My Best Mixing Framework (Newsletter 01)

Today I'm trying out a longer form newsletter. Now that I'm on social media, I want my emails to go much deeper than the short-form stuff I'll be posting there.

By the way, if you haven't yet followed me, here are a few options to do so!

Instagram: instagram.com/arthurfoxmusic — I treat this as a way to show the creative projects I'm working on.

X: x.com/ArthurFoxMusic — I treat this as my public notepad, where I share ideas on living a musical and creative life. I love writing. It's the foundation of nearly everything I do. So this platform seems like a great fit.

With that, I want to talk about my best mixing framework or lens through which I view mixing.

Mixing, like the good life, is ultimately about balance.

• Balance of levels.
• Balance across the stereo spectrum.
• Balance across the frequency spectrum.

There's a lot to study about mixing, and for many of us (myself included), it's the most difficult part of the music production process.

There's so much to consider when mixing, but everything ties back to balance.

• Loudness comes from balance.
• Clarity comes from balance.
• Fullness comes from balance.
• Cohesiveness of elements comes from balance.
• “Glue” comes from balance.
• Impact comes from balance.
• Width comes from balance.
• Depth comes from balance.

It's through this lens that we can tie everything we do in the mix, pre-mix, and even mastering, together.

Now I'm not the world's greatest mixer (far from it). But I've been a pro audio engineer for the last 10 years and am confident in my ability to teach this stuff.

Internalize and mix from this framework, and I guarantee you'll get better results.

Having a goal in mind (and a framework or strategy to achieve it) is essential in achieving results. This framework works in practically every mix you'll ever do.

So in this week's newsletter, I want to cover 7 main steps/processes of mixing, tying them back to the idea of balance.

Let's get started.

1. Preparing The Mix

Yes, balancing starts during mix preparation. Allow me to make my case.

Balance Through Gain Staging

Gain staging is the process of feeding each audio device in a signal chain with optimal levels. This process avoids distortion (by keeping the signal low enough) and poor signal-to-noise ratios (by keeping the signal high enough).

But here's the important part for my argument: gain staging is also used before processing to “standardize” track levels.

From the beginning of the mix, we should aim to have each track at the same relative level (-18 dBFS is a good target). This will give us ample headroom to mix within, helping us avoid clipping the output (and, most often, the inputs and outputs of analog-modelled plugins).

This step doesn't take much time but has a massive benefit: it allows us to see the relative levels of our tracks visually in the mixer.

If you've ever had wildly different levels between tracks you'll know what I mean. One track fader sits at 0 dBFS while the next sits at -30 dBFS to balance them. The next track fader is at +6 dBFS. Sure, you could do things this way, but wouldn't it be less of a headache to have a clean, balanced visualization of the mix by simply looking at the faders? I think so!

To gain stage in mix prep, slap a gain/utility/trim or pre-amp plugin on the first insert of each track. Adjust levels so each tracks' output is around -18 dBFS. Move on with the mix preparation.

Balance Through Phase Adjustments

The phase relationships between the tracks of a mix have a major impact on the balance of the mix.

On one hand, mix width is dependent on the phase differences between the left and right channels.

On the other hand, destructive interference between tracks can greatly reduce the output at certain frequencies. These phase issues are especially important to fix for low-end and transient-heavy sources.

In both cases, it's worth at least having a look at the phase relationships between tracks before getting into the mix.

To check for phase issues, zoom in on the waveforms of your tracks. I suggest focusing on multitracked elements (like drum kits), transients sources, and tracks with significant low end. Look for sources that are regularly “out-of-phase” with each other—when one has a positive amplitude, the other has a negative amplitude.

Adjust the phase relationship by either flipping the polarity of the signal that's more out-of-phase with the rest of the tracks OR by nudging a track forward or backward in the timeline (ensuring it doesn't fall out of time).

This is, admittedly, a bit advanced, but worth discussing here.

2. Faders And Pan Pots

Our two primary tools for balancing a mix at the track faders and the pan pots.

Level Balance Of Tracks

Want a track quieter in the mix? Bring down its fader.

Want a track louder in the mix? Bring up its fader.

Adjust tracks to be louder or quieter to achieve your desired balance in the mix.

Of course, the balance across all frequencies may not be perfect. It may also not carry across the entire song with static faders. Think of faders are coarse adjustments. We'll fine-tune the mix balance with the upcoming tools.

Positional Balance Of Tracks

The easiest way to get mix width (stereo image) is to pan tracks to left and right in a balanced fashion. Use the tracks' pan pots to create a nice balance between the left and right channels of the mix.

Again, the mix balance may change throughout the song, but we'll make adjustments with other tools as we go.

3. Equalization

Here's where things get interesting.

Now that we understand the primary tools for mix balance, we can compare our essential processes against them.

The first example is equalization (EQ).

EQ uses filters to adjust the frequency content of signals. In other words, EQ is frequency-dependent balance control!

Too much of a given frequency band? Use EQ to reduce it in the mix.

Too little of a given frequency band? Use EQ to increase it in the mix.

Of course, arrangement can take care of those last points, but we're talking about the mix here.

If there's too much frequency masking (different tracks competing for certain bands), EQ is our best friend to help balance things out.

Too much low-end rumble or high-end hiss? Filter them out of the problematic signal without having to reduce the midrange content in the mix.

4. Compression

If EQ gives us frequency-dependent balance control, compression gives us automatic balance control.

A signal gets too loud? Compression brings it down automatically.

I'm going to leave this one short and sweet. Dynamic range compression is a deep topic—getting started would add thousands of words to this newsletter!

5. Saturation

Saturation is a bit less straightforward in that it's a tool for adding/balancing the harmonic content of the mix.

By shaping (distorting) the waveform, saturation adds harmonic content to a signal based on the original frequency content of that signal.

In this way, it's actually a tool for balancing the frequency spectrum of the mix.

What's more is that the shaping of the waveform via saturation also has a compression-like effect. So it's also a tool for balancing levels, helping to make them more consistent.

Beyond that, it can help glue elements together and make individual tracks stand out. It's a super-powerful tool in mixing, particularly for its effect on balance.

6. Delay And Reverb

Delay and reverb are first time-based effects.

They work wonders for balancing the dimensionality of the mix.

Delay and reverb helps balance the dimension of depth in the mix by emulating real-world reflections of sound.

Stereo delay and reverb can help balance the width of the mix by adding different information to the left and right channels.

By adding more information across time, delay and reverb can also help balance the frequency spectrum (though I wouldn't consider this isn't a primary role of time-based effects).

7. Automation

Music is sound changing over time. At least, let's define it this way for the sake of this discussion.

Viewing it from this lens means we must accept that the needs of the mix will also change over time. Therefore, we need a way to adjust the balance throughout the mix.

Automation allows us to do just that. Every tool we've discussed thus far can be automated in some way to keep up with the evolving balancing needs of the mix.

As the song progresses, we can adjust the relative levels of tracks, the frequency balance, and spatial balance by automating specific parameters.

Automation is an incredibly important tool and the options are practically limitless here.

Let's Recap

Mixing is about balance, which means we can form a strong framework around how each tool helps us balance the mix.

• Gain staging and phase adjustments give us a strong foundation to begin balancing from.
• Faders are the primary tools for balancing levels.
• Pan pots are the primary tools for balancing stereo image.
• EQ is a frequency-dependent level balance control.
• Compression is an automatic level balance control.
• Saturation is a harmonic content balance control.
• Delay and reverb are the primary tools for dimensional balance.
• Automation is key for maintaining balance across the song.

It goes a lot deeper than this (but this newsletter is already long). Many processes have secondary roles in balancing that I haven't touched on.

If you want to go deeper, I have my ‘Mixing With Series' video course and ebooks (branded under ‘My New Microphone') that explain and demonstrate everything discussed here (and more) in great detail.

Hope you dig the new format for these newsletters. It's my goal to provide you with mind-opening content to help you live a more musical and creative life. I think this is one of the best ways to do so!

Let me know what you think.

Cheers,

-Art