3 basic tips to remember when mixing.

[Machinated]

When mixing, every few minutes give yourself a 15 second break. especially after eq-ing things. really lets your ears adjust.

remember to AB your mixes. even if they are stylistically different, its good to refresh your ears.

always check the phase of your drums, especially when loading in samples. flip that polarity switch when you load a sample in to check its all sounding big with your mic tracks. so important if you want your drums sounding huge.

 

[Skinny Viking]

a 4th - don't mix too loud

too much volume can often mask what's actually going on, especially with your low end. Keep the volume lower and every so often bring the volume up to check what you've done .... then drop it back down again

 

[Machinated]

yeah, id say its ALWAYS worth checking at different levels and even walking around the room a little bit too. i find it much easier to get vocal and bass levels set by mixing quieter and then checking at different volumes to see if its good.

 

[Skinny Viking]

^ yup, sometimes when I lose perspective I stand outside my room while its playing back at a good volume and listen through the door ... can actually clue you in to a lot of stuff with the bass and kick

 

[bryan_kilco]

It really is amazing how, in a few hours or a day or two, revisiting a mix will sound way different than you remember it!

 

[SentencedToBurn]

yea thats why i can rarely mix something in a day. usually its good to bounce some tracks, listen in a car, listen on a different stereo or even some ear buds. youll find in the next day or two that there are things you want to change.

 

[schwinginbatman]

The "Morning After" technique, as I call it, and many others most likely do. All engineers should, and most do, follow this. Think a mix is done? Go to sleep, listen to it the next morning. Does it still sound good? Yes? It's done. No? Get back to mixing, boy.

 

[delayshifter]

EQ'ing in mono always help

 

[Nimvi]

EQ'ing in mono always help

Yup, and to add to it, setting volume levels of elements in mono is very helpful too. Especially for stuff like tucking in leads or vocals at just the right level. Often when I'm unsure about them, I switch to mono and it becomes clear right away. Think: "how should this sound on my clockradio?"
Works better on centerbased elements than hard-panned stuff like guitars obviously.

 

[ArthurD]

Mix bass with headphones

 

[Sacha]

When mixing, every few minutes give yourself a 15 second break. especially after eq-ing things. really lets your ears adjust.

remember to AB your mixes. even if they are stylistically different, its good to refresh your ears.

always check the phase of your drums, especially when loading in samples. flip that polarity switch when you load a sample in to check its all sounding big with your mic tracks. so important if you want your drums sounding huge.

Good tips, further to the break another good way to re-set your ears is switching speakers, throw on headphones, put it on your laptop, whatever you have it just makes you notice different things.

 

[jENK]

All good points. I'd like to add, when making important level changes to the mix, monitor at low volumes. Listening on different speakers in different environments is crucial and most importantly... reference, reference, reference!