Learning how to mix your own music is a critical skill for all music producers. It provides an additional layer of creative control and helps listeners experience your music more deeply.
The blog post from Native Instruments provides a comprehensive guide on mixing your own music, emphasizing the importance of this skill for music producers. It outlines a series of steps and techniques to ensure a well-balanced and emotionally impactful mix. Here’s a summary of the key points:
- Set Rough Track Levels: Begin by balancing the mix’s volume levels, aiming for a consistent 9 dB of headroom to avoid clipping. This step helps in identifying mix issues early and reduces ear fatigue.
- Tune Your Audio Samples: Ensure all audio samples are in tune. The Brainworx bx_enhancer plugin is recommended for its built-in tuner and other features like saturator, clipper, and compressor.
- Thicken and Enrich Your Recordings: Use saturation effectively to add richness and fullness to your mix. The choice of hardware and type of saturation applied can significantly impact the final sound.
- Control the Dynamic Range of Your Audio: Manage the volume differences within your mix using compression. This helps in fitting dynamic recordings into a dense mix and achieving a consistent sound level.
- Enhance and Reduce Tonal Characteristics: Shape the tone of your recordings with an EQ. The bx_enhancer plugin offers a Colour section with various filters to smooth out EQ adjustments.
- Position Elements Across the Stereo Field: Use mixing techniques to create a three-dimensional perception of your mix. The bx_enhancer plugin provides tools like Mono Maker, Stereo Width, and Pan knob for this purpose.
- Create a Shared Sense of Space: Apply reverb to give the impression that all elements of your mix exist within the same space. The blog recommends using Native Instruments’ RC 24 for its versatility and control over reverb properties.
- Use Echoes to Add Rhythm and Emphasis: Incorporate delay effects to add rhythmic patterns or emphasize certain parts of your mix. Replika XT is suggested for its flexibility and ability to sync with the track’s tempo.
The post concludes by encouraging the use of plugins like bx_crispytuner, bx_enhancer, RC 24, and Replika XT to simplify the mixing process. It also points readers towards additional resources for learning about mixing and mastering.
Source: New to mixing? How to mix your own music | Native Instruments Blog
