“Record AS if you WEre mixing, mix AS IF you WeRe mastering…”
How do you make a great record?
Start from where you want to end up and work backwards. If you want a great master you need a great mix. If you want a great mix you need a great recording. If you want a great recording you need a great band and a great song.
If you’ve recorded your song right you’ll have thought about the elements as you recorded them. With each recording pass you’ll have asked “Is this new element fitting in the right place in the song?” Ideally everything has the right sound and contributes in the right spectral space and occurs at the right time in the overall arrangement of the song. All the elements contribute meaningfully to the whole song and can be mixed ready for mastering.
Mixing is now a process of focussing in even more on the whole and making arrangement decisions: what sounds are present or absent in the arrangement to support the feeling the song aims to express.
It’s a time of fine tuning and being playful and creative with the elements. It’s when you help sounds stake their claim to their part in the overall picture. It’s an opportunity to add sonic characteristics, tonality, space, light and shade. It might even be a time to rerecord an element or rethink the arrangement – because this is the final step of the recording process before the song is sent to the mastering stage.
If you’ve mixed the song well it will make you want to move, or close your eyes and imagine the picture the sound creates, or you’ll feel the expression of the emotion in the song or even feel those emotions when you listen to it. You’ll want to listen to it again and again.
It should be that good.
After you’ve mixed the song you can say “t”That’s how imagined the song sounding in my head”. At this point in time your idea is expressed in the way you want to present it to the world. It sounds good listening to it on hi fi speakers, headphones, boom boxes, laptops and phones.
Studio sound production, recording, mixing and mastering 