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A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is responsible for combining ("mixing") different sonic elements of an auditory piece into a complete rendition (also known as "final mix" or "mixdown"), whether in music, film, or any other content of auditory nature. The finished piece, recorded or live, must achieve a good balance of properties, such as volume, pan positioning, and other effects, while resolving any arising frequency conflicts from various sound sources. These sound sources can comprise the different musical instruments or vocals in a band or orchestra, dialogue or Foley in a film, and more.

The best mixing professionals typically have many years of experience and training with audio equipment, which has enabled them to master their craft. A mixing engineer occupies a space between artist and scientist, whose skills are used to assess the harmonic structure of sound to enable them to fashion desired timbres. Their work is found in all modern music, though ease of use and access has now enabled many artists to mix and produce their own music with just a digital audio workstation and a computer.

Process

In order to identify problems that they might have missed during extended periods of concentrated work engineers frequently leave a session and return with new perspectives. Since prolonged exposure to the same loop or vocal can desensitize the ear to imbalances or harsh frequencies these breaks are crucial for preserving objectivity. In order to make sure the mix sounds good in all playback situations, many mixers will even listen to their work on several systems including headphones car speakers studio monitors and even phone speakers. When making decisions the monitoring environment itself is crucial. Acoustic treatment precise room calibration and top-notch studio monitors all aid engineers in making better decisions. Even so people who are unable to access optimal settings frequently use tools such as room correction plugins and headphone calibration software to get a more accurate mix. Its crucial to remain impartial during the mixing process. In order to test frequency masking and stereo compatibility, some engineers use methods like flipping phase checking the mix in mono and mixing at low volumes. By using these techniques, artists can make decisions that will not cause ear fatigue. The emotional impact of a mix is ultimately driven by creativity but technical precision guarantees its coherence harmony and uniformity in all listening contexts. Mixing engineers depend significantly on their hearing instincts during the mixing process, yet the majority follow a methodical approach grounded in fundamental principles. These processes promote uniformity and standardization across various projects while still permitting creativity: Examining the client artist's "groove" or “style.” Prior to implementing any modifications, mixing engineers carefully listen to the original tracks to grasp the artist’s creative intentions, genre norms, and stylistic choices. This could include citing earlier efforts or talking about tone, dynamics, and the general vibe with the artist or producer. Recognizing the key components of the mix. Mix engineers decide which instruments, vocals, or sound combinations are essential to the song’s emotional and rhythmic foundation. These “focus elements” obviously differ by genre. For instance, the kick and bass in EDM, or the main vocal in pop. Identifying the methods to highlight important aspects. Emphasis can include adjusting volume, shaping frequency with EQ, positioning sounds through panning and reverb, or using compression for ducking and enhanced impact. Frequently, emphasizing a particular element involves gently diminishing the presence of other competing noises. Refining the final mix for mastering. After achieving balance, clarity, and artistic vision, the mix is enhanced for submission to a mastering engineer. This requires confirming adequate headroom, phase alignment, stereo width, and dynamics, allowing the mastering person to improve the track without needing to fix fundamental problems.

Difference Between Mixing and Mastering Engineer

The difference between a mixing and mastering engineer is that a mixing engineer generally utilizes a digital audio workstation (DAW) to combine various audio tracks, such as vocals, instruments, synthetic effects, leads, etc. into a unified and well-balanced stereo mix. To ensure clear distinction, depth, and separation among the different elements, this process involves adjusting volume levels, panning, carving out EQ frequencies, compression, and incorporating additional effects. A mastering engineer steps in to finalize the stereo file for distribution once mixing is complete. To enhance the overall audio quality, ensure uniformity across various playback systems, and make sure the track is at the same volume level as other popular songs, mastering involves precise methods such as equalization, multiband compression, and limiting. The track is generally optimized for streaming platforms through the mastering process; earlier this was for CDs. Making sure the finished track satisfies certain loudness requirements which are typically expressed in LUFS (Loudness Units relative to Full Scale) is a crucial responsibility of a mastering engineer, over a mixing engineer. LUFS is a standard that is followed for maintaining standards when it comes to volume. Volume normalization is used by streaming services like Spotify Apple Music and YouTube in accordance with LUFS targets Spotify for example suggests a level of about -14 LUFS. If a track is mastered too loudly, the platform might reject it which results in less punch or too much of distortion. On the other hand, if a track is mastered below the standard level, it could come across as weak in comparison to other tracks. In order to adhere to these established loudness thresholds, mastering engineers use strategies like dynamic range control and careful limiting to preserve musical impact. The mastering process involves a great deal of teamwork in addition to technical expertise. The mastering engineer considers the finished stereo mix as a whole whereas the mixing engineer concentrates on balancing individual elements within a song. Feedback is frequently given by the mixing engineer to the mastering engineer or even by the artist. In many instances, if a track does not have enough headroom or if certain frequencies are problematic the mastering engineer might ask for a different mix. In contrast producers or artists might ask for changes to be made during the mastering stage in order to improve mood or feeling.

Education

Mixing engineers frequently seek formal education in audio engineering, music production, or similar disciplines to establish essential skills in recording, mixing, and studio technology. Programs like the Bachelor of Music in Music Production and Engineering at Berklee College of Music provide extensive training that encompasses classes in engineering, production, editing, mixing, mastering, and the recording industry. Though formal education can be helpful, numerous accomplished mixing engineers develop their skills through hands-on experience, internships, and from learning on their own. One example of education helping a mixer is Richard Furch, a Grammy-awarded mixing engineer, who attended the SAE Institute in Berlin and subsequently received a degree from Berklee College of Music. He has a rich portfolio in which he collaborated with artists such as Prince and Usher. Online learning platforms offer very reasonably priced alternatives to traditional education and they have completely revolutionized the way aspiring mixing engineers hone their skills. On websites like YouTube Skillshare Udemy and MasterClass students can access in-depth lessons taught by seasoned experts from all over the world. These platforms enable users to advance at their own pace and go back over material as needed covering everything from basic principles to sophisticated mixing techniques. One of the main resources for self-taught engineers is YouTube. Channels such as Mix With The Masters and Produce Like A Pro offer interviews with top engineers and plugin demonstrations. These resources frequently offer advice on topics like parallel compression techniques, vocal processing chains, and EQ carving strategies that are both useful and instantly applicable. Platforms such as Skillshare and Udemy offer more structured learning through multi-part courses that follow a predetermined curriculum. These classes frequently offer quizzes community forums where students can post questions and get answers and downloadable stems for practical experience. Websites like Pro Mix Academy and PureMix provide subscription-based access to excellent tutorials delivered from the comfort of your home by Grammy-winning engineers .

Techniques

Mixing engineers rely on their intuition in the process of mixing, but all mixers generally follow certain fundamental procedures:

• Analyzing the client artist's "groove", or "style", and catering technicalities to their taste
• Identifying the most important elements (tracks or combinations of tracks) of a sound to emphasize
• Determining how to emphasize the tracks, which often entails de-emphasizing other tracks
• Fine-tuning the final mix, preparing for mastering if necessary

Balancing a mix

A mixer is given audio tracks of the individual recorded instruments to work with. They show up well after the artists or session musicians are done recording, and just have this audio to work with. Their job consists of balancing the relative impact of each audio stream, by putting them through effects processors, and having the right amount (dry/wet ratio) of each.

• Equalization - The main tool of a mixing engineer is the mixing console, which changes the relationship of each audio frequency, to another, to boost or cut specific frequency ranges within the track, giving each space in the limited frequency range available from 20-20,000 Hz, specifically, between ~400–8000 Hz, the most sensitive range of human hearing. Removing conflicting frequencies from 250–800 Hz is crucial, where interference and construction between voices can create annoying, displeasing effects, called "mud". Cuts in this area can help with artificial sounding brightness. By boosting frequencies below this range, one can give voices more fullness, or depth to them. Above this, boost can give voices presence, but only if they do not overlap with another voice's more prominent higher harmonics. Correctly placed high Q value filters will allow surgical alteration, which is necessary in the human vocal range (~300–3000 Hz), a 1 dB boost here is equivalent in loudness to a 5-6 dB boost at the relative extremes. Key in removing mud is making the proper boosts higher up, to replace brightness lost when cutting shared frequencies. A spectrum analyzer can help in viewing harmonic structure of voices. Every mixer approaches the challenge of equalization differently, as everyone has a slightly different psychoacoustic perception of sound, and different levels of physical hearing loss.
• Dynamic range compression - Compression reduces the range between a signal's lowest low and highest high. The threshold controls how much of the top is cut off. By adjusting attack and release settings, and having the right ratio, one can give a track more presence, but too much compression will destroy an otherwise pleasing track. By setting the trigger to another audio source, called side-chaining, higher levels of compression, and even hard clipping to a very small degree. This is often used in progressive music, however the effect is very artificial, really only good for one kind of pumping, syncopated sound.
• Panning - (L/R) settings spread the sound field out, which can create space for voices otherwise lacking. Stereo playback will result in slightly different frequency response than the signal, depending on the reverberation characteristics of the room. With modern technology, now it is often done artificially. This allows a creation of a novel resonant body. Decay time and perceived size can be controlled precisely, which, combined with control of the diffusion network, pre-filtering, and choruses, allows any resonator to be approximated. Panning changes the relative gain of each stereo track, which can create sonic space in a mix. Note that mixing only can happen after every track is set to the correct master track volume.
• Effects - Mixing Engineers use effects such as reverb and delay to create depth and space in a recording. They can add tasteful levels of effects and creativity to make your song more interesting.

Equipment

Some equipment mixing engineers might use are:

• Analog-to-digital converters
• Digital audio workstations
• Digital-to-analog converters
• Dynamic Range Compression
• Microphones
• Mixing consoles
• Music sequencers
• Signal processors
• Tape machines

See also

• Audio engineering
• Audio mixing
• Recording studio
• Sound recording