My approach to mixing: an overview.

It’s been some time since I posted an article on the music tech / record production side of things. As Cafe Kaput is as much about my hastily-written, incoherent dribblings on just about anything music-related, it’s nice to indulge that side sometimes. Also, I realise that some readers of this blog are interested in record production, many actively so.

It seems appropriate at the moment, anyway, since I have had some really nice comments and contact about the production and engineering on Music For Dieter Rams and also the Hintermass single on Ghost Box. This is great for me, as I take a fair bit of pride in that side of any record I’m involved with, so it’s good to know that those efforts are not wasted.

I’ve had a few emails asking specifically about how I got the Dieter Rams record to sound the way it does. I’ve heard the words airy, round, warm, dynamic and tight being used, which is great - those are attributes that I like in any record, whether it’s mine or not. I’ve been reading some questions about which EQ and compression I used on the record, which reverbs and so on, so I thought I would share some comments in response to this. I’m not saying I’m right, but for what it’s worth, this is how I approach it.

What did I do, production and engineering-wise?

Most of the ‘production’ is attributable to the tracking and arrangement stages. I would say that this accounts for at least 80% of the ‘sound’ of the record. Production, in my world at least, is not the same thing as engineering; in fact it’s much more closely tied in with arrangement. Production is decision making, it’s working out which sounds work together (or not) in an arrangement, which direction the record should be going in. The bigger picture. If you have a good song / idea in the first place, then get this part of the record right, the rest is just gravy.

To illustrate this, if you listen critically to the kick and the bass on Zukunft Als Konzept, you’ll notice that the bass line doesn’t play when the kick is sounding. That’s a conscious production / arrangement decision. This means the kick and bass sound play nicely together and are completely uncluttered in the arrangement. Between them, they anchor the entire low end of the track.

With regard to individual sounds, I place the importance on the source sound and getting that right (or at least, the way I want it), rather than trying to force a sound into a different sphere after the fact. Returning to that bass sound on Zukunft, I wanted it to cut through, even on small speakers, so whilst creating the sound within the sampler, I listened through a small speaker to make sure I could hear it, rather than thinking ‘ah, I’ll just fix it in the mix’, because ‘fixing it in the mix’ doesn’t work nearly as well, if at all. The source sound and the way it is used in the arrangement is all-important. Trying to make it work by over-processing in the mix won’t bring you results, just a whole load of frustration.

In terms of the engineering of the record, it’s more about what I didn’t do, than what I did. For those asking about EQ and compression specifics, I feel almost like I’m disappointing you by saying this, but the answer is ‘very little indeed’. Much like Dieter Rams’ design philosophy, my mixing maxim is also ‘less, but better’. I will do as little as possible to get the job done.

I think it partly comes down to confidence. Some mixers feel like they have to pile on plugin after plugin, processor after processor and twisting EQs like mad in order to feel like they’re achieving something that sounds ‘professional’. I do things a little differently.

I mix in Logic. Nothing special about it. I’ve been mixing this way since the 1990s, back in college. I’ve used other platforms and I’m not saying that Logic is any better than any of the others - I just know it well and can work fluently with it, to the point that it doesn’t get in the way. Knowing the system well lets me concentrate on the important stuff, i.e. the sounds I’m listening to.

When I approach a mix, I spend most of my time on the static balance; in other words I place the importance on getting the fader levels of each element in a position that sounds right. A surprising number of stems in my arrangements won’t contain any EQ adjustments. It’s a confidence thing again, but I can’t stress this enough - you have to know when to Leave Stuff Alone. When I use EQ, it is primarily subtractive and usually very gentle, as my main reason for using it is to help the sounds sit together. I will carve away at what I don’t need, rather than adding what I think I want to hear. I treat it like sculpture. It’s the same thing with compression; sometimes I use it subjectively as an audible effect, but mostly I’ll use it to help sit a sound in the mix. It’s a tool; control it, don’t fetishise it. Again, taking the kick sound in Zukunft as an example, I didn’t use any compression on it in the mix. The sound was as I wanted it to be in the first place, so I didn’t feel the need to mess with it for the sake of it.

I won’t even switch on a reverb or stick a whatever on my cowbell until I have a strong foundation mix balance. It has to sound 90% ‘there’ before I apply any sweetening, otherwise it becomes an exercise in ‘papering over the cracks’ and the end result is compromised.

I try and view my productions as a large, detailed piece of stained glass, made up of a mosaic of hundreds of tiny pieces. In other words, it’s the culmination of a lot of small mix changes that seem insignificant on their own, but together they are much greater than the sum of their parts.

Every time I mix, I learn something. Every mix is hopefully better than the last and I strive for better results. I study what other mixers are doing / have done; I listen to records that were engineered by Conny Plank or Rhett Davies and listen to how the sounds were balanced. The same goes for the work of my favourite current engineers; people like Michael Brauer, Phil Tan, Charles Dye and Dave Pensado. They would all tell me that there are no magic buttons. Getting the foundations of a good mix is all about objective, critical listening. I’m listening and learning all the time.

- Jb.