Mixing Synths...

In many ways making music and mixing is very much like cooking. Start with the right ingredients, follow the recipe, plenty of hard work and you should end-up with a delicious dish.The perfect result is all about achieving the right balance of ingredients. Too much spice or seasoning and your dish is ruined.

Music works in similar ways. It's all too easy to overdo it with sounds. We all want to achieve the ultimate drum kit, the fattest bass possible, the thickest pads and so on. Too often, the end result is a thick and muddy mess, with too much going on all the time. The secret to improving your mixes is to achieve balance.

In our last article we briefly covered the bass-end of a mix. This time we are going to be looking at the mid-range, and more particularly at mixing synth parts so they mesh together.

Trust your ears

Before we do so, I want to share a "top-tip" with you: when using an EQ try to shut your eyes! That's right, close your eyes. That way you won't be distracted by the graphics in front of your eyes and become fixated with cutting or boosting at a specific frequency you "know" should work.

Remember, if it sounds right, IT IS right!!! Over time this will help you to judge a sound in context. Of course, if you are in a studio full of people, you're probably better off not doing it that way unless you don't mind getting some very funny looks!

The new version of Cubase SX lets you use a "curve only" mode without any written frequencies.

This is an ideal tool to help train your ears so they become the final judge of how you mix your sound.

Choosing your sounds

For this article I have purposedly chosen three sounds that all occupy the same sonic area, i.e the mid-range frequencies.

The first one is Synth1, a wonderful VA (Virtual Analogue) freeware synth. It produces great sound, has a built-in arppegiator and a fine multi-mode filter.

Synth1

The next part is written using Waldorf's A1 synth. This is another VA synth - like most Waldorf synths it comes with its own characteristic filter. It is one of the VST instruments that comes bundled with Cubase SX.

Waldorf A1

As you can hear it has a very punchy sound.

Our final sound is a simple synth String pad played back in HALion, a software sampler plugin.

HALion

As you can hear it has a very wide sound that occupies a lot of space.

Putting it all together

Now that we have our three synth parts, let us put them together and add a basic drum pattern. The result is as follows:

Raw Mix

Not a bad start, but the mix lacks definition and the various parts are fighting each other for some space in the mix. There is just too much going on in the mid-range. Not a very good state of affairs. Let's see what we can do to correct the situation...

EQ

The first and probably best weapon in our arsenal is to use EQ. Remember that tip I mentioned about EQ'ing blind? Well, it's going to come in very handy here. I used the built-in EQ in Cubase SX to shape each sound in the context of the mix. You should never EQ a sound in isolation for this kind of work as it is vital to make each sound fit in with each other.

It is different when you need to apply corrective EQ to remove a booming mid-range in a guitar for instance, or remove nasal frequencies from a singer's voice.

I won't bore you by showing you each EQ curve in turn. Instead here is an overview of the various sounds and their curves.

From left to right we have Synth1, the Waldorf A1, our HALion pad, the LM9 Drum Machine and finally the three synths going into a "synths" channel group so they can be EQ'd as one and fit in with the drum sounds.

EQ'd Mix

Notice how the curves complement each other and leave room for the other instruments. Most of the low-mid has been lost from the Synth1. The A1 has been given a low frequency boost and has had its mid-range severely cut-off. The HALion pad has also lost its mid-range but kept some low-end warmth. Finally, the drums have been boosted in the low-end but scooped out in part of the mid range.

Each part has been made more audible and has had its character enhanced. I have also EQ'd the pad sound so it sounds a bit more distant and in the background.

The final touches

To finish our mix, some reverb has been added to the pad sound (I'll explain why in a separate article). This has sent the pad sound a bit futher back in the mix. Some judicious panning has been applied to each sound so that the Synth1 ended-up on the left, the A1 in the centre and the Strings to the right. This makes our mix more spacious and leaves more room for the bass drum where it matters, in the centre.

Last of all, a bit of compression has been applied and a little bit of mastering EQ added to help the track "seat" better in the final mix.

The resulting mix can be seen and heard below.

Final Mix

Notice how all the energy in our mix has been carefully spread. Since this is a bass heavy mix, the bass comes in at 0 dB and is a bit lower in frequency than a pop mix would be. There is a slight "scoop" at 125-250Hz to keep any mud out. This is another important area that needs to be looked after carefully.

Finally, the rest of the mix seats mainly in the 1-8kHz area where definition is all important. Notice how there is a gentle downward slope - this provides a nice smooth mid-range. The last item is the very gentle boost in the 10kHz area to provide a bit of high-frequency and make our mix feel a bit more "airy".

Roll your own

I hope all the above has given you a good insight on how to make your mixes sound clearer and more professional. There is no single "magic" recipe to make a poor mix sound good, but careful work will make a good mix sound better.

Since this article was mainly about EQ, I have concentrated on using that particular tool, but there are other ways to balance sounds. The best way is probably to choose sounds that naturally complement each other (i.e electric bass,guitar, drums and vocals are a perfect example).

Most importantly, you need to learn to think in terms of "vertical" mixes, i.e select what should be in the low, mid and high ranges so that every sound has its place. Even more importantly, experiment and learn to trust your ears!

Good mixing!

Article written by: Rudi Cazeaux.
www: TraXmusic.Org.

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