Mixing Analysis

Mixing is the process of combining and balancing all the individual tracks (instruments, vocals, etc)
against one another. For each instrument or vocal, mixing determines how loud that instrument is
in relation to the others, where it sounds in the mix (panning), and how it sounds (whether it is dull
or bright). Mixing is an important aspect of music production as it can bring a track to life and
improve the sound.
With any music production, whatever you create or record needs to be mixed. The idea is to create
a balance of frequencies across a spectrum and balance of volume so that the track sounds
professional, and nothing is overpowering another instrument. The main tools to use to achieve
this are equalisation (EQ), compression and reverb, however, there are more tools you can use.

The importance of mixing

After you have recorded a track, you have what is known as a flat mix and it generally wont
sound great. You need to mix a track properly so that all the levels are balanced, in a way bringing
the track to life and making it sound much better for the listener. If you skipped the mixing stage
and just released the flat mix, some instruments would be too overpowering, some would be
clipping and some instruments you might not be able to hear relatively well. One major element is
mixing vocals because if you leave these unmixed, they can almost get lost in their mix under the
rest of the instruments or instrumental or might sound too dry.
Mixing is a long process and something you should take your time with. One recommendation that
you should take short breaks while mixing so you can give your ears a rest and that way you will
notice more imperfections with a mix.
How good a mix is can be determined by the ears of the producer/engineer, how experienced you
are at mixing, whether a track has been mixed on accurate/flat monitor speakers in a good
listening environment as well as the tools you have available. Logic Pro X has an abundance of
processors, effects and inserts that allow you to mix and edit effectively to a professional standard
such as eq, compression and reverb.

Equalisation (EQ)
Equalisation is used to manipulate tone and allows you to increase or lower the volume of selected
frequencies within your track.
In a fully parametric EQ there are three variables. These are:

- Frequency
- Bandwidth (Q Value)
- Volume (dB boost or cut)
A semi parametric EQ has only two variables as it does not have the bandwidth or Q value.
Different instruments have different active
frequencies. With this knowledge you are able
to cut/reduce the inactive frequencies. In Logic
Pro X, the channel EQ has a analyser which
shows you the active frequencies on a
selected instrument so you know where the
inactive frequencies are and can cut them.
This is shown by the screenshot of an EQ of
the kick drum on one of our mixes where as it
is a kick drum, the active frequencies are in
the low end so I have cut the high frequencies
up to 770Hz. Although it appears there are still
inactive frequencies that haven't been cut, you
still need to listen to the sound of the instrument as it could potentially sound too muddy or tinny
depending on the frequencies you cut.
Always look to cut and get rid of the things you don't need first before you boost to avoid clipping/
peaking. Remember that every time you cut the overall volume of the instrument will decrease.
You will tend to get some sibilance on the s or sh sounds. These cause a small hissing sound
and usually occur around 5-6kHz so you can easily reduce those by cutting around those
frequencies. Again, you will have to use your ears to decide whether you like the resulting sound.

Compression
Compression is the reduction in the dynamic range of an audio file in order to increase the overall
volume. It is used to even out audio levels and reduce spikes in our mixes, which creates a
balanced sound.
The dynamic range (DR) of an audio file is the difference between the quietest bit and the loudest
bit. The purpose of compression is to narrow the dynamic range creating a balanced sound.
Compression can be effective on many instruments such as vocals and drums where the singer
may sing different parts of a song at different volumes where they may have moved away from the
microphone slightly, or where the drummer may not have hit the drums as hard at certain points on
a track.
On a compressor there are different settings you can change to affect how great the compression
is such as the threshold, the ratio, knee, attack and release. Compression ratio, in Laymans terms,
is the indicator for how severely the audio file is compressed. For example, at a low ratio such as
2:1 any audio signal above the threshold is reduced gently. In simple terms, the greater the ratio,
the greater compression.

I used compression on my mixes on the stereo output channel so that the difference between the
quietest part and the loudest part of the track is reduced and the track is all at one level.

The screenshot above shows a compressor in Logic Pro X we applied to the lead vocals on one of
my mixes. The threshold is at -18dB and the ratio is at 3:1 which means that for every 3dBs the
signal is above the threshold, only 1dB is allowed to pass through the compressor.
Reverb
Reverb is the persistence or echo of a sound after it has been produced and the sound of a direct
source in a space. In most studios most sources produce only a small amount of reverb or no
reverb at all so reverb is often put onto an instrument/track once it has been recorded. Logic Pro X
has four different reverb inserts, although the most commonly used one is the space designer as it
is most versatile. This is the insert I used on vocals, snare drums, and guitars as well shakers and
a synth pad.
These are the three main mixing techniques I used for my mixes to create an even, professional
sounding track. You do not need to have loads of different processors on an individual track for it to
sound good in a mix, but you just need to utilise these three processors to the best of your ability.

The screenshot above shows reverb on the lead piano my own composition mix. This gave the mix
more depth and added to the soundscape of the track. The reverb in Logic Pro X I used is the
space designer.

Panning
Another mixing technique is panning. This opens up the soundscape and changes the dynamic of
the stereo output of a track. When I mixed, I panned the vocals -35 to the left and +35 to the right
as well as panning the guitars -64 to the left and +63 to the right. This created a dynamic where it
gave the track depth. There is a noticeable difference in the sound when you pan certain
instruments as you can hear each individual instrument, even if the track is quite dense with lots
going on and lots of instrumentation on the track. Panning also adds to the depth of the track.

The screenshot above shows a section of the fader in Logic Pro X showing the guitar channels
from my Africa mix with the pan/balance knobs in use.
Limiter
In Logic Pro X you can add a limiter or adaptive
limiter to avoid clipping (which I will talk about in the
next section). When you add a limiter to an individual
instrument channel, it basically caps the highest
point the volume level can reach on the volume
meter in Logic and allows you to make the
instrument louder in the mix without it clipping. This
works in the same way as the compressor and in
fact, the compressors in Logic have limiters built in if
you wish to use them.
Clipping/Peaking & volume levels
When mixing, the first thought is always to boost the volume if an instrument is too quiet and
turn down the volume if an instrument is too loud with the faders on the mixer in Logic Pro X.
This is done a little bit while mixing, of course, but to control the volume of each individual
instrument, it is best to use a compressor or EQ. This is because if you just boosted the
volume on the fader in Logic, it is highly likely that the instrument is likely to clip or peak which
is shown on the meter in Logic by turning red as shown by the screenshot on the right.
Clipping can lead to distortion so it is vital you prevent any instrument from clipping. Using a
compressor and a limiter reduces the dynamic range and reduces the spikes in an audio file
which then allows you to boost the volume without it peaking.

Creating a balance
As I stated at the start of this essay, mixing is about creating a balance of frequencies and
balancing volumes of instruments with one another. To monitor this, there is a multimeter under
metering option in Logic Pro X which allows you to analyse the frequencies in terms of volume as
well as seeing if any parts of the track are peaking. The multimeter shows the frequencies along
the bottom of the graph and the dB levels are listed on the side of the graph which gives you a
comparison of frequencies to volume level.
I used the multimeter on the overall stereo channel in Logic Pro X to see where I needed to boost
or cut the frequencies using EQ.
The screenshot below shows the multimeter in action analysing our Africa Mix. There are some
overpowering frequencies, however, this isn't a problem as the overall sound of the mix sounds
good. The multimeter does not tell you whether your mix is good or not, it just simply shows you
the range of frequencies your track covers and how loud they are.

Order of mixing
For any track to be mixed to a professional standard, you will need use each instrument as a
reference point to each other and you will need to complete mixing in a logical order rather than
randomly. The order may change depending on the type of track you are mixing, the type of
instruments you are working with and how many channels there are, but make sure you have an
order and have reference points to measure against.
The order of which you mix in is completely subjective to you as the producer/engineer, however, I
like to start mixing the drums first and use the drums as a reference point for all the other

instruments. This is because you do not want your drums to be too loud compared to everything
else so it allows you to create a balanced mix.
The Main Process
Africa Mix
The process for the Africa mix started with eq and compression on the drums with a bit of reverb
on the snare (top and bottom) making sure the overheads are at the same level and are panned
one hard left and one hard right. The next part of the process was to eq and compress the guitars
(electric first and then acoustic) to avoid distortion on the guitars as I did not want that on this track.
The next step was to eq the shaker and eq and compress the Congo so that if there were hits
played unevenly, they would be evened out and levelled. After this is done then I got to work with
eq and compressing the bass guitar. By this stage the bass guitar was a little quiet in the mix so I
compressed the bass to bring it up in the mix but made sure that it wasn't too overpowering. The
last stage was to do the vocals. This involved panning, reverb, eq and compression on each
individual channel on the two lead vocals and the 4 harmony channels with a little bit of automation
in the chorus section to bring it up in the mix. I grouped the two different section of vocals together
so that if they were mixed together properly, I could bring them up altogether in the mix. The main
compressor ratio I used on this mix was 3:1, the threshold and knee varied from instrument to
instrument.
I made sure that none of the tracks were clipping by reducing the volume on the faders on the
mixer in Logic Pro X out of the red zone if any were reaching it and adding compressors on each
individual track and by equalising the inactive frequencies.
This logical process resulted in a professional standard, balanced mix that sounded good and
comfortable for the listener. In comparison with the original song by Toto, the mix does not sound
out of place so I feel it was a successful task.

Own Composition Mix

After I had recorded drums and bass guitar over my own composition, the next task was to mix it.
Similar to the Africa Mix, I started by applying eq and compression to the drums and making sure
the overheads are at the same level one panned hard left and one panned hard right. At first, I over
equalised the top snare as I cut too much of the high frequencies so it sounded a little muddy.
Mostly with eq it is about experimenting with cutting or boosting frequencies with eq to find the
sound that you are happy with. I equalised and compressed the floor and rack toms only a little as

they didn't need much done to them in the mix. Originally I doubled up the piano and panned one
left and one right, however, this made it sound too overpowering with the rest of the mix. I mixed
the synth bass first before eq-ing and compressing the bass I recorded through Direct Input. There
is also reverb and a SubBass on the recorded bass guitar just to improve the sound and boost the
bass. There is compression on the stereo output channel to level out the whole track.
Similar to the Africa mix, I made sure that none of the tracks were clipping by reducing the volume
on the faders on the mixer in Logic Pro X out of the red zone if any were reaching it and adding
compressors on each individual track and by equalising the inactive frequencies.
Moreover, the process resulted in a professional standard, balanced mix with recorded instruments
that sounded good and comfortable for the listener and I was happy with the finished composition
so I feel this was another successful task.