly to make them sound right together. And this is even more true of samples, as they tend to have subtle sonic artefacts that can confuse things even further.

“When two instruments share a range of frequencies (vocals and guitars, for example), apply an EQ cut to one to make the other pop through.”

15. If you always use an effect as an insert, try using it on a send/return bus, and vice versa. It’s all too easy to settle into certain ways of working, but as producers, our sound will be defined by our techniques, so if these never change then neither will the sound of our music – and production should be about progression.

16. The last thing you want when mixing is the dreaded CPU overload, so to get rid of the problem it may well be worth bouncing down or freezing all of your parts as audio and then making final mix and processing adjustments. With certain software, doing this could arguably result in better signal quality, too.

17. The key to great sounding ambience is to use a couple of reverb buses – one each for bright and heavy sounds. Then use plenty of low EQ attenuation to keep things clean on the heavier sounds and trim off some of the top end on the brighter ones.

18. We’ve already said that you should always start your mixdown with the heaviest elements, but what next? Well, we reckon it’s lead sounds, such as vocals, synths and guitars. Get these right and then slide your other percussion up behind them – this way you won’t keep nudging the lead parts up to get them to fit with everything else.

19. Never neglect compression. Nothing upsets the balance of a mix quite like fluctuating volume levels. They make vocalists sound insecure and musicians sound clumsy, so use plenty of judicious compression to flatten the levels to consistency – sometimes two gentle compressors are smoother than one firm one.

20. Spend some time listening to the effect of various compression settings on different instruments. On vocals it can enhance breath noises, making them much more intimate; on guitars it can bring out the sound of fingers stroking strings or the rattle of hands on wood. All of these elements can be useful at times, but you do need to learn how to control them.

21. Headphones can be a very useful mixing tool (particularly in a bad monitoring environment, as they can give a good reference point without any reflections), but they simply cannot portray a stereo field or reproduce bass frequencies (even if they’re rated as low as 25Hz), so always finalise your mix on monitors
.

21 pro mixing and processing tips

Software mixing is now extremely popular.

21 pro mixing and processing tips

Get your music up to studio quality

It’s all very well having great ideas and getting them recorded and arranged, but if you want your music to sound professional, you’ll need to blend everything together successfully at the mixing/processing stage.

Unfortunately, the pitfalls when you’re doing this are many, and getting all the elements of your track to sit together is difficult. Fortunately, MusicRadar is on hand to give you 21 pearls of technical and creative wisdom…

1. There’s a very practical reason that you should start with heavy elements such as the kick drum and bass when mixing – headroom! Set your kick and bass levels so that they only register about a quarter of the way up the level meter when it’s set to 0dB. This will leave lots of room to boost later – and you’ll always want room to nudge your kick up!

2. Try to keep your master output level well below 0dB – peaking about halfway up the meter is fine – so as not to risk any digital clipping or distortion. In these days of noise-free digital mixing, you can always raise the level later before limiting it.

3. You can help different groups of sounds to gel coherently (drums or vocals, for example) by routing them to a bus and processing them as a whole. It’s also useful for keeping the CPU load down and makes gating and compressing the group easier.

4. Mixing is the one part of the creative production process where you need to have the volume quite loud, as you won’t actually hear the proper relationship between sounds otherwise – this is particularly true with dance music. Work in spurts to check this, though - don’t just leave it loud all the time. You can’t fix broken ears.

5. Be careful of any effect that makes a signal louder, as the volume increase alone can give the illusion of a ‘better’ sound. Compression is a good example of this. Louder isn’t necessarily better, so always be sure to A/B your new and old settings to make sure that you are actually improving the sound rather than just boosting it.

6. If you compress the life out of all the elements in your track then that’s exactly how your finished mix will sound too. And while this is a standard technique in dance music these days, even in that genre there are limits. So dial back the settings a little sometimes, and use sidechaining to add some bounce and life.

7. In the analogue mixing days it was common practice to place a compressor on the main output to keep the signal below 0dB and add a bit of weight, but with modern digital mixing you can keep things low enough not to peak and still preserve the range. Don’t risk squashing the life out of your music – leave those sorts of decisions for the mastering engineer.

“Always be sure to A/B your new and old settings to make sure that you are actually improving the sound rather than just boosting it.”

8. Before sending your track to anybody (or burning a CD), always check your mixdown back after bouncing. Even with software, little errors can creep in that aren’t audible during real-time playback. If you come across a glitch, rendering the problem section separately and pasting it into the mixdown will do the trick…

9. Always trust your ears first and foremost. Music isn’t for looking at, so if something doesn’t appear right onscreen, or looks like it has too many (or too few) effects, close your eyes (or switch off your monitor) and play it back. If it sounds right, it is right; if it sounds wrong… well, you figure it out!

10. Unlike with your final mix, you shouldn’t always shy away from overdriving the odd channel. We’re not suggesting that you max everything out into the red all the time, but if you have one or two elements sneaking into that range and they don’t sound bad (or sound better, even), then why worry? Trust your ears!

11. When two instruments share a range of frequencies (vocals and guitars, for example), apply an EQ cut to one to make the other pop through. For example, some attenuation in the 300Hz-3kHz range of your guitars and synths will help the vocal cut through.

12. The easiest way to home in on a problem frequency that needs cutting is to apply a boost using a parametric EQ and sweep the frequency back and forth until you hear the problem area get louder. Then use the Q control to narrow it down and, finally, turn the boost into a cut.

13. Many producers try to beef up the bass with low-shelving boost, but this can just make the sound muddy. Instead, try cutting out about 1dB with low shelving, then use a little bit of notch boost (1-3dB) and sweep the centre frequency between about 80Hz and 120Hz, as this is where the weight and punch of the bass is – the rest is just rumble!

14. Synthesizers are capable of throwing out some weird harmonics, so sometimes you might need to detune them slightly to make them sound right together. And this is even more true of samples, as they tend to have subtle sonic artefacts that can confuse things even further.

“When two instruments share a range of frequencies (vocals and guitars, for example), apply an EQ cut to one to make the other pop through.”

15. If you always use an effect as an insert, try using it on a send/return bus, and vice versa. It’s all too easy to settle into certain ways of working, but as producers, our sound will be defined by our techniques, so if these never change then neither will the sound of our music – and production should be about progression.

16. The last thing you want when mixing is the dreaded CPU overload, so to get rid of the problem it may well be worth bouncing down or freezing all of your parts as audio and then making final mix and processing adjustments. With certain software, doing this could arguably result in better signal quality, too.

17. The key to great sounding ambience is to use a couple of reverb buses – one each for bright and heavy sounds. Then use plenty of low EQ attenuation to keep things clean on the heavier sounds and trim off some of the top end on the brighter ones.

18. We’ve already said that you should always start your mixdown with the heaviest elements, but what next? Well, we reckon it’s lead sounds, such as vocals, synths and guitars. Get these right and then slide your other percussion up behind them – this way you won’t keep nudging the lead parts up to get them to fit with everything else.

19. Never neglect compression. Nothing upsets the balance of a mix quite like fluctuating volume levels. They make vocalists sound insecure and musicians sound clumsy, so use plenty of judicious compression to flatten the levels to consistency – sometimes two gentle compressors are smoother than one firm one.

20. Spend some time listening to the effect of various compression settings on different instruments. On vocals it can enhance breath noises, making them much more intimate; on guitars it can bring out the sound of fingers stroking strings or the rattle of hands on wood. All of these elements can be useful at times, but you do need to learn how to control them.

21. Headphones can be a very useful mixing tool (particularly in a bad monitoring environment, as they can give a good reference point without any reflections), but they simply cannot portray a stereo field or reproduce bass frequencies (even if they’re rated as low as 25Hz), so always finalise your mix on monitors
.

Mixing Advice from Roger Nichols

 

 

Mixing music might seem like a black art, but here's a simple approach to help the newcomer get their tracks together.

After you unpack the boxes, connect all the gear, look at the covers of the manuals (nobody has ever actually read a manual, right?) and try to start recording and mixing, how do you figure it all out? Like learning to play a guitar, learning to paint, or tuning the fuel injection on a Ferrari, first you need to be pointed in the right direction, and then you need experience.This month's column leans toward the new 'audio recording enthusiast' who is trying to figure out how it all works. I have been there, although it was back when stereo was a new gimmick.

There are hundreds of books to point you in the right direction. There at least 10 books covering each major DAW, including Pro Tools, Sonar, Cubase/Nuendo,Digital Performer, Adobe Audition and Logic. There are at least that many writings about recording and mixing in general, and a few books try to teach mastering. For some people, however, reading the books doesn't help much more than sleeping with the book under your pillow. Along with reading, you need to have some practical experience.

As far as equipment goes, you can learn about recording and mixing with what you already have. It doesn't take much of a computer these days to get the ball rolling. If you can't afford the software, there are dozens of free multitrack recording programs available, as well as demo versions of most of the high-end programs. You can actually start mixing before you start recording. There are multitrack versions of songs from Nine Inch Nails and other groups on-line for download. There are some books that include multitrack material to mix from Waves, and Charles Dye's Mix It Like A Record DVD.

It Goes To 11

The biggest hump to overcome when mixing is that everything sounds better when it is louder. Everything! You can have the crappiest mix on earth, but if you play it loud enough, it will sound great. The worse the mix, the louder you have to play it.

You see this all the time in the studio when the mix is almost done and the band shows up for playback. The guitar player comes over and wants the guitar up just a little. Then the bass player sneaks over and turns up the bass. The drummer is not far behind, complaining about the lack of punch in the drums, and up crawls the drum group. After everyone finishes, the mix is right back where it started, but louder. The band is happy, approves the mix and leaves. The engineer turns down the master fader to get the overall level back to normal, and prints the mix.

If you can change the level of an instrument in the mix by a tenth or two-tenths of a dB and you can hear the change that you made, the mix is getting pretty good. If you can change some other instrument by that amount and not really hear any difference, then chances are that the instrument you are playing with is not where it should be. The problem may be down to level, or EQ, or compression, or reverb, but it is not quite ready for prime time. I will discuss all four and point out things to watch for.

Multitrack iTunes? Major record labels are gearing up for download of your favorite multitrack material. The record labels are actually releasing these multitracks to copyright the content. A copyright is not valid in the US unless the material is distributed publicly. The multitracks in the vaults are, therefore, not copyright material. The melody and the lyrics carry a copyright, but that is for the writers and publishers. The record company has a copyright (P) on the physical CD, cassette, or vinyl album that is shipped, but that only covers the final two-track mixes as they occur on the finished product. No protection is offered toward the multitrack recordings. Interesting. So, if they offer the multitracks for download, and leave off the lead vocal or melody line, they don't have to pay anyone anything. Artist gets nothing, producer gets nothing, songwriter gets nothing... Hmmm. Anyway, there is going to be lots of material to test your mixing skills, for a few dollars more. UK laws are slightly different, though I doubt that record companies ever send copies of the multitracks for registration with UKCS. UK law is better than the US in that all you need to do is produce the work for it to be copyright; the root of the US record company stance is that you cannot copyright chord progressions or tempo, so without the melody and lyrics, there is nothing unique about the work. An example would be Tina Turner's 'Private Dancer', written by Mark Knopfler. When you heard it, you thought it was Steely Dan's 'FM' track. The bass line, the rhythm, the tracks seem to be uncannily similar to 'FM', but the melody and words are different, so no case.

EQ Balance

Think of any instrument as two separate components: the low end of the instrument and the high end of the instrument. As an example, let's take an acoustic guitar. The highs are important because they give the attack of the note or the raking of the strings that extra presence to cut through the track. The low end creates the body of the sound, the warmth of the instrument in the track. If the balance between these two halves is not right, then you will never get it to sit in the track correctly. There will always be places where it seems too loud or too soft.

Start with the attack of the notes, or the raking of the strings in the case of a rhythm acoustic part. Change the level of the acoustic guitar until the high end sounds right in the existing mix. Get the level to where you can hear a level change of two-tenths of a dB. Now stop. Start with a parametric EQ set to a low Q of around 2, giving a very wide, smooth curve, and the frequency set for around 250Hz. Move the gain of the EQ up or down to get the low part of the guitar into the right relationship in the mix. Try to think of the low end of the guitar as a separate instrument. Get it to sound good in the mix. When you get the low end of the guitar in a place where you can hear a two-tenths of a dB change in the level, you are doing great.

Now you are going to do one more thing. It is usually the low end of all the instruments adding up that makes the mix sound muddy. My rule is, if you can't hear it, you don't need it. Turn on the lowest band of the EQ and make it a high-pass filter, or use the high-pass filter if it operates independently. Start with the frequency all the way down. Leave all of the tracks playing, with the acoustic guitar in the mix. Start raising the frequency of the high-pass filter slowly until you can hear a change in the sound of the low end of the acoustic guitar. Look at the frequency on the high-pass filter. Now reduce the frequency by about 15 percent. That means if the frequency reads 200Hz, then move it down 30Hz to about 170Hz. If you do this to each of the mid-range instruments, it will clean up the muddiness problem in your mix.

Compression Doesn't Always Suck

If some notes just stick out or get lost and EQ by itself doesn't help, then maybe you should use a little compression. Notice the key word: a little compression. Of course the best way to set a compressor is to listen to the results, make an intelligent judgment, and twist all the knobs until it sounds right. Or, you can start with an easy rule of thumb that can get you most of the way there.

If you're new to it, mixing a multitrack project can seem overwhelming.

Set the ratio to 2:1. Depending on the compressor, use either the input control or threshold control while the music is playing, and lower the threshold (or raise the input gain) until you see the gain-reduction meter jump into action. Keep adjusting until the gain reduction peaks at -3dB to -4dB. For now we will just leave the attack and release values at whatever the defaults were when you loaded the compressor.

This is now a pretty good starting point for compression. It is not even going to really sound compressed. You now have a little more control over the dynamic range of the instrument without hurting the sound of the instrument. Now readjust the level of the instrument to get it settled in the track. When you can start hearing small changes in level, you are in the right place.

Sometimes EQ, sometimes compression, and sometimes a combination of the two may be necessary to get the desired results. Try the EQ first, as this will maintain the greatest amount of dynamic range in the instrument. If you can't quite get it, try a little compression.

On The Level

We already have a pretty good mix going, but how do you know if it is the best possible mix? Think of it this way. It is always easier to tell when something is wrong than when something is right. This is true of instrument levels in a mix. While listening to the mix, one at a time change the levels of each instrument in varying combinations. Turn the bass up 1dB. Does the mix sound worse? If the answer is yes, then turn it back down. Turn the bass down 1dB. Does this sound worse? If the answer is yes, then the original level was right for the bass. Now try one of the guitars. Then the piano. If an instrument sounded better at a new level then leave it there and start back through the cycle.

This can be a time-consuming task, and you should take lots of notes so you can get back to previous settings, but by the time you get through the process and have eliminated everything that sounds worse, then you have the final mix. Cool, huh?

Hello... Hello... Hello...

Reverb is the last thing to add, because it depends on all of the other levels being close to the final ones. Normally, when you add reverb, your initial impression is that it sounds more three-dimensional and lush. This is true in a way, but it also starts sounding like the whole band is playing with you in the shower. I don't mean playing with you, I mean playing along with you on their instruments. I mean... Never mind.

Solo each instrument that has reverb added, along with the reverb. Turn the reverb down until it no longer sounds like a big reverb, but more like real-world ambience. 'Yup, sounds like the acoustic guitar was recorded in a nice-sounding room,' should be the goal. There is a place for special effects if you want, but make sure there is room in the track by backing off on the other reverbs.

One more reverb trick I always use, both with reverb plug-ins and external reverb hardware, is to insert a one-band EQ after the reverb return. Set the EQ to high-pass filter and set the frequency to 250Hz. Reverbs usually generate some of their own low-frequency artifacts that are not part of the music. Also, low-end reverb just makes the mix rumble. Limiting this unnecessary sound makes the reverb accentuate the music in the middle of the spectrum, and the nice splash on the snare and the vocal, without adding mud.

Your Work Is Never Done

This is by no means a complete course on mixing, or the definitive answer to all of your troublesome tracks. This is meant to help someone new head in the right direction. Use these tips and expand on them. See what works for you.

If you do things differently and make great-sounding records, then perfect. I want to know how you do it. Share your methods with others who are trying to figure it out. I like buying CDs and listening to new bands. What I do not like is bad-sounding CDs. Put together someone who knows how to make great-sounding records with a band who know how to write and play great songs and you've got something! 

Mixing Advice from Roger Nichols

 

 

Mixing music might seem like a black art, but here's a simple approach to help the newcomer get their tracks together.

After you unpack the boxes, connect all the gear, look at the covers of the manuals (nobody has ever actually read a manual, right?) and try to start recording and mixing, how do you figure it all out? Like learning to play a guitar, learning to paint, or tuning the fuel injection on a Ferrari, first you need to be pointed in the right direction, and then you need experience.This month's column leans toward the new 'audio recording enthusiast' who is trying to figure out how it all works. I have been there, although it was back when stereo was a new gimmick.

There are hundreds of books to point you in the right direction. There at least 10 books covering each major DAW, including Pro Tools, Sonar, Cubase/Nuendo,Digital Performer, Adobe Audition and Logic. There are at least that many writings about recording and mixing in general, and a few books try to teach mastering. For some people, however, reading the books doesn't help much more than sleeping with the book under your pillow. Along with reading, you need to have some practical experience.

As far as equipment goes, you can learn about recording and mixing with what you already have. It doesn't take much of a computer these days to get the ball rolling. If you can't afford the software, there are dozens of free multitrack recording programs available, as well as demo versions of most of the high-end programs. You can actually start mixing before you start recording. There are multitrack versions of songs from Nine Inch Nails and other groups on-line for download. There are some books that include multitrack material to mix from Waves, and Charles Dye's Mix It Like A Record DVD.

It Goes To 11

The biggest hump to overcome when mixing is that everything sounds better when it is louder. Everything! You can have the crappiest mix on earth, but if you play it loud enough, it will sound great. The worse the mix, the louder you have to play it.

You see this all the time in the studio when the mix is almost done and the band shows up for playback. The guitar player comes over and wants the guitar up just a little. Then the bass player sneaks over and turns up the bass. The drummer is not far behind, complaining about the lack of punch in the drums, and up crawls the drum group. After everyone finishes, the mix is right back where it started, but louder. The band is happy, approves the mix and leaves. The engineer turns down the master fader to get the overall level back to normal, and prints the mix.

If you can change the level of an instrument in the mix by a tenth or two-tenths of a dB and you can hear the change that you made, the mix is getting pretty good. If you can change some other instrument by that amount and not really hear any difference, then chances are that the instrument you are playing with is not where it should be. The problem may be down to level, or EQ, or compression, or reverb, but it is not quite ready for prime time. I will discuss all four and point out things to watch for.

Multitrack iTunes? Major record labels are gearing up for download of your favorite multitrack material. The record labels are actually releasing these multitracks to copyright the content. A copyright is not valid in the US unless the material is distributed publicly. The multitracks in the vaults are, therefore, not copyright material. The melody and the lyrics carry a copyright, but that is for the writers and publishers. The record company has a copyright (P) on the physical CD, cassette, or vinyl album that is shipped, but that only covers the final two-track mixes as they occur on the finished product. No protection is offered toward the multitrack recordings. Interesting. So, if they offer the multitracks for download, and leave off the lead vocal or melody line, they don't have to pay anyone anything. Artist gets nothing, producer gets nothing, songwriter gets nothing... Hmmm. Anyway, there is going to be lots of material to test your mixing skills, for a few dollars more. UK laws are slightly different, though I doubt that record companies ever send copies of the multitracks for registration with UKCS. UK law is better than the US in that all you need to do is produce the work for it to be copyright; the root of the US record company stance is that you cannot copyright chord progressions or tempo, so without the melody and lyrics, there is nothing unique about the work. An example would be Tina Turner's 'Private Dancer', written by Mark Knopfler. When you heard it, you thought it was Steely Dan's 'FM' track. The bass line, the rhythm, the tracks seem to be uncannily similar to 'FM', but the melody and words are different, so no case.

EQ Balance

Think of any instrument as two separate components: the low end of the instrument and the high end of the instrument. As an example, let's take an acoustic guitar. The highs are important because they give the attack of the note or the raking of the strings that extra presence to cut through the track. The low end creates the body of the sound, the warmth of the instrument in the track. If the balance between these two halves is not right, then you will never get it to sit in the track correctly. There will always be places where it seems too loud or too soft.

Start with the attack of the notes, or the raking of the strings in the case of a rhythm acoustic part. Change the level of the acoustic guitar until the high end sounds right in the existing mix. Get the level to where you can hear a level change of two-tenths of a dB. Now stop. Start with a parametric EQ set to a low Q of around 2, giving a very wide, smooth curve, and the frequency set for around 250Hz. Move the gain of the EQ up or down to get the low part of the guitar into the right relationship in the mix. Try to think of the low end of the guitar as a separate instrument. Get it to sound good in the mix. When you get the low end of the guitar in a place where you can hear a two-tenths of a dB change in the level, you are doing great.

Now you are going to do one more thing. It is usually the low end of all the instruments adding up that makes the mix sound muddy. My rule is, if you can't hear it, you don't need it. Turn on the lowest band of the EQ and make it a high-pass filter, or use the high-pass filter if it operates independently. Start with the frequency all the way down. Leave all of the tracks playing, with the acoustic guitar in the mix. Start raising the frequency of the high-pass filter slowly until you can hear a change in the sound of the low end of the acoustic guitar. Look at the frequency on the high-pass filter. Now reduce the frequency by about 15 percent. That means if the frequency reads 200Hz, then move it down 30Hz to about 170Hz. If you do this to each of the mid-range instruments, it will clean up the muddiness problem in your mix.

Compression Doesn't Always Suck

If some notes just stick out or get lost and EQ by itself doesn't help, then maybe you should use a little compression. Notice the key word: a little compression. Of course the best way to set a compressor is to listen to the results, make an intelligent judgment, and twist all the knobs until it sounds right. Or, you can start with an easy rule of thumb that can get you most of the way there.

If you're new to it, mixing a multitrack project can seem overwhelming.

Set the ratio to 2:1. Depending on the compressor, use either the input control or threshold control while the music is playing, and lower the threshold (or raise the input gain) until you see the gain-reduction meter jump into action. Keep adjusting until the gain reduction peaks at -3dB to -4dB. For now we will just leave the attack and release values at whatever the defaults were when you loaded the compressor.

This is now a pretty good starting point for compression. It is not even going to really sound compressed. You now have a little more control over the dynamic range of the instrument without hurting the sound of the instrument. Now readjust the level of the instrument to get it settled in the track. When you can start hearing small changes in level, you are in the right place.

Sometimes EQ, sometimes compression, and sometimes a combination of the two may be necessary to get the desired results. Try the EQ first, as this will maintain the greatest amount of dynamic range in the instrument. If you can't quite get it, try a little compression.

On The Level

We already have a pretty good mix going, but how do you know if it is the best possible mix? Think of it this way. It is always easier to tell when something is wrong than when something is right. This is true of instrument levels in a mix. While listening to the mix, one at a time change the levels of each instrument in varying combinations. Turn the bass up 1dB. Does the mix sound worse? If the answer is yes, then turn it back down. Turn the bass down 1dB. Does this sound worse? If the answer is yes, then the original level was right for the bass. Now try one of the guitars. Then the piano. If an instrument sounded better at a new level then leave it there and start back through the cycle.

This can be a time-consuming task, and you should take lots of notes so you can get back to previous settings, but by the time you get through the process and have eliminated everything that sounds worse, then you have the final mix. Cool, huh?

Hello... Hello... Hello...

Reverb is the last thing to add, because it depends on all of the other levels being close to the final ones. Normally, when you add reverb, your initial impression is that it sounds more three-dimensional and lush. This is true in a way, but it also starts sounding like the whole band is playing with you in the shower. I don't mean playing with you, I mean playing along with you on their instruments. I mean... Never mind.

Solo each instrument that has reverb added, along with the reverb. Turn the reverb down until it no longer sounds like a big reverb, but more like real-world ambience. 'Yup, sounds like the acoustic guitar was recorded in a nice-sounding room,' should be the goal. There is a place for special effects if you want, but make sure there is room in the track by backing off on the other reverbs.

One more reverb trick I always use, both with reverb plug-ins and external reverb hardware, is to insert a one-band EQ after the reverb return. Set the EQ to high-pass filter and set the frequency to 250Hz. Reverbs usually generate some of their own low-frequency artifacts that are not part of the music. Also, low-end reverb just makes the mix rumble. Limiting this unnecessary sound makes the reverb accentuate the music in the middle of the spectrum, and the nice splash on the snare and the vocal, without adding mud.

Your Work Is Never Done

This is by no means a complete course on mixing, or the definitive answer to all of your troublesome tracks. This is meant to help someone new head in the right direction. Use these tips and expand on them. See what works for you.

If you do things differently and make great-sounding records, then perfect. I want to know how you do it. Share your methods with others who are trying to figure it out. I like buying CDs and listening to new bands. What I do not like is bad-sounding CDs. Put together someone who knows how to make great-sounding records with a band who know how to write and play great songs and you've got something! 

20 Tips On Mixing; Tips & Tricks

20 Tips On Mixing

Tips & Tricks

 

The vocals sound great, the drums are really kicking and the guitars are exceptional, but put it all together and what have you got? A mess! Sound familiar? Until you've gained plenty of experience in mixing music, the process can seem very frustrating. There are probably as many correct ways to tackle a mix as there are successful engineers and producers. Even so, I've taken 20 tips that I've found to be helpful over the years and presented them below in the form of a checklist. These are not immutable rules, just general guidelines that can be broken any time you feel you can get away with it. Have fun!

1. Put the mixer into neutral (EQ flat, aux sends down, routing to Left/Right only and so on), before you start work and pull down the faders on any channels not in use. Make sure all unused aux sends are set to zero and that unused mixer channels are unrouted as well as muted, as this will further reduce the level of background noise. If you don't do this, you may find effects on tracks that don't need effects, or unwanted tracks creeping into a bounce due to a routing button being left down. You should also have a track sheet for your recording from which you can label the mixer channels. The time-honoured way to do this is to use masking tape and felt pen, so that you can peel the whole lot off when the job is finished.
2. Optimise the gain settings not only for the multitrack returns, but also for all effects sends and returns and for your external effect units. Also ensure that your master recorder is being driven as hard as possible, without overloading on signal peaks. These simple measures can significantly improve the clarity of your mix. If your recording is going to be digitally edited, leave any fade-outs until the edit stage, and don't try to chop off the noise that precedes or follows the mix -- you may need this when setting up a digital denoiser that requires a bare noise 'fingerprint' for calibration purposes.
3. Subgroup logical sections of your mix, such as the drum kit or the backing vocals, so that you can control the overall level of the subgrouped elements from a single fader or stereo pair of faders. This allows you to control the mix using fewer faders, and fewer fingers! Be aware that any channels subgrouped this way must also have their effects routed to the same groups(s), otherwise the effects level won't change as you adjust the group fader.
4. Where level adjustments need to be made, mark the fader settings with a chinagraph wax pencil and, if necessary, take note of the tape counter or timecode locations at which the level changes occur. This way you can solicit help from other musicians in the studio if the mix gets too busy. If you're lucky and are using mix automation, listen to the whole mix through without watching the levels, so that you can concentrate on the balance of the instruments.
5. Don't assume that your ears always tell you the truth. Rest them before mixing and constantly refer to commercial recordings played over your monitor system, so that you have some form of reference to aim for. This is particularly important if you use harmonic enhancers, as your ears can grow used to the effects of over-enhancement very quickly.
6. Don't overdo the effects, especially reverb, as this can clutter your recording and take away the contrast that is needed to give your mix punch. As a rule, the drier the sound, the more up-front it will sound, while heavily reverbed sounds tend to move into the background. If you need strong reverb on lead vocals, try to add some pre-delay to the reverb effect and adjust both the vocal level and reverb level so that the vocal sits comfortably over the backing.
7. Don't pan bass sounds such as kick drums or bass instruments to the sides of the stereo soundstage, as these high energy sounds need to be shared equally between the two stereo speakers for best results. As a rule, very bassy sounds contain little or no directional information anyway, although bass sounds that also contain a lot of harmonics can sound more directional.
8. Leave any final EQ and effect adjustments until the full mix is playing. If you work on any single instrument in isolation, it's likely to sound different when everything else is added. If you can avoid using any heavy EQ, the result is more likely to sound more natural.
9. Try not to have too many instruments competing for the same part of the audio spectrum. The mid-range is particularly vulnerable, so try to choose the best sounds at source. You can improve the separation when mixing by using EQ to narrow the spectrum of the sound you're working with. Try rolling off some low end and occasionally taking out any excessive top end. This is sometimes known as spectral mixing, where each sound or instrument is given its own space in the audio spectrum. A good example of this is the acoustic guitar which, in a rock mix, can muddle the low mid. If you roll off the low end, you still get plenty of definition, but the mix will seem far cleaner. Sidechain filters on noise gates (set to Key Listen mode) are often very good tools for trimming the high and low ends of sounds without unduly changing the section you want to keep.
10. Don't over EQ sounds as they're likely to sound unnatural, especially when boosting. As a rule, good external equalisers will sound better than your console channel EQ when you're trying to make significant tonal changes. If you can confine your EQ to gentle shelving cut or boost rather than using heavy sweep mid, you're less likely to end up with nasal, harsh or phasey sounds.
11. If possible, fix problems by using EQ cut rather than boost. The human hearing system is less sensitive to EQ cut than it is to boost. This is especially true if you are using a low-cost equaliser or the EQ in your desk.
12. Compress the vocals to make them sit nicely in the mix. Few vocalists can sing at a sufficiently even level to be mixed successfully without compression. Soft-knee compressors tend to be the least obtrusive, but if you want the compression to add warmth and excitement to your sound, try an opto-compressor or a hard-knee model with a higher ratio setting than you'd normally use. Be aware that compression raises the background noise (for every 1dB of gain reduction, the background noise in quiet passages will come up by 1dB), and heavy compression can also exaggerate vocal sibilance.
13. From time to time, check your mix balance by listening from outside the studio/bedroom door. This tends to show up level imbalances more clearly than when listening from directly in front of the monitors. Nobody is quite sure why, but it works.
14. Don't monitor too loudly. It may make the music seem more exciting (initially), but the end user is unlikely to listen at the same high level. High monitoring levels also tend temporarily to shift your hearing perspective and can lead to permanent hearing damage. It's fine to check the mix loudly for short periods, but most of the time, it's useful to try and mix at the level you think the music will eventually be played. (Forget I said this if you're mixing dance music for nightclubs!)
15. Check your mixes on headphones as well as speakers. Headphones show up small distortions and clicks that you may never hear over loudspeakers. However, don't rely solely on headphones for mixing, for they represent the stereo image differently to loudspeakers and are notoriously unpredictable at low frequencies.
16. Don't vary the level of the drums and bass unnecessarily during a mix, as the rhythm section is traditionally the constant backdrop against which other sounds move. Natural dynamics within rhythm instrument parts is OK, but don't keep moving the faders on these sounds.
17. In a busy mix, try 'ducking' mid-range instruments such as overdrive guitars and synth pads under the control of the vocals, so that whenever the vocals are present, the conflicting sounds fall in level by two or three dBs. Just a little ducking can significantly improve the clarity of a mix. Use a fairly fast attack time for the ducker (which may be either a compressor or a noise gate that has ducking facilities), and set the release time by ear. Shorter release times will cause more obvious gain-pumping, but in rock mixes, this can add welcome energy and excitement.
18. If you are recording a primarily MIDI-based track, try not to look at your sequencer display while mixing; the visual stimulus interferes with your ability to make subjective judgements based only on the sound. If necessary, close your eyes. Watching your sequencer progress through the arrange page can also give you a false impression of how well the arrangement is working, which is why some composers prefer hardware sequencers.
19. If a close-miked sound seems unnaturally lifeless, but you don't want to add any obvious reverb, try an ambience or early reflection setting to induce a sense of space. The shorter the reverb time, the easier it is to move the treated sound to the front of your mix.
20. Listen to your finished mix again the day after you've finished it, as your perception is likely to change after resting your ears overnight. Also check the master recording on as many different sound systems as you can, to ensure it sounds fine on all of them. Even then, save all your mix information and track sheets, including effects settings, as you never know when you might want to try to improve on the 'final mix'! 

20 Tips On Mixing

Tips On Mixing 

The vocals sound great, the drums are really kicking and the guitars are exceptional, but put it all together and what have you got? A mess! Sound familiar? Until you've gained plenty of experience in mixing music, the process can seem very frustrating. There are probably as many correct ways to tackle a mix as there are successful engineers and producers. Even so, I've taken 20 tips that I've found to be helpful over the years and presented them below in the form of a checklist. These are not immutable rules, just general guidelines that can be broken any time you feel you can get away with it. Have fun!

1. Put the mixer into neutral (EQ flat, aux sends down, routing to Left/Right only and so on), before you start work and pull down the faders on any channels not in use. Make sure all unused aux sends are set to zero and that unused mixer channels are unrouted as well as muted, as this will further reduce the level of background noise. If you don't do this, you may find effects on tracks that don't need effects, or unwanted tracks creeping into a bounce due to a routing button being left down. You should also have a track sheet for your recording from which you can label the mixer channels. The time-honoured way to do this is to use masking tape and felt pen, so that you can peel the whole lot off when the job is finished.
2. Optimise the gain settings not only for the multitrack returns, but also for all effects sends and returns and for your external effect units. Also ensure that your master recorder is being driven as hard as possible, without overloading on signal peaks. These simple measures can significantly improve the clarity of your mix. If your recording is going to be digitally edited, leave any fade-outs until the edit stage, and don't try to chop off the noise that precedes or follows the mix -- you may need this when setting up a digital denoiser that requires a bare noise 'fingerprint' for calibration purposes.
3. Subgroup logical sections of your mix, such as the drum kit or the backing vocals, so that you can control the overall level of the subgrouped elements from a single fader or stereo pair of faders. This allows you to control the mix using fewer faders, and fewer fingers! Be aware that any channels subgrouped this way must also have their effects routed to the same groups(s), otherwise the effects level won't change as you adjust the group fader.
4. Where level adjustments need to be made, mark the fader settings with a chinagraph wax pencil and, if necessary, take note of the tape counter or timecode locations at which the level changes occur. This way you can solicit help from other musicians in the studio if the mix gets too busy. If you're lucky and are using mix automation, listen to the whole mix through without watching the levels, so that you can concentrate on the balance of the instruments.
5. Don't assume that your ears always tell you the truth. Rest them before mixing and constantly refer to commercial recordings played over your monitor system, so that you have some form of reference to aim for. This is particularly important if you use harmonic enhancers, as your ears can grow used to the effects of over-enhancement very quickly.
6. Don't overdo the effects, especially reverb, as this can clutter your recording and take away the contrast that is needed to give your mix punch. As a rule, the drier the sound, the more up-front it will sound, while heavily reverbed sounds tend to move into the background. If you need strong reverb on lead vocals, try to add some pre-delay to the reverb effect and adjust both the vocal level and reverb level so that the vocal sits comfortably over the backing.
7. Don't pan bass sounds such as kick drums or bass instruments to the sides of the stereo soundstage, as these high energy sounds need to be shared equally between the two stereo speakers for best results. As a rule, very bassy sounds contain little or no directional information anyway, although bass sounds that also contain a lot of harmonics can sound more directional.
8. Leave any final EQ and effect adjustments until the full mix is playing. If you work on any single instrument in isolation, it's likely to sound different when everything else is added. If you can avoid using any heavy EQ, the result is more likely to sound more natural.
9. Try not to have too many instruments competing for the same part of the audio spectrum. The mid-range is particularly vulnerable, so try to choose the best sounds at source. You can improve the separation when mixing by using EQ to narrow the spectrum of the sound you're working with. Try rolling off some low end and occasionally taking out any excessive top end. This is sometimes known as spectral mixing, where each sound or instrument is given its own space in the audio spectrum. A good example of this is the acoustic guitar which, in a rock mix, can muddle the low mid. If you roll off the low end, you still get plenty of definition, but the mix will seem far cleaner. Sidechain filters on noise gates (set to Key Listen mode) are often very good tools for trimming the high and low ends of sounds without unduly changing the section you want to keep.
10. Don't over EQ sounds as they're likely to sound unnatural, especially when boosting. As a rule, good external equalisers will sound better than your console channel EQ when you're trying to make significant tonal changes. If you can confine your EQ to gentle shelving cut or boost rather than using heavy sweep mid, you're less likely to end up with nasal, harsh or phasey sounds.
11. If possible, fix problems by using EQ cut rather than boost. The human hearing system is less sensitive to EQ cut than it is to boost. This is especially true if you are using a low-cost equaliser or the EQ in your desk.
12. Compress the vocals to make them sit nicely in the mix. Few vocalists can sing at a sufficiently even level to be mixed successfully without compression. Soft-knee compressors tend to be the least obtrusive, but if you want the compression to add warmth and excitement to your sound, try an opto-compressor or a hard-knee model with a higher ratio setting than you'd normally use. Be aware that compression raises the background noise (for every 1dB of gain reduction, the background noise in quiet passages will come up by 1dB), and heavy compression can also exaggerate vocal sibilance.
13. From time to time, check your mix balance by listening from outside the studio/bedroom door. This tends to show up level imbalances more clearly than when listening from directly in front of the monitors. Nobody is quite sure why, but it works.
14. Don't monitor too loudly. It may make the music seem more exciting (initially), but the end user is unlikely to listen at the same high level. High monitoring levels also tend temporarily to shift your hearing perspective and can lead to permanent hearing damage. It's fine to check the mix loudly for short periods, but most of the time, it's useful to try and mix at the level you think the music will eventually be played. (Forget I said this if you're mixing dance music for nightclubs!)
15. Check your mixes on headphones as well as speakers. Headphones show up small distortions and clicks that you may never hear over loudspeakers. However, don't rely solely on headphones for mixing, for they represent the stereo image differently to loudspeakers and are notoriously unpredictable at low frequencies.
16. Don't vary the level of the drums and bass unnecessarily during a mix, as the rhythm section is traditionally the constant backdrop against which other sounds move. Natural dynamics within rhythm instrument parts is OK, but don't keep moving the faders on these sounds.
17. In a busy mix, try 'ducking' mid-range instruments such as overdrive guitars and synth pads under the control of the vocals, so that whenever the vocals are present, the conflicting sounds fall in level by two or three dBs. Just a little ducking can significantly improve the clarity of a mix. Use a fairly fast attack time for the ducker (which may be either a compressor or a noise gate that has ducking facilities), and set the release time by ear. Shorter release times will cause more obvious gain-pumping, but in rock mixes, this can add welcome energy and excitement.
18. If you are recording a primarily MIDI-based track, try not to look at your sequencer display while mixing; the visual stimulus interferes with your ability to make subjective judgements based only on the sound. If necessary, close your eyes. Watching your sequencer progress through the arrange page can also give you a false impression of how well the arrangement is working, which is why some composers prefer hardware sequencers.
19. If a close-miked sound seems unnaturally lifeless, but you don't want to add any obvious reverb, try an ambience or early reflection setting to induce a sense of space. The shorter the reverb time, the easier it is to move the treated sound to the front of your mix.
20. Listen to your finished mix again the day after you've finished it, as your perception is likely to change after resting your ears overnight. Also check the master recording on as many different sound systems as you can, to ensure it sounds fine on all of them. Even then, save all your mix information and track sheets, including effects settings, as you never know when you might want to try to improve on the 'final mix'! 

20 Tips On Mixing

Tips On Mixing 

The vocals sound great, the drums are really kicking and the guitars are exceptional, but put it all together and what have you got? A mess! Sound familiar? Until you've gained plenty of experience in mixing music, the process can seem very frustrating. There are probably as many correct ways to tackle a mix as there are successful engineers and producers. Even so, I've taken 20 tips that I've found to be helpful over the years and presented them below in the form of a checklist. These are not immutable rules, just general guidelines that can be broken any time you feel you can get away with it. Have fun!

1. Put the mixer into neutral (EQ flat, aux sends down, routing to Left/Right only and so on), before you start work and pull down the faders on any channels not in use. Make sure all unused aux sends are set to zero and that unused mixer channels are unrouted as well as muted, as this will further reduce the level of background noise. If you don't do this, you may find effects on tracks that don't need effects, or unwanted tracks creeping into a bounce due to a routing button being left down. You should also have a track sheet for your recording from which you can label the mixer channels. The time-honoured way to do this is to use masking tape and felt pen, so that you can peel the whole lot off when the job is finished.
2. Optimise the gain settings not only for the multitrack returns, but also for all effects sends and returns and for your external effect units. Also ensure that your master recorder is being driven as hard as possible, without overloading on signal peaks. These simple measures can significantly improve the clarity of your mix. If your recording is going to be digitally edited, leave any fade-outs until the edit stage, and don't try to chop off the noise that precedes or follows the mix -- you may need this when setting up a digital denoiser that requires a bare noise 'fingerprint' for calibration purposes.
3. Subgroup logical sections of your mix, such as the drum kit or the backing vocals, so that you can control the overall level of the subgrouped elements from a single fader or stereo pair of faders. This allows you to control the mix using fewer faders, and fewer fingers! Be aware that any channels subgrouped this way must also have their effects routed to the same groups(s), otherwise the effects level won't change as you adjust the group fader.
4. Where level adjustments need to be made, mark the fader settings with a chinagraph wax pencil and, if necessary, take note of the tape counter or timecode locations at which the level changes occur. This way you can solicit help from other musicians in the studio if the mix gets too busy. If you're lucky and are using mix automation, listen to the whole mix through without watching the levels, so that you can concentrate on the balance of the instruments.
5. Don't assume that your ears always tell you the truth. Rest them before mixing and constantly refer to commercial recordings played over your monitor system, so that you have some form of reference to aim for. This is particularly important if you use harmonic enhancers, as your ears can grow used to the effects of over-enhancement very quickly.
6. Don't overdo the effects, especially reverb, as this can clutter your recording and take away the contrast that is needed to give your mix punch. As a rule, the drier the sound, the more up-front it will sound, while heavily reverbed sounds tend to move into the background. If you need strong reverb on lead vocals, try to add some pre-delay to the reverb effect and adjust both the vocal level and reverb level so that the vocal sits comfortably over the backing.
7. Don't pan bass sounds such as kick drums or bass instruments to the sides of the stereo soundstage, as these high energy sounds need to be shared equally between the two stereo speakers for best results. As a rule, very bassy sounds contain little or no directional information anyway, although bass sounds that also contain a lot of harmonics can sound more directional.
8. Leave any final EQ and effect adjustments until the full mix is playing. If you work on any single instrument in isolation, it's likely to sound different when everything else is added. If you can avoid using any heavy EQ, the result is more likely to sound more natural.
9. Try not to have too many instruments competing for the same part of the audio spectrum. The mid-range is particularly vulnerable, so try to choose the best sounds at source. You can improve the separation when mixing by using EQ to narrow the spectrum of the sound you're working with. Try rolling off some low end and occasionally taking out any excessive top end. This is sometimes known as spectral mixing, where each sound or instrument is given its own space in the audio spectrum. A good example of this is the acoustic guitar which, in a rock mix, can muddle the low mid. If you roll off the low end, you still get plenty of definition, but the mix will seem far cleaner. Sidechain filters on noise gates (set to Key Listen mode) are often very good tools for trimming the high and low ends of sounds without unduly changing the section you want to keep.
10. Don't over EQ sounds as they're likely to sound unnatural, especially when boosting. As a rule, good external equalisers will sound better than your console channel EQ when you're trying to make significant tonal changes. If you can confine your EQ to gentle shelving cut or boost rather than using heavy sweep mid, you're less likely to end up with nasal, harsh or phasey sounds.
11. If possible, fix problems by using EQ cut rather than boost. The human hearing system is less sensitive to EQ cut than it is to boost. This is especially true if you are using a low-cost equaliser or the EQ in your desk.
12. Compress the vocals to make them sit nicely in the mix. Few vocalists can sing at a sufficiently even level to be mixed successfully without compression. Soft-knee compressors tend to be the least obtrusive, but if you want the compression to add warmth and excitement to your sound, try an opto-compressor or a hard-knee model with a higher ratio setting than you'd normally use. Be aware that compression raises the background noise (for every 1dB of gain reduction, the background noise in quiet passages will come up by 1dB), and heavy compression can also exaggerate vocal sibilance.
13. From time to time, check your mix balance by listening from outside the studio/bedroom door. This tends to show up level imbalances more clearly than when listening from directly in front of the monitors. Nobody is quite sure why, but it works.
14. Don't monitor too loudly. It may make the music seem more exciting (initially), but the end user is unlikely to listen at the same high level. High monitoring levels also tend temporarily to shift your hearing perspective and can lead to permanent hearing damage. It's fine to check the mix loudly for short periods, but most of the time, it's useful to try and mix at the level you think the music will eventually be played. (Forget I said this if you're mixing dance music for nightclubs!)
15. Check your mixes on headphones as well as speakers. Headphones show up small distortions and clicks that you may never hear over loudspeakers. However, don't rely solely on headphones for mixing, for they represent the stereo image differently to loudspeakers and are notoriously unpredictable at low frequencies.
16. Don't vary the level of the drums and bass unnecessarily during a mix, as the rhythm section is traditionally the constant backdrop against which other sounds move. Natural dynamics within rhythm instrument parts is OK, but don't keep moving the faders on these sounds.
17. In a busy mix, try 'ducking' mid-range instruments such as overdrive guitars and synth pads under the control of the vocals, so that whenever the vocals are present, the conflicting sounds fall in level by two or three dBs. Just a little ducking can significantly improve the clarity of a mix. Use a fairly fast attack time for the ducker (which may be either a compressor or a noise gate that has ducking facilities), and set the release time by ear. Shorter release times will cause more obvious gain-pumping, but in rock mixes, this can add welcome energy and excitement.
18. If you are recording a primarily MIDI-based track, try not to look at your sequencer display while mixing; the visual stimulus interferes with your ability to make subjective judgements based only on the sound. If necessary, close your eyes. Watching your sequencer progress through the arrange page can also give you a false impression of how well the arrangement is working, which is why some composers prefer hardware sequencers.
19. If a close-miked sound seems unnaturally lifeless, but you don't want to add any obvious reverb, try an ambience or early reflection setting to induce a sense of space. The shorter the reverb time, the easier it is to move the treated sound to the front of your mix.
20. Listen to your finished mix again the day after you've finished it, as your perception is likely to change after resting your ears overnight. Also check the master recording on as many different sound systems as you can, to ensure it sounds fine on all of them. Even then, save all your mix information and track sheets, including effects settings, as you never know when you might want to try to improve on the 'final mix'!