Mixing Advice

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Make Space for Tight Bass

October 3, 2012

The bass and kick are the foundation of your mix, and we want them to utterly dominate the lowest frequencies. I’m going to show you how to use a frequency analyzer to cut excess lows from every track in your mix, leaving clear, tight, punchy bass. Configure SPAN My favorite frequency analyzer is Voxengo SPAN. [...]

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A Mastering Engineer’s Guide to Final Mixdown

March 1, 2011

“Garbage in, garbage out” is a common saying among mastering engineers. The quality of the source material limits the quality of the final product. Most of my clients have no problem following my simple preparation instructions, but they stop there. They figure once each mix sounds as good as they can get it, they’re done. [...]

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Spectral Management

September 21, 2009

A few months ago, I announced I was cutting back on blogging to record a new Color Theory album. Instead, I was hired to mix three others (Exhibition by Die Brücke, The Deadliest Fairy Tales by Rain Rain, and a yet-to-be-named album for 907Britt). Since I’ve been living and breathing mixing since June, I thought [...]

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Tighten the Low End of Your Mix with a Frequency Analyzer

February 11, 2009

For an updated version of this article and video demonstration, see: Make Space for Tight Bass Most mix engineers don’t hear the bottom octave (20-40 Hz) because their monitors can’t produce it. Unless your room is 300 square feet or larger, and professionally tuned, adding a subwoofer will probably do more harm than good. Whether [...]

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Keep Your Mixes Consistent by Using a Reference

January 26, 2009

When I started this blog, I thought my readership would consist of Color Theory fans. Now it’s clear that most of you are fellow musicians with your own material to promote. With that in mind, I’ve decided to take a short detour into my true area of expertise: music production. God knows I’m better at [...]

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