Congratulations! You have finally bought your first audio interface and set of microphones. Everything is going well with your recording, except the mixes don’t reach your expectations.
Mistakes are common when you’re starting out honing your mixing skills. Don’t worry about needing to correct your track because that’s how you’ll grow as a music producer, mix engineer, or musician. This guide will also help you identify the common mixing mistakes and how to fix them in a jiffy.
Neglecting Orchestration
Orchestration is what musicians use to build up a sound. It revolves around what makes up music, like the instruments, synthesizers, and all the extra layers you choose. The colors of sound affect the whole music process. Why not choose good sound orchestration to lessen the mixing mistakes? You must select the right sound and mix accordingly, and not rely on fixing the mistakes later in the mixing.
Mixing In Solo
When you click the solo button and mix tracks in isolation, it's easier to hear a sound. However, it’s not recommended. It is often the dilemma of music producers to listen to a fantastic solo sound, but it doesn’t sound great when all the tracks are synchronized. The mixer is at fault as they focus on making it unforgettable on its own rather than blending perfectly with other sounds. Try to raise the level fader if it’s hard to hear a particular tone, then rebalance the levels after you get it sounding good.
Recording Too Hot Of A Signal
In the past, analog gears needed hot signals to get the best sound recording possible because of the noise floor. However, that’s not a great idea with its digital counterpart as you need to leave yourself enough headroom on each track. Not doing so will leave you slamming the master bus and ending up in the red zone every time.
Lacks Proper Stereo Image
This mistake will lead you to a song with no depth, which is one of the reasons people listen to a piece of music. A common mistake is sending parallel tracks simultaneously left and right. Afterwhich, the producer reversed one of their phases. Start your mix in mono to add depth and give the song a better EQ. Another quick and easy way to add that depth to your song is to add reverb. Learn to pan the tracks left to right, up to down, and vice versa, until you fill out your depth.
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