brettworks

(Image: Fons Heijnsbroek)

Quick mixes are brief sessions devoted to getting a track’s parts into a rough balance of volume, frequency, panning, texture-tone color, and presence. The track has been finished for a while and now you return to it with fresh ears to notice all that’s wrong. The voices sound dull and need a high shelf boost, the bass is weak, the percussion is too sharp and needs finessing, the chords aren’t mono enough. Such details missing their mark contributes to the mix lacking energy, equilibrium, and cohesiveness. A quick mix makes quick work of such problems. Three heuristics may help us proceed. First, do just enough to improve what is audibly off and get the parts blending in a more naturally compelling way. Second, slightly exaggerate what sounds good and then, if needed, dial down that level a bit. Make the dull voices shine; if the bass can’t be felt, make it forcibly so; if the percussion is too sharp make it way gentler. Finally, trust your ears to recognize the incremental differences between what feels off and what feels musical. Through your careful listening and intuitively precise adjustments a quick mix recalibrates a track to make the music more in tune with itself.