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Mixing Instrument levels and finding “the pocket”

The most important part of a mix is finding the correct balance for each instrument so they fit “in the pocket”.  From my experience, for an instrument or vocal to sit correctly, it needs to have the correct volume level in the mix and frequency space in the arrangement.  Every song and arrangement will have it's own unique set of challenges, but I will share some general ideas and techniques that I have picked up along the way, which will hopefully assist you in your productions.

Arrangement

In all fairness, we can't talk about having a perfect mix without addressing arrangement.  Some songs are arranged with each instrument in their own space to begin with, and mixing is simply a matter of adjusting volume and panning. In other cases, especially heavy metal, there will be low guitars, low bass and a kick drums to deal with.  This situation can present some challenges in getting a clear low-end in your mix.

Another example: if the arrangement has several instruments in the vocal frequency range, it might be difficult to make the vocals fit in the pocket.  When confronted with the arrangement problem, we tend to crank the volume of the vocals and they never feel 'right', either too loud or too soft.  If it is your own song, you can try to re-arrange some parts.  Some quick ideas would be, instead of strumming the entire open G chord, try playing just the high triad of the chord, or heck, move the G chord up an entire octave! It might sound odd at first, but when mixed with the rest of the song it might just sound fantastic.

If re-arrangement is not an option, you have the task of going in and carving out frequencies for your vocals from the other instruments.  Using a frequency analyzer to find the dominant vocal range is recommended.  See this article and video which explains how to do that.  After finding the dominant vocal frequency, you can then begin to carve out that frequency space from your other instruments with an EQ.

With the frequency space cleared out for each instrument, you can concentrate on volume.

Volume Levels

Guitar is my main instrument and until the last year or two, it was the instrument I composed all of my songs on.  When it came time to mix, I ALWAYS started with the guitars.  I wanted them to sound fantastic! I wanted every guitar player that heard the song to say “cool tone man”.  Sadly, I realized that my guitars were always mixed too loud.  Not for me, the guitar player, but for the listeners. I then had to come up with a different method of mixing.

When in Rome....

I read many articles from mix engineers who said they like to start their mix with the drums and bass.  Being a guitar player, I ignored that advice because I knew people wanted to hear an awesome guitar, not some background beat on the drums.  The problem was, I wasn't getting quality mixes.  I started dissecting the instrument levels in all the songs I came across.  In many cases, I realized guitar was NOT the center piece of the mix, as it was in my head.  The mix was centered on a clear rhythm section and vocal.  Everything else had to wait their turn before being 'featured' in the mix.

My new approach was to take the advice I read from much better and more experienced mix engineers than me. (Who would have thought that would work!) I went back and revisited my mixes.  I cleared all automation and turned the levels all the way down.  I then started with just drums.  Once the drums were set, I mixed the bass guitar to the drums.  I realized bass was much easier to mix when it sat alone with the drums.  I moved the volume fader for the bass a few times and all of a sudden it magically fell into this “pocket”.  And by “magically”, I mean just that!  It was as if my own preconceived notion on how loud a bass should or shouldn't be with the drums, was overridden by some divine intervention by the mix gods and the bass reached out and said “baby I'm home”.  The levels between the two instruments just felt “right.  It was so obvious, that there was no room for my constant doubt and second guessing on volume level.

My next dilemma was, what instrument do I add next?  Since I knew myself and my tendencies painfully well, I knew there was little chance I would ever mix a guitar too quiet and decided to leave that for last.  Next was the center piece for the song, the vocals.  My mix now consisted of drums, bass and vocals.  I actually found the song almost mixing itself at this point!  The vocals were fairly easy to place with just the bass and drums.

Lastly I began to mix in the guitars, horns and keyboards. I took a whole new approach. I was not mixing as a guitar player who wanted other guitar players to hear my song.  I was mixing as a listener who treated the guitar as just another instrument in the mix, whose job was to stay out-of-the-way of the vocals.  What I found was that the guitar also found a sweet spot in my mix when I approached it like this.  There is some sadness when I say, the “sweet spot” was quieter than if I had mixed it my 'old' way.  My first mix with this approach was a success and it almost seemed like the song mixed itself.  Each instrument fell into its own pocket and everything just “felt” right.

Taking this new approach to mixing propelled my production level and opened my eyes like no other technique before.  If you are not achieving the quality mixes you would like, I encourage you to take a new approach and try this technique out to find the “pocket” for each instrument.

Mike Lizotte

Comments

comments

2 thoughts on “Mixing Instrument levels and finding “the pocket”

  1. Good one … Lets see if I can pocket them like you did.. :)… This post was more of an inspirational post than a technical to me … :).. I have the same issue with pianos..

    1. That’s an interesting point Johanan – when writing/reading about mixing techniques, I guess many posts are inspirational suggestions as opposed to technical advice. 🙂

      I don’t know about you, but I tend to mix while I write and record. Sometimes this works out, other times I am not happy with my result and I clear all my automation and follow the steps in this article. I guess for me, it’s easier to mix when I completely separate myself from the song and instruments and concentrate only on mixing.

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