What is Mixing?
For higher quality (free) videos please visit Sormena.org.
There are a LOT of tutorials and resources on the interwebs (and in book form) focused on the various stages of music production. From my own research it seems there are even more resources out there dedicated to mixing and the “analog” gear/emulation plugins we associate with the mixing process.
Don’t let this presentation or anything you see or read on mixing intimidate you or scare you. Again from my cursory research online I was shocked at the tone and approach of many of these supposedly “educational resources.” Either A) it was obvious that many of these “tutorials” were just product endorsements not related to mixing or B) the overall tone (written) would make it seem that there are objectively good and bad mixes.
There are GREAT free and paid resources on the web that I encourage you to search out. And really who am I to say what’s good or bad. Like I’ve said before my teaching style and approach won’t work for everyone but I’m guessing if it doesn’t something already exists that will.
That being said here are my A) and B) Points to mixing.
A) You can mix with any tools (plugins/hardware) and get a result you can be proud of.
B) There’s nothing objective (as in there’s a right way) when it comes to mixing
As I defined in the video mixing is simply putting everything together in the way that sounds best. And for our course what sounds BEST is what sounds best to you, which, is completely subjective and should make mixing fun and creative not frustrating and technical. Don’t get me wrong there are some technical considerations (specifically your mix room acoustics) but once those are sorted out it’s really just a matter of mixing to personal taste.