Sometimes it can feel like you’ve plateaued and got as far as you can with your mixes. Here’s some ways to consider that can improve the sound of your music mixes.
In Short
Sometimes we think the way to improve our mixes is to buy plugins. That can be the case, but often there’s some things we can do to help us hear our mixes better in the first place.
Lost In Translation
One thing you should consider from the outset is make sure your monitors are telling you the truth.
There’s a lot of monitors to choose from, many of them, even budget ones offer a reasonable sound and are good enough to mix on. However, there’s a couple of things you need to be aware of. Most monitors sound great in an anechoic chamber, but put them in a room, especially one that is untreated, and things can sound different, in some cases, plain wrong. Areas like the low mid and bass can start to either disappear or be accentuated when your whole room acts like a big speaker.
Secondly, you can spend money on acoustic treatment, and this can help in some areas, but it’s not going to fix every issue in the room.
The good news is that there are some solutions available to help. The first is software like Sonarworks SoundID and IK Multimedia ARC System 3. If you have deep pockets and want an even more professional solution then there is Trinnov, which does a really deep dive when solving some of the issues in a room. All these systems consist of some correction software and a measurement microphone, although they all take different approaches to fixing the problem.
Some speakers are starting to emerge with the software built in, such as the Fluid Audio Image 2 and some of the ADAM range of speakers
Many mixers swear by room correction solutions, so they are worth investigating.
A second option is to use a headphone/software solution that tries to replicate the effect of mixing in a top studio. Two popular systems are the Steven Slate VSX and the Waves Nx Virtual Studio Collection. These systems can prove useful, especially for those who have compromised rooms or need to mix on headphones.
Need A Reference?
A second way to improve your mixes is to use reference tracks. Reference tracks do exactly what the name suggest, they offer a reference to mix to. Reference tracks can have two purposes.
First, If you are mixing a track for someone else and have no idea what kind of sound they are hoping for, then a reference track can give you some clues as to that. Second, reference tracks can help a mixer to understand the sound of a particular track or genre and then try and copy that sound in the mix.
Reference tracks can be very useful, both for established and those new to mixing. However there are two things to remember when mixing using a reference track.
One, reference tracks are often a final mastered version of a track, so it’s worth bearing that in mind. Some mixers will often hand off a track to a professional mastering engineer who may add EQ, compression and stereo processing to the track, this can bring a final polish that wasn’t there in the mix. However, there’s nothing wrong with trying to mix a track that sounds like the mastered version, in fact some professional producers and engineers are aiming for exactly that.
Two, if you are relatively new to mixing then using a reference track is only going to help you if you know how to replicate the sound. A mix is a complex beast and a lot of modern sounding mixers are using techniques that can take time to perfect. So make sure you’ve mastered some of the techniques used to get those mixes. A reference track can help you on the journey.
The simplest way to use a reference track when mixing is to drag it into the timeline and then mute and solo it as you mix to compare your mix with the reference. However, there’s an excellent plugin called ADPTR AUDIO Metric AB, the Metric AB plugin enables you to compare your mix to any reference mix with a simple click of the A/B button. It is well worth considering investing in, many mixers swear by it.
A Second Opinion
The final and perhaps most useful way to improve the sound of your mixes is to get a second opinion from someone who has experience in mixing hits.
We don’t suggest you post the mix on social media or in a forum to get advice, for two reasons.
First, you don’t know the skill and experience of the people giving the advice, you may end up with something sounding even worse… it really is the blind leading the blind, or should we say the deaf leading the deaf.
Second, guess what happens when you ask 100 people for an opinion? Yep, you get 100 different opinions, you’ll end up more confused than when you started.
If you know someone you trust, then have them take a listen to the mix and give their advice on how to improve the sound, they may tell you it’s good already and give your confidence a boost.
There’s also professional services available where mixers with top credits can take a listen to your mix and make suggestions for improving it. One such service is The Mix Consultancy. It is run by Dom Morley, who is a Grammy Award winning mixer & producer, and Professor of Music Production at Leeds Conservatiore. He has over a twenty year career (and counting!) he has worked with many of the music industry's biggest names, from artists including Adele, Sting and Amy Winehouse, to producers including Phil Spector, Mark Ronson and Tony Visconti.
The service works by you sending your mix to them, then you get back notes on how to improve the mix. In the case of The Mix Consultancy, it’s a money back if you’re not happy service too!