A Mix Engineer's Glossary of Techniques

Introduction

• Welcome
• What are mix notes?
• What you should know

1. Lo-Fi Mix Techniques

• Lo-fi glossary
• Make it lo-fi
• Make it distorted
• Add some grit
• Add more saturation
• Overdrive it
• Drum destruction

2. EQ Mix Techniques

• EQ glossary
• Brightening something
• Add more presence
• Darken the bass guitar
• Make it warmer
• Make it more edgy
• The vocal is too harsh
• Adjusting muddy, tubby, or woofy mid-range bass tones
• EQ and dynamics for acoustic guitars
• Add body to the snare drum

3. Volume/Level Mix Techniques

• Volume glossary
• Faders and pan pots
• Specific frequency EQ boost
• Balancing conflicting requests
• Balancing lead and background vocals
• Blending male and female vocals
• Inner balance of the drum kit
• Manipulating the levels of drum samples

4. Ambience Mix Techniques

• Make it more roomy or make it less roomy
• Make it wider
• Give it more space
• Using ambience to position the drums
• Give it more sauce and other specific examples

5. Location Mix Techniques

• Location glossary
• Applying spatial modifications to vocals
• Affecting location in a stereo blend
• Designing frequency specific location
• Altering the spatial location of drums

6. Vibe/Attitude/Energy Adjustment Mix Techniques

• Attitude adjustment glossary
• Make the vocal crunchier
• Getting a good feel with timing and EQ
• Setting the chorus up for success
• Augmenting the production
• Other techniques for attitude

7. Compression Mix Techniques

• Compression glossary
• Basic principles of compression
• Basic principles of peak limiting
• Combining two processors for the perfect sound
• Special processing: Multiband compression
• Special processing: Transient design
• Avoiding overdoing dynamics devices

8. Other General Mix Requests

• Glossary terms that don't fall into a particular category
• Unusual terms for basic mix moves
• Understanding the aesthetic
• Relating to transients
• Other terms you should know

Conclusion

• Next steps