Pre-mixing

Understanding Monitoring in Small Studio Operations

Small studio operators face challenges making objective listening decisions.
Objective decision-making is crucial for efficient and confident mixing.
Creativity alone isn’t enough—you need objective mixing skills too.
Making practical, objective decisions improves commercial mix quality.

Fighting Your Own Ears in Mixing

Your ears naturally color and adapt to sound.
This adaptation can mislead you during mixing and affect objectivity.
Understanding how your ears work is crucial for accurate mix evaluation.
Knowing these quirks helps you compensate and mix more accurately.

Shock Tactics for Objective Mixing

Switch between monitoring systems frequently to prevent ear adaptation.
Take regular breaks to restore perspective and avoid fixating on details.
Listen to everyday sounds to recalibrate your hearing.
A quality monitor controller makes system switching easier.

Your ears compensate for tonal imbalances in daily life, but this same ability masks mix flaws during prolonged listening sessions. Regularly changing monitors “shocks” your auditory system, giving you a brief window of unbiased listening that reveals the mix’s true character.
Prolonged mixing sessions cause you to lose objectivity and overemphasize details. Regular breaks, unrelated activities, and everyday sounds help reset your auditory perception, giving you a fresher, more objective evaluation when you return.
A dedicated hardware monitor controller makes switching between monitoring systems much more convenient, streamlining the process and encouraging you to use it routinely, which contributes to more accurate mixes.
Taking breaks isn’t just about physical rest—it’s about mental and auditory reset. Expose yourself to natural sounds or simply change your environment. This serves as a reality check, ensuring your mix translates well outside the studio.

Breaks and Hearing Fatigue in Mixing

Continuous mixing fatigues your ears, especially reducing high-frequency sensitivity.
Regular breaks maintain sharp hearing during long sessions.
Finalize mixes after taking breaks to ensure objectivity and quality.
Industry professionals recommend breaks for fresh perspectives and to avoid fixation.

Monitoring Level for Effective Mixing

Mixing too loud risks hearing damage and distorts what you hear.
Professional mix engineers recommend mixing at low to moderate volumes.
Volume level affects how you perceive frequency balance and dynamics.
- See Equal-loudness contour
Mix at different volumes to understand how your mix translates across environments.

Excessive volume during mixing causes hearing impairment and distorted perception of the mix. Monitor at reasonable levels to preserve your most critical asset as a mixer—your hearing.
Professionals like Allen Sides and Kevin Killen recommend mixing primarily at low volumes, where you can do critical balancing effectively without risking hearing damage. Only listen at high volumes briefly for specific checks.
The perceived frequency balance of a mix changes with monitoring volume due to equal-loudness contours (a psychoacoustic phenomenon). You need to monitor at various levels to understand how your mix translates across different listening conditions.
Listening at different volumes provides valuable insights into how a mix performs under various conditions. However, you must also decide which volume levels are most relevant for your intended audience and musical genre, ensuring the mix retains its clarity and impact in its typical listening environment.

A Jury of Your Peers in Mix Evaluation

Getting external feedback is crucial for objective mix assessment.
Even skilled mixers lose objectivity—outside perspectives are invaluable.
Learn to filter and apply feedback constructively to improve your mixing.
Use reference tracks to clarify vague feedback and guide adjustments.

The Art of Mix Referencing

Mix referencing is essential for objective mixing assessment.
Compare your mixes to top commercial productions to ensure quality.
Referencing affordably bridges the gap between amateur and professional sonics.
It compensates for monitoring limitations and grounds your decisions in reality.

Choosing Your Material for Mix Referencing

Select high-quality reference tracks for effective mix referencing.
- A list: Honor Roll - hasn’t been updated in a while
- The Mix Review - a good resource
- Best Reference Track For All Genres – Mastering The Mix
Carefully vet tracks to ensure they meet top production standards.
Personal preferences can mislead—choose based on sound quality, not taste.
A rigorous selection process makes your reference materials more effective.

Selecting reference tracks is a pivotal step in mix referencing. Using subpar or inappropriate tracks can inadvertently lower the quality benchmark for your own mix.
Take a meticulous approach to choosing reference tracks: compare them across multiple systems and rigorously vet them. This ensures the selected tracks truly represent the highest quality in your target genre or style.
Personal biases toward favorite songs or famous tracks can undermine the objective quality assessment needed in mix referencing. Distinguish between a track’s emotional appeal and its technical excellence as a reference.
The effort you invest in rigorously selecting and vetting reference tracks pays off by providing a more accurate and demanding benchmark, pushing your mix quality closer to professional standards.

What Makes a Good Reference in Mix Referencing

Balance personal sound preferences with commercial standards when choosing references.
Use genre-specific, contemporary references to ensure relevance and market alignment.
Avoid letting musical taste bias your selection—focus on production quality.
Mix references inspire and validate decisions rather than dictate choices.

Choosing the right mix references requires balancing subjective sound preferences with the objective quality recognized by the professional community. While personal taste shapes your mix’s character, aligning with industry standards is crucial for commercial viability.
Ensure your reference tracks are relevant to the genre and era you’re working in. Production techniques and listener expectations vary significantly across different musical styles and periods.
Select reference tracks based on sonic quality, not personal musical preferences. Even if a song isn’t to your taste, its mix may still set a valuable benchmark for technical excellence.
Reference tracks serve as inspiration and a benchmark for comparison, helping you understand how your mix stands up against established standards. They’re not meant for direct emulation but for guiding decisions on aspects like bass levels, vocal treatment, and mix tonality. This ensures your mix meets professional standards and audience expectations.

Getting the Best Out of Your References

Make quick comparisons between your mix and references
Edit reference tracks to highlight key sections
Match loudness levels between references and your mix
Use workarounds when loudness-matching is difficult in small studios

Download the Living in the City mix from Cambridge Multi-tracks. After downloading your project, create a new Reaper project. Configure your project settings to mirror the following:

Begin by reviewing the notes accompanying the tracks to determine the correct BPM (Beats Per Minute). Next, import your tracks into the project, ensuring they are sequentially ordered and color-coded based on the type of track.

Group similar tracks into dedicated folders. For instance, consolidate all drum tracks into a ‘Drums’ folder, and all guitar tracks into a ‘Guitars’ folder, and so on. Employ the track manager for efficient organization of projects with an extensive number of tracks.

Color-Coding and Track Renaming

Color-coding and renaming tracks are essential for maintaining a clear overview of your project. This practice enhances your workflow and helps you quickly identify specific tracks. For instance, you might color-code all drum tracks in blue, guitar tracks in green, and vocal tracks in red. This visual organization simplifies the mixing process and streamlines your workflow. You can also rename tracks to reflect the instrument or part they represent, such as “Kick Drum” or “Lead Guitar.”

Regions and Markers

Note: We’ll set up regions and markers after tempo mapping in the next session, since tempo mapping changes the project timeline. Similarly, we’ll strip silence after tempo mapping—with the grid aligned to the music, it’s easier to select items and verify edits land on musically meaningful points. For now, just familiarize yourself with the shortcuts below.

Regions and markers are indispensable tools for navigating your project. Regions are used to define sections of your project, such as verses, choruses, and bridges. Markers, on the other hand, are used to highlight specific points in your project, such as key changes or significant events. By utilizing regions and markers effectively, you can easily navigate your project and make precise edits and adjustments.

Use the following shortcuts to create regions and markers:

To create a region: make a time selection and type shift + R
To create a marker: m

Utilizing a Reference Mix

Create a folder containing all your project tracks.
Place your reference mix track outside this folder. Ensure that this track does not route through your master channel if you’re using any master effects.
Calibrate the loudness of your reference mix using a LUFS Meter, balancing between the readings of the meter and your auditory judgment.
Facilitate comparison (A/B testing) between your mix and the reference mix. In Reaper, you can solo tracks exclusively using option + command.
Consider adding additional reference tracks as needed.