Nobody Cares About Your Mix Until You Do This

Here is a summary of the key points from the transcript:

• The podcast discusses mixing techniques that new mixers often overlook in favor of more exciting effects.
• Mono compatibility is extremely important. Kevin gives examples like airport PA systems, iPhone speakers, etc that are mono. You can't fix phase issues with EQ.
• Getting the right overall loudness is critical so people don't have to adjust volume. There is a sweet spot around -14 LUFS.
• Subtractive EQ should be used before boosting. Cut first rather than boosting with a "smiley face" EQ.
• If you get these fundamentals right - mono compatibility, overall loudness, subtractive EQ - then your fancy effects like reverb and delay will shine through more.
• Kevin promotes his mixing workshop at mixcoach.com/workshop to learn his top 5 mixing tips.

In summary, the key message is to focus on nailing the core elements of a mix like mono compatibility, loudness and subtractive EQ rather than jumping straight to creative effects. Getting the basics right makes the special touches stand out more.

Full Transcript:

Here is the transcript without timecodes, divided into chapters:

Chapter 1:

Hey guys, today on the podcast, we're going to be talking about certain things about your mix that nobody cares about until other things are addressed. Intrigue. Let's talk.

Hey guys, today, before we get started, I want you to go and check out a course that I've created. It is a workshop on mixing and it's called mixcoach.com forward slash workshop. It's five of my best mixing tips and I know you'll like it. It's there's one starting soon at mixcoach.com forward slash workshop. Okay.

Now today we're going to be talking about some, some mixing things. We've been in this series called, uh, mixing basics and we've discussed things like filters, EQs, compressor, and automation.

Chapter 2:

Now the next installment of this series, it's about things that you're giving your attention to on a mix that nobody cares about if these certain other things are not handled, for example, nobody cares how beautiful your reverb is, if it's not compatible in mono.

Nobody cares about your throw delay until the kick is in phase with the overheads, there's little things.

Now, maybe I'm being a little bit, a little bit drastic, but there are things that are more important than other things.

Chapter 3:

One of the things that I have noticed about the, the literally thousands of mixes that I've listened to and evaluated and gave feedback for is that new mixers tend to do the same things. They glance over the things that are very important and boring for the things that are really exciting, like, uh, mixing tricks and automation, things we've talked about in the, in the last video.

So let's talk about those things really quick.

Mono compatibility. You have to, to be compatible in mono, which is why I spend most of my time mixing in mono because it's that important.

Chapter 4:

As a matter of fact, okay. You may say mono is not important because we live in, you know, the modern age where everybody has two speakers, right? Well, that's debatable too.

Up until just a few years ago, this iPhone only had one speaker. It was mono until they, uh, figured out a way to make the one, the earpiece, the speaker, it was a mono device.

One, uh, for another example would be if you're standing outside of a control room, listening to a mix, you're not hearing both speakers separately and independently, you're hearing those speakers merge together with the room acoustics coming out one mono doorway. Right.

So there is mono. Mono is very significant.

Uh, there's actually even, uh, another example would be, uh, that really made me start thinking about this and really thankful that I spend probably 80% of my time mixing in mono.

I was on a plane heading to, I think New York, and I was able to listen to Sirius XM on the plane and a song that I had mixed popped up on Sirius XM. I'm like, cool, this is really cool. I'm going to listen to this song.

I was listening to the song and I'm like, it doesn't have the width that I'm, Oh my gosh, this is a mono mix, which made me really start listening to the mix differently going, is my kick punchy? Does my base on my kick?

Uh, are they accentuating each other? Are the vocals good and loud? Are the fills, how are the reverbs standing up? I mean, it makes you listen in a whole different way.

Chapter 5:

And the mix held up because I spend most of my time mixing in mono.

There are certain things in, when you're mixing in stereo that you will never hear in mono. And that is, as a matter of fact, it'll sound better in stereo and it will sound terrible in mono.

Like when you've got two low end instruments, like the inside of a kick drum and the outside, if that's what you do, if they are not in phase with each other, or they're out of phase slightly, the end result in mono is going to be a thinner signal, a thinner sound that you can't EQ out. You can't EQ it out. You're better off just to mute one of them.

So, uh, there are certain things that you hear, like I said, in mono that you will not hear in stereo. As a matter of fact, you, it may even sound better in stereo than it does in mono, but it really does not translate well.

Uh, I've told the story before about a friend of mine who rented some high end microphones, high end mic pres, and he recorded an instrument in stereo, not realizing that it was out of phase. And guess how his mix sounded in a mono radio station. And yes, there are mono radio stations too.

Chapter 6:

So whether or not it's compatible in mono, it, that matters more than what kind of reverb you have, what kind of, uh, delay you're using, uh, the compressor for the lead vocal.

The mono compatibility matters more than that.

The second thing that you better get right on your mix, or it's never going to be a great mix is your loudness.

Now, another thing that I've noticed on mix coach member, where we listen, we mix a new song every month and we, you know, do evaluations and we have members iron sharpening iron, as we say, one of the things that I notice on the new members is that people try to get mixes too loud and there's a dynamic range that needs to happen. That's a sweet spot when you're mixing.

And if you over bake your mix and it's too loud, it will fatigue people's ears. And if it's not loud enough, then people will reach for the volume knob.

And once they compare your mix to somebody else's mix and their mix, even if it's the same exact mix, if it's one, two, three dB louder, their mix is going to be perceived as the better mix.

Chapter 7:

So there's a rule that you need to follow when it comes to volume. And I found a sweet spot. I use K 12 and K 14 metering, depending on the style of music that it is. And if you can follow within those ranges, then your mix will sound better and nobody will care if you don't have reverb on it, all that does, it really does help to have verb and delay and you know, little automation, things like that.

But if these principle things are not addressed, then it will never be perceived as a really good mix.

There's one last thing that's really important that if you don't do it, it will never be perceived as a good mix. And that is subtractive EQ.

Most beginners and most even experienced mixers will do this. They will start adding smiley face EQs. They'll find where the vocal needs to be brightened and they'll brighten it.

Or they'll find where there needs to be low end in a vocal or a basic guitar or kick, and they'll just add it. And what you end up with is what we talked about last week.

You end up with a smiley face and the effect is that you've, you've, you've notched out the mid range, but without a lot of control and without a lot of discipline, you've added top and bottom. And this is what we call smiley face EQ, right?

Chapter 8:

So what you have to do is subtract the EQ first. It's better to ask yourself, what can I take out of this sound to make it sit in the mix better more than it is? What can I add to this to make this mix sound better? Okay.

So subtractive EQ is a very, very important thing to learn the discipline of doing. We've talked about EQ. We've talked about compression. We've talked about filtering.

Filtering is subtractive EQ. It's, it's taking away things that you can't even hear that you can't use. Uh, and they're, they are taking away bandwidth from your mix. They're taking away, um, dynamic range from your mix.

So if you can do those three things, your mixes will sound better immediately. And then the things that you add, like, you know, fancy compressor tricks or delays, throw delays that we talked about last week, if you, uh, have the nicest reverb available and you just use tons of it and it's just glorious and beautiful, then people will notice that more when you have the other things taken care of.

So hopefully that was helpful. If it was, grab that thumbs up button, crush it. And if you didn't like it, didn't help at all, hit that thumbs down button twice. That's how much, that's how much you didn't like it. Okay.

And, uh, if you think this is helpful, share this video and don't also, don't forget about my workshop. It's at mixcoach.com forward slash workshop and, uh, you'll find some really cool stuff in there. Okay.

Thanks for tuning in and I will see you next week. Okay.