Ready, set… MIX!

Here are four points to keep in mind before you start mixing:

1. What are the acoustic properties of the room you’re mixing in? Surface treatments, walls, etc.? Is the room “live” or “dead”? You’ll need to take this into account when mixing, as it will affect the amount of reverb you’ll add.
2. Do your monitors (speakers) have a flat frequency response? Are any frequencies being boosted? This will also affect your mixes as you may unknowingly compensate for this in your mix, and end up with a different tonal balance than you had originally intended.
3. Are there standing waves in the room? Move around the room and use your ears – use a reference CD you’re familiar with and compare the perceived tonal balance at various locations in the room. This also has the potential to affect how you mix your recordings.
4. Do you have the choice of using several types of monitors (speakers) in order to compare your final mixes? Ideally, you’ll want to monitor your final mix on several types of speakers – including:
   • Good quality nearfield monitors for a more accurate representation of how your music will sound on regular speakers.
   • Headphones to verify your stereo imaging.
   • Cheap car stereo speakers. If your mix sounds good here, it’ll sound good almost anywhere!

Happy mixing! -kf