Original subtitles

all right let's get on to piece number

two of I think bad advice or overstated

advice and that's that in a good mix you

can hear everything clearly evenly all

the time like it's this jigsaw puzzle

where you make all the pieces fit

perfectly together and now you can

clearly identify the base is the same

time at the drums and the same time as

the guitars and all the extra percussion

and all these synths and all these

vocals and you can differentiate every

last little thing

but that's not really what great mixes

and memorable mixes often sound like

great mixing is often almost the

opposite of this where great mixes are

about taking the things that are

important and letting them be important

a great mix figures out what's important

in the song watch the end listener

really going to latch on to what is

going to give them the most emotional

impact what should we highlight for them

where's the groove coming from what are

the things in this mix that are the most

emotionally resonant the most

interesting the most powerful the most

important to the groove the story The

Narrative Arc of the song and that's

what a great mix does it enhances the

things that are the most important and

your job is almost to drive the

listener's attention to focus on the

things that are going to give them the

most emotional impact and the most

attachment to the song

is hearing things clearly important

potentially but it's also important not

to get too precious about it

and this can be an issue often with

beginning producers who put all these

little ear candy elements in there and

they're listening to the mix in this

analytical way of well what about that

element that I put in there I can't hear

it that clearly now we have to make sure

we bring that up so I can hear it and

this is often a recipe for disaster it's

gonna dilute the focus of the mix number

one and number two when you go through

this approach of listening for things

and saying can I hear that thing well

your focus shifts

and your perception of the mix changes

as your focus in the mix changes and as

you spotlight your mind on different

things and you kind of lose the big

picture of the mix

and to do great mixing you have to zoom

out to a degree you have to be able to

zoom back and listen to the track like

an end listener who doesn't know what

parts are in this it doesn't care

necessarily exactly what the bass player

played or what your 90th percussion

overdub is doing that end listener only

cares about whether or not the music is

making the move about whether or not

it's resonating with him

all right we're a little bit into the

podcast already I've only gone through

two of these so let's start going a

little bit more rapid fire

bad mixing advice number three is kind

of related to the first two it's this

idea that good mixing is all about the

little choices you make it's all about

the little sure you know I only moved a

half DB of EQ on this and a half DB EQ

on that but you might not hear them that

much in and of themselves but when you

put them all together it really makes a

big difference

there is a grain of Truth in this and

sometimes great mixing is not

heavy-handed and we're just doing tiny

little Corrections and massages here and

there

but that is the 80 of the mixing that

you do that gives you 20 of the results

that you get

and while it's important to do all those

parts of mixing well that give you the

little extra little 20 of your mix the

most important thing to get right are

these 20 of bold choices that you make

that really matter and really make a

difference in the mix

and that give you eighty percent of your

results and eighty percent of the impact

so again a grain of Truth and this

potentially bad advice that if you

follow it too precisely it's going to

mess you up and it's going to make you

miss the big picture moves that you can

make in your mix that are going to give

you the biggest results and the most

impact

all right bad piece of advice number

four is really any piece of advice that

goes something along the lines of oh a

great compressor to use on base is or oh

the way to EQ a kick drum is

any of that kind of advice is

generally wrong from a certain point of

view

again there's a grain of Truth in this

bad advice there are a lot of kick drums

that you'll work in if you're in a given

genre that want a roughly similar

treatment if you have a real live analog

recorded physical Kick Drum and you're

working in metal production a lot of

those kick drums are going to want a

whole bunch of low mid sucked out of

them and a whole bunch of upper mids

boosted and there are probably fashions

that go in any genre about particularly

what part of the upper mid you're

reboosting is it more like 2K this

decade or is it more like 5K this decade

and that stuff does happen

but assuming that you're working across

genres and with a variety of different

material or you're not working in such a

specific idiomatic genre the biggest

thing usually is not what precise types

of EQ settings to use or what specific

compressor to use it's more about first

figuring out

what if anything does this sound and

need

and then it's about figuring out how to

get there

because the advice that might work in a

certain context of cut out a bunch of

low mids and boost a bunch of high mids

on this particular Kick Drum in this

genre you might be working in a totally

different genre with a totally different

feel of Kick Drum that you're supposed

to have and actually you want to do the

opposite you want to be old school and

Woofy and almost tubby sounding it

should be kind of dark and inarticulate

or it might want to be way tighter even

than the kick drum you'd find in a metal

or Hard Rock track it really so much

depends on watch the end aesthetic

result that you're going for

so before you say this type of

compressor works well in vocals it's

like so many different types of

compressors work well in vocals what

type of vocal sound is going on what are

you trying to achieve with your vocal

sound what are you trying to achieve

with your bass sound we need to First

figure out what direction do we need to

go in and then we can talk about what

tools and what exact settings will help

us go there

big thanks to lewitt for sponsoring this

month and let me check out this

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