~The Mixing Process~

​

  Mixing is the art of combining the various multitracks into a pleasant sounding stereo track. (The meaning of the term pleasant here is in the ear of the beholder.) Although we list this as a separate phase, it is not uncommon for many engineers to be mixing while still in the tracking stage. The goal during mixing is to not only to get all the various instruments to blend together, but for each to contribute to the overall sound without drowning out or masking other instruments. This process is accomplished through a carefully selected blend of panning, EQing, compression, reverb, and delay.

  Mixing is also the time to eliminate some instruments during certain passages and other instruments during other passages. For example, you may want to have just an acoustic guitar during the intro with the bass and drums coming in at the beginning of the first verse. In this way mixing can become part of the creative process as well.

  With today's high quality software plug-ins, it is possible to use only the effects in the computer. This is the so-called “in-the-box” approach to mixing. On the other extreme is the mixing engineer who uses only outboard gear, effects created with hardware. And of course, you can use a combination of the two approaches. While there are proponents of each approach, the key to getting a great sound is a mixing engineer who know how to use the tools he has effectively.

  The parts are all recorded onto separate tracks, often multiple tracks per instrument. The mixer decides how each track sounds individually and collectively. They use a spatial analogy to separate the sounds so that the listener can hear them all distinctly.