What are the Elements of mixing?

As Ryan and I prepare for our first master class on March 29, 2008, these are questions that we have been batting around for about 6 months. So far this is what we've come up with ...I'm sure we will be tweaking this over time but for now these are our thoughts on the elements we have dealt with on our mix sessions. Industry professionals feel free to chime in on your thoughts, this is an open source project.

Balance

Arguably the most important aspect of mixing, creating the balance between the individual instruments, the "scaffolding" of the MIX. In pop music, typically the relationship
between the Lead Vocal, the kick , sn, bass , and background vox. In many classic records, for example Motown a rythm instrument like the tambourine or piano or bass played an important role in the "feel" of the record. Often the role of the mixer is to analyze the content of the tracks and figure out which elements in the mix are the most important. In a hiphop mix , for example , the "Hum", or low bass drum is very important...in a Crunk record , it might be a flashy hi hat program...In latin music , it is the "clave". All these genres require a mixer who is sensitive to the musical elements of that particular genre.


Equalisation

Another mode of featuring a particular part by enhancing the phase of the instrument using an analog eq like SSL, NEVE, API, LANG, EMI, or a plug in EQ, such as Digidesign, Waves, Bomb Factory, URS, Steven Massey, and many more. All EQs have a particular character and strength mostly based on the type of circuitry (Class A, Class A/B, Integrated). All these methods of altering the hi, mid and lo frequency have been employed since the early days of recording. We plan to focus on both analog(outboard) eqs and plugin style eqs that are inserted or chained on an individual track or the whole mix in Pro Tools.

Pan

Panning has only played a role since the advent of stereo recording which is basically the mid 50s. Prior to that the sound of the record was determined by the balance and use of space (room size) or outboard reverb (plate, chamber). Now with the emergence of surround 5.1 sound (tv is going all 5.1 in Feb 09) the possibilities of creating more space in the mix is more inspiring and exciting than ever. Panning can really enhance the listening experience by separating out the parts in the stereo or surround space to make it easier to "see" them. Most listeners are not sensitive to panning, but appreciate a "good mix" where you can hear all the parts of the song.

Spacial FX

The most typical of spacial effects is reverb. Reverb is a natural acoustic phenomenon which is created from distance delay and diffusion. (think the Grand Canyon and craggy rocks) Some spaces are more diffuse than others, hoever musicians love to play in an environment where their sound is "amplified" by the room. think a cellist alone in a great concert hall or theatre.
Most recordings you hear today in the pop and rock genre have alot of reverb although you might not notice it (if its mixed well...). In the early days of recording studios had three types of reverb: plate, spring and chamber. Plate was a thin layer of metal plate with a transducer on one ened and a phono tye pickup on the other end. When you sent a signal into it like a vocal or snare drum the plate would ring like a musical saw. the spring reverb, long a favorite of great dub mixers like king Tubby was a box with a series of springs that were vibrated by the input and resonated. It produced a sound very different from the Plate. the last reverb was the chamber, which was prominently featured on the Beach Boys song "Good Vibrations", which was recorded at Sunset Sound in los angeles which at the time had several great sounding chambers. A chamber is a long odd shaped space with a speaker at one end and typicalls two microphones at the other end to capture the reverberations of the space. Other great chambers are to be found at Avatar in NY which was originally called the Power Station.


Compressions

Compression can even out a poorly recorded vocal or create a drum sound from the overhead microphone or enhance the "pump" of a mix by accentuating certain frequencies by supressing others. All of those aspects are used frequently in pop mixing. We use the term pop very loosely to indicate a mix which you would expect to come out on a major label and be heard on radio. Indie record have stepped up considerably because of the availability of plugin compressors like the SSL compressor from Digidesign, the Waves RVox and L2, L3, te Steven massey C4, and emulation compressors from URS, Bomb Factory, Eventide, and many other third party software developers. Although it was a rocky start for compressor plugins, great leaps have taken place sonically in ths last few years. Some of my favorites are the George Massenburg labs, the Roger nichols series, and the Sony Oxford as well as those previously listed. Compression is a very important aspect of modern mixing... often one that separates a good mix from a "hot" mix. Often just the addition of mix buss compression can make a stale sounding mix "come alive". Compressions can often bring "energy and punch" to a mix.


Automation moves

Whether its a special pan move, or the addition of a sweetening eq on the chorus, or dropping the important auto tune on a particularly troublesome vocal line, automation has made the job of engineers and mixers much easier... Pro Tools allows the user to automate almost any parameter of a plugin or any of the other typical moves like Volume, EQ, Pan, and Bypass. By using automation and the typical copy and paste commands, you can copy intricate moves from one section of a song to another, such as a special pan move on a scratch or vocal sample.



Dynamics/eg. De Essing There are many plugins and outboard effects that infuence the sound of a particular track or mix. It is not uncommon to de ess a vocal or vocals then have the mastering engineer do the same at the end of the producton process. De Essing was originally done to eliminate the loud and often harmful S sound to recordings to protect the cutting lathe
that burned into the vinyl master. Later with the advent of Cds it was less technically critical than irritating to listen to the harsh esses'. That said there are many classic recordings that are hits with distorted esses all over them. Sses also dostort on radio , which is another reason the get rid of them beforehand. Same for television broadcasting. Its not uncommon to hear really offensive esses on live broadcasts like Jay Leno or Letterman because broadcast engineers cannot keep up with the live performance of a lead vocalist. because the lead vocal is typically one of the loudest instruments in the mix, esses are important.



Sound Replacement

Sound replacement is a relatively new phenomenon in mixing and recording. Examples of drum replacement with the old school AMS 1580 delay are Def lepperd hysteria, Bruce Springsteen "Born in the USA" mixed by Bob Clearmountain. "Simply irresistable" by Robert Palmer, which wa recorded and mixed by ET Thorngren ( a power station grad like Clearmountain) actually was the first mix to sample the famous room sound of the Power Station to create the "gated effect". Same is true of early Phil Collins records which were mixed by hugh Padgam, who also did all the Police records. Now that is done through an algorithmic AudioSuite program called Sound Replacer, introduced by Digidesign about ten years ago. there are now many third party plugs like Drumagog that also accomplish the same thing, which is to add to or replace a less than scintillating snare ofr kick drum sound. This is especially important with drum sounds on live bands, where the competition for a great drum sound is fierce, and often the great sound is not captured in the recording.



Processing/ Pitch shift, Envelope follow etc...

There have been many great outboard boxes that create a special effect , usually involving pitch or envelope filtering. Some of the greats are the echoplex, Mutron, Moogerfooger, and Eventide 910 and 949 which are responsible for many of teh colorful sounds of the great hit records of the last thirty years. Now there are literally thousands of options from vintage companies that emulate the behavior of classic effects or in the case of companies like Ohm Labs, Steven Massey, and Bob Moog. These effects are the color you hear on many parts of a creative production.