There are many ways we can mix tracks to give them more presence and clarity in the mix. We can work on a lot of projects to develop our understanding of mixing. So lets look at the best mix moves and talk about whats good about them.
Gain Stage
We’ll want our tracks to level at about -18db. So that we don’t overload and clip the mix bus. This is very good because we can play multiple tracks without it distorting. We can use the pre gain control to get the right level. After that we can use the fader to lower the volume if we want.
Side Chain
This is great because we can give the kick drum more presence in the mix. We’ll want the kick drum to own the sub frequencies. So we can use the kick as a side chain source to duck other instruments for the initial attack. Its great to use the kick side chain with a dynamic eq because it gives us great control.
Compression | Mix Moves
Its good to add compression to control the dynamics of the tracks. If we tame the peaks we can save a lot of headroom on the mix bus. And the plugins will work better on the mix bus. We can use supervision to monitor the waveform in real time and see how the compressors as working.
Busses
Our drums sound great through the drum bus. They sound like one unit. Because they’re using the compression and saturation. Groups also help us keep the project organised. We can solo the group so we can isolate that instrument group in the mix.
Imagers | Mix Moves
We can check the multicorrelation meter to see if our mix has any phase issues. If we get a positive reading the track is mono compatible and will sound great on smartphone speakers. We can use imagers to narrow individual tracks and also the mix bus.
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