So covid got you all quarantined and you recorded some tracks and now its time to mix em? Don't sweat it, here are some tips to set up your sessions to prepare to mix.
First and foremost the room you mix in will have a very large impact on the tonal balance of the final mix. If possible invest in some room treatment to control some of the low end in your mix. If you are mixing on headphones this is not much as an issue but mixing on headphones often doesn't translate as well as using monitors.
Which leads to my second tip- watch the sound level. Mixing at loud volumes will tire out your ears causing which cause them to naturally compress sounds. Keeping monitoring levels lower will help prolong your session and allow you to get more done.
Proper gain staging is the first step. Before adjusting any eq or adding any changes to the tracks, take a listen.
Make changes to clip gain to adjust levels to get an overall well balanced mix. Then try to seat things with eq,compression etc. Proper gain staging will allow all your plugins, outboard gear and mix busses to operate in the "sweet spot".
Lastly, dont forget the 2 buss processing. Every mix we do at the noise floor has a "go to" chain for 2 buss processing. Generally its eq,buss compressors but you can treat your master bus how you like to achieve a polished mix.
There are so many mix tips available everywhere but like anything in life practice is the best tip anyone could give. We are always here to help and would be happy to answer any questions or even give a listen to your mix and help with feedback. Drop us a line !