Chapter 4 Excerpt

“Balance”

Building The Mix

Despite what you might think, there is no standard instrument to start and build a mix from. Modern mixers employ various techniques and they’re all valid, especially in different genres of music. For instance, here are the places from which a mix can be started:

•From the Bass

•From the Kick Drum

•From the Snare Drum

•From the Drum Overheads

•From the Lead Vocal or main instrument

•With all of the instruments and vocals in right from the beginning

•When mixing a string section, from the highest string (violin) to the lowest (bass)

There are some mixers that just push up all the faders and mix with everything in the mix from the beginning. The theory here is that everything will eventually be in the mix anyway, you might as well start with it all in as soon as you can. The advantage to this method is that by hearing all the instruments and vocals, you’re able to make an aural space for everything. If you insert one instrument at a time, you begin to run out of space and frequently have to go back to the beginning to make sure everything fits together properly.

Whichever way you select, there is no right way or wrong way to build a mix. The method of the following exercises is frequently used, but feel free to change the order if it feels better to you.

Wherever you start from, it’s a good idea that the lead arrangement element (usually the the vocal) be inserted into the mix as soon as possible. Since the vocal is the most important element, it will use up more frequency space than other supporting instruments. Many mixers find that by waiting until late in the mix to put the vocal in, there’s not enough space left and the vocal just never sits right with the rest of the track. 

In our next exercise pod we’ll experiment with different methods of getting a mix balance where we’ll look at all of these methods.

The Drums

In the early days of recording there was no such thing as balancing the drums since the entire kit was treated as a single instrument and miked with just a single mic. As producers began to understand how important the beat was, a mic was added to the kick. Eventually the modern drum sound evolved to where each drum and sometimes each cymbal is individually miked. As a result, the internal mix of the drums is a very important part of virtually every modern recording.

Different engineers approach this mix in different ways. Some begin with the kick drum and build around that, while others start with the snare, since it provides the backbeat of most songs. Yet others want to build their drum mix around the toms so they don’t get lost in the mix, especially if they’re prominently featured.

A unique case has the mix being built around the overhead mics. The overhead mics are placed further away from the cymbals than normal cymbal miking, and are meant to pickup the overall sound of the drum kit. If overheads are used, many mixers like to start their mix from there and then fill in the sound with the other drum mics. This won’t work so well when the mics are placed lower with the idea of just picking up the cymbals.

Setting The Levels

Wherever you start your mix from, keep in mind that the mix buss level will get louder and louder with every instrument entrance. That’s why it’s best to begin your mix with the mix buss meter (the master meters) reading at about -10dB regardless of what instrument you start off with. With each instrument that enters at the same level as the current mix, the master mix meter should raise about 3 dB. Also remember that the sound of every drum will change anywhere from a little to a lot when a new drum or cymbal is added to the mix due to the leakage of the other drums into the mic.

Let’s try them all the starting places so you can get a feel for how each method works.

Exercise Pod - Balancing The Drums

E4.10: Building From The Kick

A) Raise the level of the kick drum until it reads about -10 dB on the master mix bus meter.

B) Raise the level of the snare until it’s about the same level. Did the sound of the kick change when it was paired with the snare? Is the kick masked by the snare and no longer distinct? How high does the master mix buss meter read?

C) Go to a place in the song where there are tom fills. Raise the level of all toms until they’re about the same level as the kick and snare. Did the sound of the kick and/or snare change? Does the kick and snare sound different when the toms aren’t playing? How high does the master mix buss meter read?

D) Raise the level of the cymbal or overhead mics until the overall sound begins to change and the cymbals become more distinct sounding. What happened to the sound of the other drums? How high does the master mix buss meter read?

E) Raise the level of the high-hat mic until it becomes a bit more distinct sounding. Does the sound of the snare change? Does the sound of any of the toms or cymbals change? How high does the master mix buss meter read?

E4.11: Building From The Snare

A) Raise the level of the snare drum until it reads about -10 dB on the master mix bus meter.

B) Raise the level of the kick until it’s about the same level. Did the sound of the snare change when it was paired with the kick? Is the snare sound masked by the kick and no longer distinct? How high does the master mix buss meter read?

C) Go to a place in the song where there are tom fills. Raise the level of all toms until they’re about the same level as the kick and snare. Did the sound of the kick and/or snare change? What does the kick and snare sound like when the toms aren’t playing? How high does the master mix buss meter read?

D) Raise the level of the cymbal or overhead mics until the overall sound begins to change and the cymbals become more distinct sounding. What happened to the sound of the other drums? How high does the master mix buss meter read?

E) Raise the level of the high-hat mic until it becomes a bit more distinct sounding. Does the sound of the snare change? How about any of the toms or cymbals? How high does the master mix buss meter read?