PART 3

Balance

Your mix project is neatly laid out. Timing and tuning gremlins have been banished. The arrangement has been honed. All your faders are pulled down, and you're ready to mix.

Now what?

That unassuming little question is essentially the crux of what mixing technique is all about, and answering it with conviction at every stage of the process is what foxes a lot of small-studio operators struggling to get commercial-level results. The reason so many low-budget producers can't confidently answer the persistent “now what?” is that they don't have an overarching game plan to provide solid rationale for their processing decisions.

Observing seasoned mix engineers at work is very deceptive, because they'll often seemingly skip at ...

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