NewQuickMixingChecklist.pdf

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Your Quick Mixing Checklist
Hi friend,
I’m glad you’re here and I’m grateful
you’re trusting me to help you
improve your music. I’ve helped
thousands of home studio musicians
and project studio producers
throughout the years and I’m glad
you’re one of them.
The questions below are intended as part ideas for inspiration, part
practical tips. You can use the questions as you mix to give you ideas to try
on your music, or you can use it as a reference when you get stuck. Also,
because every multi-track is different not all of the questions and tips in this
document will be applicable to every situation. It is up to you to try out and
judge for yourself what works for you.
However you choose to use this document, it’s my hope that it comes in
handy to improve your mixes.
With that said, let’s get started.
Levels and Balance
1. Have you used the 1 dB rule to get the most balanced level across the
multi-tracks? Move each track up or down 1 dB. If the mix sounds better
try another dB until it starts sounding worse. When you can’t move a
track one dB up or down without making it worse you’re as close to the
sweet spot as you can get with only levels.
2. Is the kick drum balanced with the snare so that they are equally loud
and important in the mix?
3. Is the drum sound mixed from the close mics or do the overheads make
up most of the drum sound?
4. Do the tom tracks contribute positively or negatively to the overall drum
sound? Do they need gating to get rid of bleed?
5. Does the bass fit well with the kick drum or are they obviously clashing
when you solo them together? Do minor level changes help or hurt the
situation?
6. Do you need all the guitar tracks that are included in the multi-tracks?
7. Can you clean things up with selective muting to make things
interesting?
8. Have you panned your instruments around the stereo spectrum?
9. Do your pans create an even stereo mix where there’s about equal
“stuff” going on on each side of the mix?
10. Have you panned your instruments in mono to separate them better?
11. Have you grouped or routed your tracks together for easier level
handling and balance later in the mix?
12. Have you made sure your master isn’t overloading from the start of the
mix? If so, lower your track volume until it’s more manageable.
13. Have you listened to each instrument group critically and taken mental
notes on what you need to do to them to make them sound better?
14. Do you know each track intimately so that you can use automation to
bring out every special event in each track later down the line?
After making the best balance and static mix you can, use the following
questions when you’re thinking of new ways to mix your instruments.
Drums
15. Have you high-pass filtered all the drums to an appropriate frequency?
16. Have you added thickness to the kick drum by finding its sweet spot in
the 50 - 100 Hz range?
17. Do you need to boost the 2-4 kHz range of the kick to bring out the
beater?
18. Have you reduced all the boxiness you don’t like by cutting the
frequency range of the drums around 300 - 400 Hz?
19. Does the snare cut through the mix or does it need extra high-mids
around 2 - 4 kHz?
20. Or does the snare sizzle just a bit too much and need a cut in that area
instead?
21. If EQ doesn’t work to add weight to the snare, can you add a bit of
saturation or distortion instead?
22. Have you found the best sounding compressor for each drum by testing
each type you have available?
23. Have you doubled your kick drum, filtered out the lows and
aggressively boosted the high-mids to bring out the beater?
24. Did you use a fast attack compressor on a drum that has transients that
need to be tamed?
25. Did you time the release of the compressor in time with the song by
watching the gain reduction meter?
26. Did you play with the attack and release to control the overall shape of
the drum compression?
27. Did you boost the highs and lows while cutting the boxiness of the toms
to get a punchier tom sound?
28. Have you used parallel compression on the drums with a hard-hitting
compressor that has a fast attack, slow release, high ratio and a LOT of
gain reduction to add punch to your overall drum sound?
29. Have you added a separate reverb to your snare to add some extra
depth to your snare sound?
30. Have you EQ’d the drum reverb to make it sit better in the mix?
31. Have you chosen the right reverb sound for your particular song and
style or did you just slap something on at random?
Bass
32. Can your DI’d bass track benefit from some amp modeling to give it
more depth?
33. If you’re working with both DI and mic tracks, have you made sure both
tracks are in phase?
34. Have you found both the sweet spot of the bass and kick drum in the
lows?
35. Have you added an EQ cut in the sweet spot of the kick in the bass and
vice versa for the kick so they don’t clash in the lows?
36. Have you used a spectrum analyzer to help you find where the best
frequencies are for both the kick and bass?
37. Can a high ratio on your compressor help the overly dynamic playing
style of the bass player?
38. Have you decided whether the bass or the kick will be the king of the
low-end? EQ according to your decision.

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