1: Mixing is a fairly complex task and having things super unorganised is not a good thing. By having an editing and organising routine you can make things a lot more manageable for yourself.
2: Colour coding and labelling all the tracks in the session. Colour Coding and Labelling is the simplest thing anyone can do to prepare a song for mixing. DO NOT leave tracks labeled like “05Gtbk_03_20”.
3: Rearrange the Order of Your Tracks. This is one of those things that doesn’t seem that important on the surface but over time makes a big difference in the outcome of your mixes. E.g. Drums / Bass / Instruments / Vocals
4: Tidy up…remove anything that’s unnecessary. During the recording process a lot of things get captured that don’t need to be there. It’s not uncommon to get things like clicks, pops, headphone bleed or any other noises, into the tracks. HINT… Use ‘Strip Silence’ in Pro Tools.
5: Create a Master Fader…then create a few Effects Busses to begin with. Simple delay and reverbs are a good start point.
6: Import a reference track. Find a track that sonically meets the requirements you are looking for in your own track. This will remove a lot of guesswork for determining overall frequency content and levels. NOTE…the reference track will have been mastered, so DO NOT try and meet its overall level in your mix!
- LEARNING OUTCOME 2- Complete a fully automated multi-track mix-down
- Requirement of mixing to fixed schedule
- Use of near field and/or main monitoring systems
- Signal flow, signal path and gain structure control
- Configuration of console automation parameters
- Scene or snapshot creation and storage
- Dynamic level, mute and panning automation
- Auxiliary send and/or return automation
- Application of dynamic and time-domain effect automation
- Production of final mix-down master on medium relevant to purpose
- Back up of all automation data
