IRON TIP - Mixing: Great mixes are mis-balanced

This is probably the best tip I, or anyone, could give you in regards to mixing.

The best mixes are mis-balanced.


Perfectly balanced mixes are boring.
(Could be an alternate title for this thread)

As counterintuitive as this may sound, this is probably a difficult tip for the less skilled to apply; you kinda need to know how to balance a mix to know how to mis-balance it.

As musicians, we're selling feelings not mere audio. Feeling and emotion in a mix come from the intricate relationship of mis-balances... a perfectly balanced mix is just that, just audio, no excitement, no tension. It's still 'good', at least technically, but that's all. Good not Great.

Okay, still not getting it? Let me put it this way, I'm sure a lot of you will be able to relate...

Have you ever produced a beat or record and been like "yeah this is dope, this slaps, this gonna kill it" "just need to mix it". It's feeling real good, but you know the mix needs some work...
So you go, you get your drums balanced perfectly with your bass, get the perfect levels for your melodies and vocals.
You listen back, compare it to your original composition... and you're like, Okay, you can hear it technically is now better, but it just doesn't feel the same, it lacks the magic spark, the emotion - you've mixed the life out of your record; a result of it being "perfectly balanced."

So where do you go? Well mixed but bland, or vibey but poorly mixed...?

Production mix as approved demo...

Consider your production mix, or the mix you've received as the "approved demo" - basically the guiding sound/feel.

Listen to your demo, your original mix, and ask yourself what element(s) are making you vibe; the key is to balance the rest of the mix whilst leaning into the aspects that gave the record that character that you loved about it to start with.

The more experienced may have had those moments... "turns snare down -3dB sounds fine here" "turns snare up +3dB, also sounds fine here" there's often a lot of room to place something, it's a subjective matter of taste.

The irony is, it's hard to fault a "perfectly balanced mix", the piano isn't too loud or too quite, the bass isn't too loud or too quiet, everything is fine, there's nothing really to add or say. It's just oftentimes, uninspiring.
On the contrary, a great misbalanced mix can be easier to fault "those pianos are a bit loud, that bass is a bit loud, and the snare's a little dark", but the record just vibes hard, and as a result, connects far better with the listener. And that's what we're really aiming for.

It's like recipes, you have to find the right mix of ingredients, adding more of this and less of that. You don't just put equal amounts of everything in. And even if there is a recipe, the best food often comes where someone adds their own balance of things. That's why it's called mixing.



This is probably the best/most advanced bit of advice I can give at this stage. But I have to give the disclaimer that I think (I could be wrong) that you probably need to know how to get a "perfectly balanced" mix before being able to perfectly mis-balance them. But, we're here to help you on that journey.

Have fun with them faders.

Stay ill

Love

Some solid advice in here.

I think it's an epidemic in modern music - especially considering near everyone has a powerful DAW and endless resources to learn how to get a pristine mix. Even in the world of metal and hard rock. I remember telling a friend how the last Metallica record isn't bad, but the mix sounds tooo clean and over produced for a metal record. Their early janky records feel soo much better because they weren't perfect.

BiggChev said:

Some solid advice in here.

I think it's an epidemic in modern music - especially considering near everyone has a powerful DAW and endless resources to learn how to get a pristine mix. Even in the world of metal and hard rock. I remember telling a friend how the last Metallica record isn't bad, but the mix sounds tooo clean and over produced for a metal record. Their early janky records feel soo much better because they weren't perfect.

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Certainly!

Couple this with the fact that there are countless YouTube videos (etc) out there, even plugins themselves saying "your drums must be ( n ) loud, and your eq curve must be exactly this shape", with all these "templates", people are pretty much using the same sounds, making the same composition, and engineering the same record.

They're the people who have to worry about ai, as they're just merely making regurgitated content.

They do not take into account the individuality of each record, even merely from a sonic sense each record is different, but more key is from a musical and emotional perspective.

Mixing isn't some static, fixed service or process, it's actually an incredibly creative one, which choices can either make or break a record.

Only the true can really grasp this concept... too many people want to cling tightly to "oh but my favorite YouTuber said you have to make your drums ( n ) loud with exactly -4dB reduction and an eq cut at 50hz" (or whatever rigid nonsense gets put out there)

Mixing a beat is slightly different to mixing a song with lyrics, as with a beat you need to leave some space in the vocal frequency range to allow the vocal to sit. Unless the beat is never intended to be rapped on and is intended to just be an instrumental.

The biggest thing is there are no rules, just guidelines. Due to my own long history of trouble getting my bass levels right I do use Izotope Tonal Balance Control 2, just to keep my low end in check and the mix relatively balanced. I do also try to leave space for a vocal in the mid to high-mid range. I do everything based on feeling now, and fall back on Izotope to fight issues like ear fatigue. Even still I will come back to a mix another day and find it could use some tweaking, usually in the bass or the mids.

Nothing should really be treated as rigid, innovation often comes from throwing the rule book out of the window and thinking out of the box.

Yeah I don't always think about the beat in terms of making space for the vocal to sit, sometimes this just happens very naturally, other times I don't consider it much an issue because if someone were to vocal it I could make the necessary adjustments - it would only be an issue if someone just wanted to take the two-track and track over it.

Yeah ozone would be very useful in that sense how you're using it.
I think for me, luckily my monitoring setup allows for me to avoid the pitfalls of ear-fatigue from a mixing perspective. Tho it can happen easily still when composing.
Have found a way with my monitoring to know if I'm happy with my bass levels. Really key that.

Of course too, lyrics can also change how you may want to engineer a mix.

There is a beat in warzone that I assumed was yours, the bass was way too loud and a bit distorted. I may be mistaken and its not your beat at all, it wont be the first time.
I did vote for it a couple times despite the bass as it was a good beat despite that, but I suspect that is why it didn't get to the semi's. But hey, might not even be your beat at all, but Armani biting you biting Dre lmfao. Sorry couldn't resist. Just banter bro, don't take me too seriously, I don't.

Definitely curious to see whose beat was whose after the finals! Lot of good work in there

2GooD Productions said:

But hey, might not even be your beat at all, but Armani biting you biting Dre lmfao

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