{"id":385,"date":"2018-04-20T14:04:41","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T14:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wooolfsounds.com\/?p=385"},"modified":"2021-01-06T16:46:11","modified_gmt":"2021-01-06T16:46:11","slug":"mixing-your-music-do-it-yourself-or-hire-a-pro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wooolfsounds.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/20\/mixing-your-music-do-it-yourself-or-hire-a-pro\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixing your music: do it yourself or hire a pro?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey friends!<\/p>\n

Today, musicians can DIY (‘do it yourself’) a lot of the tasks traditionally reserved for the record labels or specialists.\u00a0 Many online tools are available to do licensing, publishing, promotion, distribution, ..\u00a0\u00a0 Online services even offer cheap (automated) online mixing or mastering.<\/p>\n

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Online services indeed allow for cheap ways to get a better sound, albeit a very ‘generic’ solution.\u00a0 On some services you can set some basic parameters on what you want the result to sound like, but these are also very generic.\u00a0 No feedback or revisions are possible with these services.<\/p>\n

If you want to stand out of the masses, have specific requests or want some control over what the result should sound like, your best options are to do it yourself or hire a professional to mix for you.<\/p>\n

We’ll take a look at what skills and tools are needed to mix your own music.\u00a0 We’ll also highlight some common pitfalls to watch out for.<\/p>\n

Can you DIY mixing\/mastering?<\/h2>\n

As hiring a specialized mixing and\/or mastering engineer can be costly, many DIY artists today also like to handle these tasks themselves.\u00a0 A lot of digital tools and courses are available to get you started<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This can work in many cases, but certain skills, tools and experience are needed to get the mixing and mastering right!\u00a0 I’ll provide an overview of some of the prerequisites for delivering a great end-result via mixing\/mastering.<\/p>\n

Skills needed<\/h2>\n

A great musical and technical ear<\/h4>\n

As a musician or producer, you probably have a great musical ear: you know best what effect you want to obtain using a certain melody, timbre, chord pattern, arrangement etc..<\/p>\n

However, it’s also important to know how to achieve certain sonic results: which recording techniques to use, what frequencies to enhance or attenuate, what type of natural or virtual reverb ‘spaces’ to use, how to use compression for different purposes..<\/p>\n

Recognizing frequencies and frequency ranges<\/h4>\n

Although, in theory, it is<\/em> possible to use equalizers on a trial-and-error basis (scanning the spectrum for frequencies to boost or attenuate), a lot of efficiency gets lost that way.\u00a0 Even if you can afford to spend some time on getting this right, not everyone prefers to use their free time on this part of the process.\u00a0 Many artists want to spend most of their time on what they do best: writing and playing music.<\/p>\n

The skill of recognizing frequencies by ear can be learned, especially if you already have ‘absolute pitch<\/a>‘ hearing.\u00a0 If you can recognize musical notes by ear, you can certainly learn to recognize frequencies.\u00a0 But again, this takes time and practice.<\/p>\n

Listening experience<\/h4>\n

To be able to recognize what a good mix needs, you need to be an expert listener.\u00a0 Many musicians listen to a lot of quality music, especially in the genre or style they want to create for their own music.\u00a0 This will help the artists recognize whether a mix sounds great\/good\/bad.<\/p>\n

Again, recognizing issues with a mix does not imply the technical skills or experience to also know how to solve these issues.\u00a0 When DIY-ing the mixing process, you have a lot of opportunity to go back and adjust things to get the music to sound the way you want it to sound.\u00a0 However, this can quickly lead to a lot of time spent on making all these adjustments, without the guarantee that the result will be great as opposed to good (enough).<\/p>\n

Tools needed<\/h2>\n

Great speakers and\/or headphones<\/h4>\n

Any monitor speaker, even those costing multiple thousands of dollars, distorts the audible spectrum.\u00a0 For most cheaper speakers this can really be a problem: you can’t get a great mix if you’re not hearing a truthful representation of what you’re doing.<\/p>\n

A natural sounding, full-spectrum listening environment<\/h4>\n

You can have great monitor speakers, but at least as important is a great space to mix in.\u00a0 What makes a space great involves a lot of parameters and it’s difficult to discern general rules.<\/p>\n

The danger of being in a ‘bad’ room with suboptimal speaker placement is that the resulting frequency response is uneven.\u00a0 There are dips and peaks on different frequencies, caused generally by ‘standing waves’<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To experience this, try running a sine sweep through your playback system.\u00a0 You will be astonished with the difference in volume over different frequencies!\u00a0 Even in professional studios this test will reveal significant peaks and dips in the spectrum.<\/p>\n

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