Welcome to Sage Audio. Today let’s look at How to Make a Balanced Mix. But first,
If you have a mix that you need mastered,
send it to us to receive a free mastered sample of it with the link in the description.
Use Gradual HP Filters
These tips are in no order, so apply them to your mixes as needed.
By gradual high-pass filter, I’m specifically referring to 6-12dB per
octave sloped filters - I recommend these for 2 reasons. First, they sound much more natural,
as if the instrument or vocal originally lacked these frequencies - second,
18dB per octave filters and higher cause 180-degree phase shifts.
Now, this may not be a problem, but if you have another very similar signal
that occupies the frequency at which this phase issue occurs,
it could result in a notch filter due to phase cancellation.
As you’d imagine the sharper the slope, the more aggressive and
numerous these phase shifts become. Again, they may not cause issues,
but when they do it may be hard to understand what exactly is sounding unbalanced.
Let’s take a listen to a demo designed to showcase the worst-case scenario of using sharp filters.
Balance Low End with EQ
A big way a mix can become unbalanced is between the kick and bass - when these
overlap in frequency, it’s hard to find a good relation between the two. With an EQ
inserted on the kick, side-chain the bass or synth, and observe where they overlap.
Then attenuate the bass’s fundamentals on the kick. Alternatively,
if you know the notes of the bass, you can attenuate those on the kick.
Let’s listen to how this balances the kick and bass, and helps the low end overall.
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Balance Low End with Compression
Bass ducking is pretty common since it helps balance the relationship between the kick and
bass. That said, I’ll place the compressor on the bass, side-chain the kick, and then
isolate the trigger to only the low frequencies, before achieving about 1-3dB of compression.
It’s an old technique, but can definitely come in
handy and can be done with just about any compressor.
Let’s take a listen.
Bright But Not Harsh
Like the low end, the high end of a mix is difficult to get right - you want clarity
and brightness without an unwanted harsh sound. The best way to achieve this in
my opinion is to dynamically control 6-10kHz before amplifying the high range with an EQ.
To illustrate this idea clearly, I’m going to process a full mix with a
high shelf filter amplified a few dB. Then I’ll enable a
multi-band dynamics processor to control 6-10kHz so you can hear the difference.
Although I’ll demonstrate this on a full mix,
apply this concept to individual instruments, especially vocals.
How to Destroy a Mix
Let’s quickly cover one of the biggest mistakes when trying to achieve a balanced mix, compressing
the stereo output. I can understand the appeal - it’ll control dynamics,
make the sound loud if auto-make-up gain is on, etc, but it ruins the musicality.
It does this by altering the totality of the mix’s dynamics,
meaning if it’s not set correctly, or if it’s used aggressively,
your mix’s balance will be completely off, at least from a dynamic perspective.
Let’s listen to what I’m talking about, and keep in mind you should avoid this.
Thinking of Compression Musically
Last chapter I brought up the idea of compression being musical,
so let’s look at that a little more. Although some instruments are more related to groove and rhythm,
all performances have some relation to it - meaning whenever compression is used,
it will always interrupt or alter that rhythm.
We mainly control this with the compressor’s attack and release,
to determine when and for how long compression occurs.
By dividing 60000/BPM, we know the time of a quarter note in milliseconds. If we were to
set our attack and release to this value, we’ve essentially told the compressor to
wait 1 quarter note before compressing, and then compress for 1 quarter note.
By using multiples or divisions of this quarter note value, we could do something like waiting a
1/16th note, then compressing for a half note. It really depends on the signal,
but try some variations to keep the natural rhythm of your track intact.
Let’s take a listen to this concept applied, and notice how it achieves
dynamic balance while retaining the musicality and rhythm of the track.
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Conceptualize Leveling with Hz. Response
A huge part of balancing a mix is establishing levels with the faders, but if I can, I’d suggest
not conceptualizing the process as ‘I need more kick’ or ‘I need more synth,’ etc. Instead,
think of it in terms of the frequency range that the signal you’re affecting occupies.
So if I need more low mids, maybe this low register guitar would help balance
the response - or if I’m lacking some highs I could bring up the drum overheads slightly.
If you think of each signal as occupying a space in the frequency
spectrum, and you tailor the levels to fill that space,
you’ll find it easier to have all instruments included in a way that sounds balanced overall.
Let’s take a listen to leveling and try to keep the frequency response in mind.
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How to Reduce Ear Fatigue
Ear fatigue occurs when a mix is too static - in other words, the frequencies are always the same,
at the same amplitude. We typically keep this from happening by retaining dynamics, but introducing
subtle frequency response randomization is another way this issue can be remedied.
I’ll use the shade EQ and introduce randomization filters, before attaching
these to various EQ filters. Although the effect is subtle, you’ll notice that this
variation helps keep things balanced, and the mix from being too static.
Exploring New Balancing Tools
2 tools I’d recommend checking out are the Gullfoss EQ and Soothe 2,
both of which mainly affect the frequency response, but also dynamics. If you place
Gullfoss on your various buses, it should help create room for each respective signal,
especially if you side-chain one bus to another.
Soothe 2 on the other hand will dynamically attenuate resonances,
which is especially helpful when trying to balance a vocal with surrounding instrumentation.
Let’s listen to Soothe 2 and Gullfoss equalizers being introduced to a mix.
Phase Rotation Balancing
Maybe I’m getting too literal here, but let’s cover balancing the peaks and troughs of a
waveform, in this case, our full stereo mix. In RX I’ll use the phase tool and click suggest to
measure if the phase has been offset - then I’ll process according to that suggestion.
As a result, the polarity of the waveform becomes balanced, resulting in a mix that
sounds the exact same, but has its peaks more accurately represented when processed.
If you have a mix that you need mastered, send it to us to receive a free mastered sample of it
with the link in the description. Thank you so much for watching.