MIXING

Mixing is the technique of blending all of the individual tracks in a recording to create a version of the song that sounds as good as possible. This is called “the mix”. The process can be comprised of:

• Balancing the levels of the tracks that have been recorded
• Fine-tuning the sound of each instrument or voice using equalization (EQ)
• “Panning” the tracks between speakers to create a stereo image
• Adding reverb, compression, and other effects to enhance the original recording
• Mixing sometimes includes a bit of editing; choosing the best bits of every take of a song, and sometimes even building musical elements from scratch. Sometimes there is so much editing involved it forms a separate stage in between tracking and mixing.