Making the Most Of Your Mixer
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Spread them Out!

Position your instruments so they have room to
“breathe,” and connect in the most musical way
with other instruments. Sometimes, however,
you’ll want to deliberately pan sounds close
together, or even right on top of one another, to
emphasize their relationship. There are no hard-
and-fast rules. Normally (but this is not a rule),
bass and lead vocals will be panned to center, as
will the kick drum if the drums are in stereo.
5-3. To EQ Or Not To EQ
In general: less is better. There are many situations
in which you’ll need to cut certain frequency
ranges, but use boost sparingly, and with caution.
Proper use of EQ can eliminate interference
between instruments in a mix and give the overall
sound better definition. Bad EQ—and most com-
monly bad boost—just sounds terrible.

Cut For a Cleaner Mix

For example: cymbals have a lot of energy in the
mid and low frequency ranges that you don’t
really perceive as musical sound, but which can
interfere with the clarity of other instruments in
these ranges. You can basically turn the low EQ
on cymbal channels all the way down without
changing the way they sound in the mix. You’ll
hear the difference, however, in the way the mix
sounds more “spacious,” and instruments in the
lower ranges will have better definition. Surpris-
ingly enough, piano also has an incredibly power-
ful low end that can benefit from a bit of low-
frequency roll-off to let other instruments—nota-
bly drums and bass—do their jobs more effec-
tively. Naturally you won’t want to do this if the
piano is playing solo.
The reverse applies to kick drums and bass gui-
tars: you can often roll off the high end to create
more space in the mix without compromising the
character of the instruments. You’ll have to use
your ears, though, because each instrument is dif-
ferent and sometimes you’ll want the “snap” of a
bass guitar, for example, to come through.

Boost With Caution

If you’re trying to create special or unusual
effects, go ahead and boost away as much as you
like. But if you’re just trying to achieve a good-
sounding mix, boost only in very small incre-
ments. A tiny boost in the midrange can give
vocals more presence, or a touch of high boost
can give certain instruments more “air.” Listen,
and if things don’t sound clear and clean try using
cut to remove frequencies that are cluttering up
the mix rather than trying to boost the mix into
clarity.
One of the biggest problems with too much boost
is that it adds gain to the signal, increasing noise
and potentially overloading the subsequent cir-
cuitry.
5-4. Ambience
Judicious application of reverb and/or delay via
the mixer’s AUX busses can really polish a mix,
but too much can “wash out” the mix and reduce
overall clarity. The way you set up your reverb
sound can make a huge difference in the way it
meshes with the mix.

Reverb/Delay Time

Different reverb/delay units offer different capabil-
ities, but most offer some means of adjusting the
reverb time. A little extra time spent matching the
reverb time to the music being mixed can mean
the difference between great and merely average
sound. The reverb time you choose will depend
to a great degree on the tempo and “density” of
the mix at hand. Slower tempos and lower densi-
ties (i.e. sparser mixes with less sonic activity) can
sound good with relatively long reverb times. But
long reverb times can completely wash out a
faster more active piece of music. Similar princi-
ples applies to delay.

Reverb Tone

How “bright” or “bassy” a reverb sound is also
has a huge impact on the sound of your mix. Dif-
ferent reverb units offer different means of con-
trolling this—balance between the high- and low-
frequency reverb times, simple EQ, and others. A
reverb that is too bright will not only sound unnat-
ural, but it will probably get in the way of delicate
highs you want to come through in your mix. If
you find yourself hearing more high-end reverb
than mix detail, try reducing the brightness of the
reverb sound. This will allow you to get full-bod-
ied ambience without compromising clarity.

Reverb Level

It’s amazing how quickly your ears can lose per-
spective and fool you into believing that a totally
washed-out mix sounds perfectly fine. To avoid
falling into this trap start with reverb level all the
way down, then gradually bring the reverb into
the mix until you can just hear the difference. Any
more than this normally becomes a “special
effect.” You don’t want reverb to dominate the
mix unless you are trying to create the effect of a
band in a cave—which is a perfectly legitimate
creative goal if that’s the sort of thing you’re aim-
ing for.
MG12-16_E.book Page 17 Monday, May 26, 2003 1:14 PM