E
Emeka
New member
As an independent music producer and artist, people often compliment me on the quality of music and find it difiicult to believe that they are all recorded in a home studio. Some other artists and producers ask whether I hire commercial recording studios and engineers to mix the tracks, but I tell them that I'm a self trained engineer and do my own mixing.
As music producers and engineers, we mature over time and our ears develope the ability to distinguish between a pleasant sound and an unpleasant. We also learn to determine the appropriate modification of sounds, needed to achieve the pleasant mix we're after.
I learned to mixdown using a combination of studio monitors and headphones to monitor the mix. The aim is to achieve an ear pleasing mix, with clarity, from both the studio monitors and headphones. The head phones should be brand that you've become very familiar with (in other words, stick with the same headphones if you really like their sound and don't bother experimenting with others). I've used the Beyer Dynamic 231 headphones for several years now. They are easily affordable and unlike alot of headphones, they give a boost to the lower frequencies of any mix. The studio monitors I use are Tannoy Reveals. Again, cheap but provide deatil in all frequencies of the mix and are quite bassy. The advantage of mixing with speakers or headphones that are bassy, is that you wouldn't over compensate in the bass volume, while trying to ensure that the bass can be heared clearly.
Here's a tip for those who want to learn how to achieve great mixes at home. Find a commercially released song that sounds like what you're trying to achieve. Listen to that song over and over as you mix yours, trying to match the volumes of your kick, snare and bass (in comparison to all other instruments) with the ones in that song (in comparison to all other instruments). Then repeat this procedure when trying to determine the volumes for the vocals and other instruments. After you've applied this method on several projects, your ability to determine suitable volumes, EQs, panning and effects for instruments will become almost instinctive.
If your mix sounds equally as good in both the headphones and the studio monitors, then you've achieved a good mix. However, I still recommend you listen to it through a variety of speakers (car, hi fi, etc) before making final decisions. Remember that your studio must have sufficient acoustic treatment. Thick drapes (some call them curtains) all around the walls will do just fine.
This is how I mix my tracks and trust me, IT WORKS.
Emeka "Vizion" Onyema
www.stonebuiltproductions.com
As music producers and engineers, we mature over time and our ears develope the ability to distinguish between a pleasant sound and an unpleasant. We also learn to determine the appropriate modification of sounds, needed to achieve the pleasant mix we're after.
I learned to mixdown using a combination of studio monitors and headphones to monitor the mix. The aim is to achieve an ear pleasing mix, with clarity, from both the studio monitors and headphones. The head phones should be brand that you've become very familiar with (in other words, stick with the same headphones if you really like their sound and don't bother experimenting with others). I've used the Beyer Dynamic 231 headphones for several years now. They are easily affordable and unlike alot of headphones, they give a boost to the lower frequencies of any mix. The studio monitors I use are Tannoy Reveals. Again, cheap but provide deatil in all frequencies of the mix and are quite bassy. The advantage of mixing with speakers or headphones that are bassy, is that you wouldn't over compensate in the bass volume, while trying to ensure that the bass can be heared clearly.
Here's a tip for those who want to learn how to achieve great mixes at home. Find a commercially released song that sounds like what you're trying to achieve. Listen to that song over and over as you mix yours, trying to match the volumes of your kick, snare and bass (in comparison to all other instruments) with the ones in that song (in comparison to all other instruments). Then repeat this procedure when trying to determine the volumes for the vocals and other instruments. After you've applied this method on several projects, your ability to determine suitable volumes, EQs, panning and effects for instruments will become almost instinctive.
If your mix sounds equally as good in both the headphones and the studio monitors, then you've achieved a good mix. However, I still recommend you listen to it through a variety of speakers (car, hi fi, etc) before making final decisions. Remember that your studio must have sufficient acoustic treatment. Thick drapes (some call them curtains) all around the walls will do just fine.
This is how I mix my tracks and trust me, IT WORKS.
Emeka "Vizion" Onyema
www.stonebuiltproductions.com
