Mixing Secrets

CHAPTER 5

Essential Groundwork

5.1 STARTING AFRESH

For much of this book I'm discussing mixing as if you're working with other people's musical material, and in such situations it's usually easiest to start with a blank slate as far as mix processing and effects are concerned, rather than working from the client's rough-mix setup—even if you have a mixing system identical to theirs. There's more than just convenience to this, though, as it also allows you to bring some valuable fresh perspective to the production, responding to what's actually important without preconceptions. This is why, even if you're actually recording, producing, and mixing everything yourself, I strongly recommend that you still treat the mixdown stage as a separate ...