🎹 SoundShockAudio Tip #8: When Should You Mix Your Track?
🎹 SoundShockAudio Tip #8: When Should You Mix Your Track?
Deciding when to mix your track is an incredibly important decision.
There are three different times you can decide to mix your track.
1. Throughout the entire production process
2. At the end of the production process
3. Doing a little mixing during the production process and finishing the mixing after the creation process
The goal when you are in the production phase is to be as creative and efficient as possible.
You want to keep the creative flow of the creation process going as long as possible as this will yield the best results in the end.
Inspiration is the key when in the production process.
Let's go over how the timing of our mixing effects our track.
✅ 1. Throughout the entire production process
Going in-depth into the mixing process when you are in this production phase will kill creativity, make you inefficient and leave you uninspired.
If you are fine-tuning your EQ for a half-hour on your kick drum, then all the inspiration and creativity you had going into your song and during the creating will quickly vanish if you go in-depth into the mixing process while you are producing.
Once the inspiration and creativity is gone, it will be hard for you to continue creating the song and it will most likely end up in the dreaded unfinished folder.
✅ 2. At the end of the production process
On the other hand, if you leave ALL of the mixing to the end of the production process, you will be left with a big mess.
Leaving the mixing till the end means you will have to make big changes to the mix which will oftentimes drastically change your perception of your track.
For example, if you have a bass sound in your mix that was too loud, muddy and distorted too much and you wait to mix your track at the end of the creation process, you might find that your bass no longer sounds powerful and impactful as it was before you mixed it.
✅ 3. Doing a little mixing during the production process and finishing the mixing after the creation process
In my opinion, the most effective way to mix your track is to do basic mixing as you produce your track.
Doing a little bit of the mixing as you produce will help you better understand what the finished product will sound like.
A mixed sound is always going to better than an unmixed song and having this basic mixing done will help you make better decisions in the production process.
For example, If your sounds are not EQ'd and poking out in the mix or the sound is fluctuating in volume quite a lot, then you could perceive the song as being full enough and might not need another instrument or layer. Or you might think the track is not full enough and you might add an instrument or layer that throws off the balance of the mix.
The broad strokes mixing as you produce will make sure that you don't make any of these incorrect decisions in the production process.
ACTION TO TAKE:
Do basic mixing as you create your track.
Basic mixing meaning gain stating, compression, adding basic effects, and broad stroke EQing (EQing to get the approximate sound that you want. Leave the detailed EQ cuts and boosts till after the production process.)
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