Getting A Good Mix (What’s Important)

There are plenty of YouTube tutorials and blogs that’ll teach you how to balance kick drums against snares and 808s against keyboards or lead vocals against reverbs, but what’s really important is actually surprising… It’s what you want to be important.

If you’re talking to an A&R person from a pop label, they may say that the important thing in the mix is the hooks from the vocal or maybe a lead instrument playing a melody, but talk to a jazz producer and they might say it’s all “feel and vibe” while a classical composer might say the tightness and passion of the players’ execution or the arrangement and still yet an EDM or Hip Hop mix engineer may point to the rhythm section and none of them are wrong. As a songwriter, you are probably going to be closest to your lyrics and, as a musician, you might need that bass line a little more present in the mix – just a little more volume… and some chorus and saturation too.

As the lead singer, your perspective may be vastly different from your producer. Every genre and even each song is going to have a different amount priority on each element in a mix. For most, the vocal melody is king most of the time because it’s the part that tell the story and story is what keeps a listener. If the story can’t be heard clear or whatever you feel is the most important part of the recording, you should address that by getting everything situated in order and then build from there.

I regularly listen to large amounts of music both for personal and business reasons. If you’d like to send me some music, you can send me a link and I’ll be glad to give your song a listen. I’m working on another site where we’ll be covering “local” news specifically having a focus on small businesses. You are a small business and if I think your music would be a good fit, I’ll add you to our Recommended Artist list and give you a shoutout.