Mixing

After recording, a song may have dozens of tracks: drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, several vocals. Mixing turns them into one finished whole, usually a stereo file. The goal is not to make every track loud but to make the music clear and moving: the most important parts are heard, nothing fights for the same space, and the result feels right for the style.

The main tools

• Level: the volume fader of each track, and so the balance between parts. Most of a good mix is simply getting this right.
• Panning: where each sound sits between the left and right speakers.
• EQ: shaping each sound's frequencies so instruments don't mask one another.
• Compression: controlling a part's dynamics so it stays present.
• Time-based effects: reverb and delay create depth and space.
• Automation: changing a setting over time, for example raising the vocal in the chorus or adding an echo to one word.
• Buses (groups): routing several tracks, such as all the drums, to one channel so they can be processed and adjusted together.

A practical order of work

1. Organize. Name, color and group the tracks, and remove silence and noise between phrases.
2. Rough balance. Start with every fader down and bring up the most important elements first, often the drums and bass or the lead vocal, then build the balance around them.
3. Pan to spread the parts across the stereo field.
4. EQ and compress where a part needs it, comparing with the processing switched on and off at the same loudness.
5. Add space with reverb and delay, usually on shared send effects rather than a separate one on every track.
6. Automate for movement and emphasis.
7. Check and export. Listen on several systems, then export the stereo mix for mastering.

Listening habits

• Moderate volume. Very loud listening tires the ears quickly and changes how the balance sounds.
• Reference tracks. Compare your mix with a professional recording in a similar style, matched in loudness.
• Several systems. Check on headphones, studio monitors, a phone speaker and a car if you can. A good mix translates from one to another.
• Mono check. Switch the mix to mono now and then to make sure nothing important disappears.
• Breaks. Fresh ears after a pause hear problems that tired ears had accepted.

At heart, mixing is musical balance, the same judgment a pianist makes when voicing a melody: deciding what the listener should hear first. Each track's starting level is set earlier, with gain, during multitrack recording.