Level 3: Enhancing The Musicality
This is the level that separates the aspiring engineers from the inspired engineers.
The ability to “help the music along” is often lost on the bands and artists who need it the most — but for the vetted artists, bands, producers who hear and feel musicality — this is the real litmus test.
The engineer hears the basic mix and begins to interpret the musical intentions.
There’s a myriad of means in which musicality is expressed, interpreted, and subsequently helped along — and a great deal of it is instinct — but when you hear it you hear it.
All I can say is a great deal of this process involves automation — bringing key elements out at exacting moments.
Level 4: Understanding The “Bigger Picture”
Music does not exist in a box.
Having an appreciation for the culture of people creating and listening to that music is paramount.
This doesn’t mean strictly playing to the aesthetic of the audience, but also knowing how to manipulate their expectations. This means not only understanding what the listener wants, but also why, and what the effects of altering their expectations may be.
Level 5: Doing Everything To Serve The Song
The mixer’s role is generally understood to be the tailoring of elements within the production.
However, the mixing phase is still a production phase, and as such, there is still time for adding, removing, or changing the vision of elements.
I have done everything from adding crazy effects, muting instruments, replacing drums, overdubbing guitars, and even added vocals onto records. The cornerstone to all of this is doing so in good taste.
The other important consideration is that the mixer sometimes must sacrifice their own importance. The things which “feel” the best aren’t necessarily the things that “sound” the best.
Putting things out of balance, leaving them muddy or thin, overly reverberant or awkwardly dry, can all go towards the main goal: the success of the song. The most successful songs are the ones that are the most compelling to the listener and that doesn’t always mean perfection.
Conclusion
There are two points I’d like to make about this article.
First, all five of these “levels” correlate. They’re not in fact separate stages or concepts, but more like degrees of mastery.
To this day I am still refining my skills in levels 1 & 2, even though my main goals are mastery of levels 3, 4 & 5.
My second point is that I didn’t choose these levels randomly. I put them in order of primary importance and difficulty of mastery.
The vast majority of mixes I hear do not have proper negotiation of levels 1 & 2 — far be it from 3, 4, or 5.
It takes a great deal of study, practice, and discipline master the art of mixing, so don’t ever be afraid to revisit the foundation during your journey!
Matthew Weiss engineers from his private facility in Philadelphia, PA. A list of clients and credits are available at Weiss-Sound.com. To get a taste of The Maio Collection, the debut drum library from Matthew, check out The Maio Sampler Pack by entering your email here and pressing “Download.”
Also be sure to visit The Pro Audio Files for more great recording content. To comment or ask questions about this article, go here.