.png)
Are you new to making electronic music or recording yourself at home?
Then you may have heard about Mix engineer and desperately wanted to ask your friends or musician friends what they were talking about, but couldn’t bring yourself to raise your hand.
I get it. In the Music Production world, we all want to be able to talk with professional musicians with confidence
Today, you’re in luck because I’m going to show you everything you need to know about Mixing and a mix engineer but were afraid to ask, including how to differentiate it from producer or musician.
You'll be ready for your first day at the studio.
I'm not here to bury the lead; in simple terms, a mix engineer is a person who takes your song or project and uses a variety of audio processes to make your music the best it can be and this describes a Mix Engineer Job. They aren’t there to write the project or help arrange the song (that’s the producer and the band). Instead, they use tools such as EQ, Compression and Reverb to help the mix and vibe of the song translate across every set of speakers.
A Mixing engineer aims to enhance the vibe or feel of the song, get it to clearly translate across speaker systems, and use knowledge and taste to make it feel contemporary.
They also work with the producer or the artist to ensure the technical matches the creative vision of the project.
Want to know how to find out how a mixing engineer could help you?
Contact us and we can chat about your project and we can see if a mixing engineer is a right thing for your project.
You may come across people in the music space who believe you need to do everything yourself.
However, most people want to focus on the creative process of their project, not the annoying technical details. This means that a mixing engineer can be a great part of your project and a great one will work with you to ensure your creative vision is being matched.
When you use a mixing engineer, you'll be able to focus on the song and performance not on which compressor or reverb is the best fit for the sound.
On top of that, you’ll get a high quality and faster outcome than going DIY
For example
A recent client was able to spend his time on release planning, upcoming gigs, and social media and we took his project through and with a few revisions he was able to save not only time but also achieve a much faster and higher result than his previous release where he did everything himself.
Don't worry, this is no Music History Class.
One of the best ways to understand a new concept is to travel back in time and understand where it comes from and the processes that led to its inception.
For Mixing Engineer, we have to look at the back at the last 50 years of modern music.
Believe it or not, the invention of multitrack tape recorders, allowing for an audio engineer to specialise in mixing only, which in turn gave rise to a more and more amazing piece of recording music.
Pensados place has excellent interviews with people from mixing engineers and producers where you can learn more.
So far, we've stayed pretty theoretical in our exploration of a Mixing Engineer, and if you're still confused, I don't blame you.
In fact, when I first started learning about mix engineering, I felt like I would never get my records to sound like music on the radio. The fact that some of my clients have gone to connect with audiences shows that I was thankfully wrong.
Luckily, a mixing engineer is more complex in theory than in practice.
I've put together a few examples of how a mixing engineer works below to help you better understand and see if it’s right for you.
My client from Melbourne Entertainment Company used our mixing engineer to help showcase their roster.
We provide recording and mixing services for the new artists that are joining their roster to help show their clients who would be best for their event.
Using a Mixing Engineer lets you focus on the songwriting and the production, not on the tech
The best ways to implement this in your own Project is:
Here’s how you can apply it:
Still not sure if you should get a Mixing Engineer right for you
We all learn in different ways.
Check out this video to see if it helps you out:
Isn't [presenter] a clever cookie? I especially like [something you want to call out from the video for people who may not have watched it all the way through].
I hope Mixing Engineer’s Role is crystal clear to you now.
I first launched Signpost Audio is because I want to make great records and use my technical skills to help an artist shine.
Do you still have questions? No shame in that! You can contact me through this link or find me on social media @signpostaudio on Instagram where I'm always happy to answer any questions.
One thing you can do to get started with Protools - Industry Standard for mixing projects click the link below and grab it now
Grab my Protools Mixing Templete
