I want to start off by saying mixing is subjective, some people may disagree with my suggestions and methods, and that's okay. In this post I'll be going through theory I've learned about mixing, along with tips & tricks to improve your mix without needing a great ear for it right away.
This guide is intended for people who have a fair understanding of their DAW, and basics of production. Though I can think of some big producers who I think could benefit from tips in this guide. If you don't understand a lot of things I'm talking about, then I'd suggest learning more basics through YouTube videos or something.
What is mixing?
Despite what some people think, mixing isn't this magical skill that makes your songs monstercat ready. It's a process of adjusting volumes, EQing, compressing, and doing pretty much anything else that isn't arrangement focused to elements in your song. It won't fix bad arrangement. While I might have just downplayed mixing, it can ruin a good song if done awfully. Following this guide will give you a great place to start & more. So let's get right to it!
Your kick & snare/clap should be the loudest things in your mix.
Kick and snares/claps are very important elements in EDM music, they hold everything together. They need to be loud, and the loudest. There'll be more info later on how to get them loud, but just remember, your kick & snare/clap need to be the loudest. Here's some tips related to your kick & snare/clap
- Be aware of how loud the tone on your snare is, a lot people have them too loud and the tone needs to be EQ'd down.
- Don't have your hats and percussion too loud, I often hear them overpowering the kick & snare in perceived volume.
- Don't have you snare/clap greatly overpowering your kick in perceived volume.
And that brings us into Perceived volume.
Meters don't tell the full story when it comes to volume and how we perceive it. Our ears perceive different frequencies at different volumes. So while your hats and percussion might be technically quieter than your kick, they can sound louder due to things like hi hats having louder frequencies around 5k-12k HZ, a much more sensitive range for our ears. Here's a diagram showing our frequency response. It should be noted that most people can't hear past 18kHz.
Bass
Bass is such an important element to any EDM song, yet it's something I often hear done wrong. Every genre has bass, whether it be songs that have a really lengthy sub heavy kick that fills the track with bass, or dubstep where you have a dedicated sub bass layered underneath the bass/synths/wubs. Annoyingly, bass is mixed different depending on what genre it is. In dubstep, you can push the volume of your bass insanely loud compared to a chord & lead focused house or future bass song.
This is where mixing and 'mastering' begins to collide a bit for me, I mix with a limiter on the master pushing the song about as loud as I plan to release it, because it gives me the answer to how I should mix things. So how do you mix bass regardless of the genre? Push the sub as loud as it can go without it distorting the rest of the song, or causing the track to have an awful pumping effect. At that volume, it'll usually be good enough. Of course, you should be adjusting your limiter's threshold while along with the volume of your sub bass to make sure you can get everything to a good and loud level.
Tips:
- Don't let the sub from your kick overpower your track's bass, unless the sub from your kick is your only intended bass. I often hear songs where I don't even recognize there's a bass because it's so quiet compared to the sub from the kick.
- Any time you're not making a song where all the sub comes from the kick, you should use a dedicated bass/sub bass layer. It will make your mix easier, and cleaner if you don't know exactly what you're doing. When you do this, you should use an EQ to cut off all frequencies below 80-150 Hz (120Hz is pretty safe) on other sounds besides the kick & snare.
- Your sub bass, and anything under like 90-120Hz should be mono. This isn't a super hard rule, but it's one I almost always stick to, and you should too if you're looking for an easy clean mix.
Leads
In music that focuses on leads, regardless of the genre being house, happy hardcore, or anything like that, the lead should be the loudest perceived melodic element. I say perceived because while you've just made your bass loud, you will perceive leads louder, even though they're technically more quiet. Your lead should sit in front of your chords, arps, and anything else you've got going like that. For a good lead mix reference, look at some of Stonebank's melodic music.
References
That leads me to references. You should always compare your mix to other songs. This is tricky because you could reference your song to a bad mix if you don't know what you're looking for. A lot of popular EDM songs have very bad mixes, largely due to age. While there are a few outliers, older songs tend to have worse mixes. While I can't give you a list of every artist who has good songs to reference, especially in genres I don't listen to, here's a few I'd suggest checking out.
- Virtual Riot
- Billain
- Teminite
- Nitro Fun
- Pegboard Nerds
- Squired
- deadmau5
Loudness
This is a heavily debated topic, and I have a strong opinion on it. When it comes to EDM, your song should be as loud as possible. A lot of people say loudness kills dynamics, but in most EDM genres dynamics doesn't really matter that much. Loudness grabs people's attention, and simply translates to sounding better to a lot of people. While some services like Spotify automatically adjust volumes of songs for perceived volume, a lot of important places don't, like YouTube, SoundCloud, and I don't even think this site does. Most artists listed above have their songs very loud, it's something tried and tested in EDM, and it just sells. Here's some tips on how to make your song louder.
- Use limiters, saturators, and soft clippers. While things like chords and leads can't be smashed into a saturator or soft clipper like dubstep sounds can, you can smash them into a limiter for quick unorthodox way to get them loud. Just make sure it's not unnaturally pumping.
- Use low release times on limiters. The lower the release time, the louder it can go. Pushing a limiter too far in this case usually causes a distortion like effect, instead of a weird pumping one.
- To get your drums loud, you can EQ down the loudest elements a bit (sub in the kick, tone in the snare) and then push them into a soft clipper to get them loud without distorting as bad.
- Make sure your sub isn't pushing everything else out of the way of your mix.
- In dubstep or riddim, you can get away with using a soft clipper with 1 to 3 dB on the master after the limiter to make it louder, this is what a lot of newer riddim and dubstep artists seem to be doing.
Conclusion
If you follow everything in this guide, assuming you already didn't know how to mix, you'll be much better off than before. While I covered a lot of tips and tricks in this guide, I can't teach you how to hear every problem in your mix. You have to grow your ear for that yourself by producing more, and comparing your tracks in depth to well mixed songs. Another reminder that mixing is subjective. You don't even need to have perfect mixes to have popular or liked songs. I think songs made by MDK have subpar mixing, but his arrangement makes up for it.
I'm out of space so I can't include more useful info and topics, but if this guide is well received I'll make more in the future.
If you have questions, feel free to ask below and I'll get to you ASAP. Also feel free to PM me if you want my feedback on your song's mix. Cheers and thanks for reading!
