Keeping Your Music Mixes Under Control

A few months ago I got a call from a colleague of mine that I had done instrumental tracks for over the years. He was in the process of releasing a CD. Some of the songs he wanted to release were musically arranged by me. His intention was to add a few new elements to the songs, then remix and master them before releasing them.

Most of the original songs were multi-tracked using 16 track ADATs about 12 years ago. It turns out that he had the original multi-track versions of all the songs, except one for which he only had a 2-track mix. He needed to know if by chance I had copies of the ADATs for that particular song; I did not. It was a beautiful song, except that the mix was a bit lacking, with the main problems being the bass guitar and rim shot were barely audible. Naturally, with the original ADATs he could fix this and any other problems in the song with a simple remix.

To make a long story short, we ended up uploading the 2-track into Pro Tools and doubling the rim shot with another one from a drum machine; by-hand. As for the bass guitar issue, we were able to make a few EQ adjustments in the mastering process to make it a little more audible. Bottom line: we were able to improve upon the original mix a little, but not as much as either of us would've liked.

We obviously didn't have a lot of options in the above scenario. But believe it or not, I see people everyday choosing to use 2-track instrumentals in their productions. They then upload the 2-track into a DAW program and continue production, laying vocals and other tracks. This is a mistake for so many reasons and on so many levels. The most obvious problem with this will definitely reveal its ugly head by the time you start trying to mix the song:

1. No control over volume levels for each instrument.

2. Little control over equalization; because all the instruments are 'grouped' together, any adjustment you make affects every instrument to some degree.

3. Any effects you try to plug-in (reverb, delay, chorus, echo, etc.) will affect every instrument.

If the bass is muddy, rolling off the low frequency EQ will start to thin out the entire music mix. If the cymbals or hi hats are too loud or 'tinny', trimming down the high frequencies will make other instruments sound dull and flat.

Moral of the story: If you're starting production on a song from scratch, try to keep each and every sound and element in your song on separate tracks all the way up to the mixing phase. If you must bounce any sounds together make sure the sounds are similar to each other (never put a bass and a hi hat on the same track!). And by all means avoid 2-tracking your entire music mix.