Evaluating The Many
Muting a full group of channels is equally beneficial in assisting with volume and EQ work. Muting an individual channel might not be enough to help fix a problem.
In some cases, the problem exists across channels. By pulling out a group of channels, the source of the problem can be found. Group muting enables focusing on larger areas of the mix such as low end, guitars, and backing vocals.
My standard console configuration includes five mix groups: guitars, vocals, piano/keyboards, drums, and low end (kick drum and bass). Pulling out the low end and the keys groups, one hears the primary sounds of guitars and vocals that drive most songs.
Any time a guitar-centric mix isn’t coming together, drop all groups except the guitars and vocals. As long as those two sound good, the others can be reintroduced, one group at a time, to identify the problem area – usually it’s in the overall backing vocals or the overall drum mix.
Drum group muting can work in two different ways; it depends on the reason for the muting. Need to hear the difference in the mix with and without the drums? Use a single group mute. Need to fix a problem within the drum mix? Use the group concept but apply it to the channel level as follows.
Start by muting all of the drum channels, leaving the group level un-muted. Listen to the mix without the drums. Next, introduce the kick and consider how it sits in the mix. Continue through all of the drum kit pieces from the low-end kick up to the highest-pitched tom and then the snare. Optionally, add the snare after the kick and then work through the toms. Finally, add in the cymbals.
Additional Concepts
Another method for tweaking drums, rather than muting, is boosting the volume of the kit piece, adjusting the EQ, then lowering it back to the proper volume. The benefit of the mute method is allowing the brain to imagine what it wants to hear and then mixing to match that sound.
Sound techs working with the same band all of the time should have those sounds imprinted in their heads and can use either (or both) method(s). To them, I suggest giving the mute mix concept a try.
Muting groups also helps pinpoint a channel problem. For instance, a low-end frequency problem due to a bad keyboard EQ can be narrowed down to the keys by dropping out the low-end group containing the drums and bass. In this case, the low-end from the keyboard would stand out in the remaining mix.
The process of group-mute mixing enables one to identify a volume or EQ problem related to a group of channels. It also speeds up the investigation into a single channel-related problem by quickly eliminating many channels at once. Meanwhile, the process of channel-level mute mixing enables one to easily correct volume and EQ problems. It also leads to an overall mix improvement.
In contrast with mixing paint, audio mixing allows us to mix and re-mix as many colors as we want until we find the right combination. Dr. Frankenstein created a monster in his lab, but he did something far more interesting: he gave his creation life. I’ll let you draw the parallels.
Chris Huff is a long-time practitioner of church sound and writes at Behind The Mixer (www.behindthemixer.com), covering topics ranging from audio fundamentals to dealing with musicians – and everything in between.