In most pop music, the overall dynamic structure is mostly predetermined. At lower levels, some instruments will start to disappear and others will dominate the mix-these cues point you to where your attention is needed.ĭynamics are also a consideration in the “big picture” of the mix from beginning to end. A good mix tip to suss out issues is to turn the mix up loud, then slowly go back down while listening to the overall balance. While vocals are more audibly dynamic, some sounds are harder to catch. Because of this, some parts jump out of the mix and others trail off into the backing music. There are changes in level from word to word, phrase to phrase, and section to section. A mix will sound sloppy and lack definition if one or all instruments are too dynamic.Ī usual suspect here is the vocal, which has a naturally wide dynamic range. While we generally appreciate dynamics in music, there can be too much of a good thing. Slowly bring up the next most important part until you find that pocket where it belongs, and repeat this process until everything has its place.
If you have trouble balancing levels, bring all your faders down, leaving only the dominant element playing. This leads to a richer, diverse mix that better communicates the musical story while avoiding clipping. When it comes to gain staging in the mix phase, decide which elements are the most important to the song and make those the loudest, while tucking other elements underneath it. If you make record everything as loud as possible, the wonderful ebb and flow you get from dynamics doesn’t occur and headroom (the buffer zone of gain between your highest peaks and 0 dBFS in your DAW) gets compromised. DAWs and modern converters offer us a huge dynamic range and this is no longer an issue, meaning signals can be recorded at lower, more reasonable levels and still sound pretty great.ĭespite this, its common to receive sessions with instrument tracks that are massive bricks of sound. Once upon a time, engineers needed to record instruments hot to avoid capturing the tape hiss present on tape. Getting a punchy, dynamic mix starts with setting the right levels at both the recording and mixing stages-commonly referred to as gain staging. Apply the kind of processing you hear in pop to a jazz mix, and you will certainly end up with some frightening results. While there are many others styles that exist between these two extremes, the message remains the same: the use of dynamics varies greatly across the musical spectrum, and doing something that works for one style may not be appropriate for another. As for the typical listening environment for jazz and orchestral, we can assume its at home where things are quiet and listeners can hear softer sections with ease. To preserve the live feel, we typically go easy with dynamic processing, allowing the music to speak for itself. Mixing jazz and orchestral recordings takes an opposite approach.
It might borrow from soul, house, or hip-hop, and this means you should adjust your approach accordingly. It's also worth mentioning that pop, like many other genres, doesn’t have just one sound. To get this kind of consistency to translate in the loud places we listen to pop-in the car, on public transport, and in public spaces-some pretty considerable dynamic range compression is required. The vocal is almost always front-and-center, the kick and bass always powerful, and supporting elements need to be as tight as possible. When mixing pop music, we strive for polish. Even if it seems obvious, skipping this step might land you with a mix that doesn’t fit the expectations of the music at hand.
Consider the genre and listenerīefore pushing faders and slapping compressors on every track, make note of the style of music your mixing and where it will be listened to. To find the right balance, here are five mix tips to improve dynamics. Dynamic range is one of the trickier areas of mixing, since we want to maintain natural dynamics, but also sound focused and tight in a way that’s appropriate for commercial audiences. The difference between these two points is what’s called the dynamic range, and as mixers, it's our job to decide whether we should reduce or expand it. To bring more emotion to a performance, musicians will play certain sections softly and others with more force.