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What is Mixing?

Mixing is the process of taking recorded tracks and blending them together to create a cohesive and polished audio recording. A good mix strikes a balance between levels, tones, and spatial placement, ensuring that all elements of the song are heard clearly and contribute to the overall emotional impact.

This guide will walk you through the basics of mixing, advanced techniques, and practical examples of using FL Studio's stock plugins for professional-sounding mixes.

Why mix?​

  • You have lots of instrumental layers in each song and you want to balance their volume and placement (putting the drummer further behind).
  • You might be recording different people seperately for your track instead of doing all in one take.
  • You want to add effects (reverb and echo-like sound to your piano to sound more emotional).

Key concepts​

Level Balancing​

For lay people, its the volume and "loudness", ensuring no single track overshadows others. Professionally, most of what you think is "volume" is actually "dynamics" and "levels".

Frequency Balancing​

Adjusting EQ (equalization) to create space for all instruments and voices.

Example, removing the low-end of a track makes it sound like "its coming from a telephone". Removing the high-end makes it sound like "its coming from a closed room". Its more accurate to say that low-end frequencies can't travel through the phone, and high-end frequencies get cut-off by the walls of the room, so those are the sounds you are left with.

With software, you can simulate those effects exactly.

Depth and Width​

Using reverb, delay, and stereo imaging to make instruments sound "wider", "further", "bigger". Physically, you can do it with an opera hall with very expensive architecture designs. However, you can also simulate those effects with clever software.

Dynamics​

Using compression and limiting to control the loudness and consistency of the mix.

Example: a person could be singing too close to the mic or too far in a session. Compressing will raise the soft parts and reduce the loud parts.

What's Next?​

  • Using FL stock plugins to create the basic effects.