In Short
It’s all too easy to allow the visual nature of plugins to determine how we mix. With some exceptions your ears are always the best sense to rely on.
In Depth
Imagine being an artist and you’re given a piece of software. The software works by making different audible tones depending on the colour selected. For darker colours you get tones that are in the lower register and for brighter colours tones are emitted from the highest frequencies. Black is 20Hz and White is 20kHz. What an amazing idea. How creative.
Really? I can’t think of a more daft idea. Who wants to paint colours using audible cues?
So Why Do We Do It?
I saw a complaint posted on Facebook a few days ago where someone was suggesting that the image used by Fabfilter to advertise their ProQ Eq plugin showed an absurd plot. It was a fair point, do people really mix with such extreme visual plots on their EQ?
However, the answer soon came. Had the person not had the visual cues, as is often the case in hardware, they would have mixed with their ears and the plot would have been theoretical AND irrelevant.
And yet many of us find ourselves seduced into mixing using visual cues.
We avoid pushing EQ curves beyond what feels or looks acceptable. We set a ratio on a compressor and feel somewhat stressed by the setting. It’s as if the plugin is pulling a face in our head, the closer we get to what we think are unreasonable visual settings the more we can see it wincing at the thought.
Yet, some of the most iconic sounds in recording history were created when people use the stuff ‘wrong.’ Gated reverb, distortion, and of course Auto-Tune. Love or hate the last one, Cher is a wealthier person because someone decided to set the tuner in a way that could seem like a bad idea.
Visual Cues Are Not Universal
Yet we are less likely to allow visual cues from gear like reverbs and modulation based effects to influence us in the same way. For many of us, our ears kick back in as we try and find the right amount of reverb or chorus. We don’t think, if I set the wet mix on the reverb at 40% that’s breaking the rules. We listen (I hope) and then we adjust to taste.
While modern plugins are helpful, giving us plots, it would be nice to be able to switch off the visual cues and go back to using our ears. If it sounds good, then who cares if the EQ plot looks like one of those buzzer machine wires we all played at school fairs. While using that visual metaphor I’m now slightly concerned someone will add a buzzer option to the plugin EQ plot that goes off when you hit the line!
Should We Ever Use Our Eyes?
I’m always aware when writing an article like this that someone will be further seduced into the world of ‘never’ and ‘always’ where what I’m writing becomes a meme for someone to post on social media. “The Pro Secret… Never Use Your Eyes When Mixing!” Or something dumb like that.
Eyes are still useful when mixing, particularly around gain and volume. This is where meters and their visual cues shouldn’t be ignored, especially in digital audio. Here meters can alert us to clipping, or to a problem that could lead us to a loudness penalty. Visual metering can also help identify phase issues. There are plenty of times this kind of feedback is not only useful, but essential.
I’m not suggesting visual feedback is bad, just not always necessary or helpful.
Mixing Blind
I recall when I first got my hands on a Softube Console 1 some years ago. I had been mixing for some time and I looked up to see my screensaver on my computer had kicked in. That was a strange feeling when I’d spent some much of my time previously mixing looking at the computer screen.
In a lot of top studios the Pro Tools rig and the screen are off to one side from the desk, this is often because they have the luxury of an operator who is doing that part of the job. However, I think there’s something to be said for not making the computer monitor the centre of your attention, can we really hear as well when looking at a screen?
I think control surfaces are helpful in reducing our dependance on the visual cues offered by plugins, especially ones that present us with a plethora of information. I actually struggle using control surfaces and often revert back to the mouse, mainly because it’s the workflow I’m most used to. Again, there’s no hard and fast rule to this, some mixers can produce incredible work using a mouse. However, it is worth considering a workflow change to see if it reduces reliance on the visual cues and improves the sound of mixes.
However you choose to mix, control surface or mouse, it’s worth remembering that for some plugins the visual information is not there to tell you what do, in most case let your ears be the judge.