This Isn't a Mix Problem

Introduction

Spending days or weeks on a mix — trying your absolute best, working your absolute hardest, only to be disappointed by the results — can be a real gut punch. More than that, for many producers, it can actually make them feel depressed. This is not an overstatement.

From the way mixing is described and taught, through to the marketing tactics of plugin developers, there is a common perception among producers that mixing is a scientific, genius-level activity that requires superhuman ability. It is not.

For this reason, many producers attribute their difficulty with mixing — and the emotional consequence of that difficulty — to a lack of skill or ability. Or even a lack of plugins. They think: if I’m finding this so hard, I either must be terrible at mixing, or I’m missing some fundamental skill or tool.

In many cases, neither is the real problem. The problem stems not from them, but from the music.

This is a production problem

If you watch a top-tier mixer like CLA mix a record, you’ll notice how easy they can make it look. A band of EQ here. A fader adjustment there. Pan one sound here, pan another one there. A touch of compression. A splash of reverb. There is no magic involved — just lots of small moves. The kind of moves that producers do themselves in the course of making a record.

The reason why mixing — for them — requires such small, simple moves is because the record they are mixing already sounds great. Before CLA even starts mixing, the AAA production he’s working on already sounds more polished than an amateur production whose producer has spent three weeks mixing it. Which is why when CLA gets his hands on it, all that’s required is polish. He’s enhancing it, not correcting it.

That’s why the moves are small. And, in large part, that’s why it looks easy.

For new mixers finding mixing excruciatingly difficult, the opposite is usually true. Instead of applying basic moves to enhance, they find themselves applying drastic moves to correct. It’s not a polishing job. It’s a rescue job.

Rescue from what? The problems are myriad.

The mix started ages ago

There is a simple truth that appears to be almost entirely absent from music production discourse: mixing isn’t a step you take after you’ve finished the production. Whether you know it or not, mixing begins the moment you combine two sounds in a record.

Which means the challenges you face during a mix are often born out of decisions that were made much earlier, during the writing and production processes. When producers find mixing excruciating, the problem almost always stems from there.

Badly selected samples that don’t gel well with each other. Overly long reverbs that suck the air out of the mix. Too many lines written in the same register. A lack of separation between the elements as a result of poor arrangement. Vocals recorded in a bad room, on a cheap mic, packed full of horrible resonance that’s continually moving and almost impossible to eradicate.

These are the kinds of problems that make a mix feel impossible, and they’re among the hardest problems to deal with. They will cause havoc for any mixing engineer, regardless of ability.

The double whammy

For new producers and new mixers, though, the challenge these kinds of problems present is doubly hard: you’ve got the hardest problems to deal with, but also the least experience.

It’s a double whammy.

This double whammy is why mixing can hit you so hard emotionally. We have to recognise that, so we don’t turn a production problem into a judgement on ourselves.

This isn’t a mix problem

The good news is, this isn’t unfixable.

There’s no shortcut to experience — that comes with time. But if we’re producing our own music, we can absolutely control the problems we give ourselves.

What’s required is a reframe.

When you’re finding a mix brutal, instead of asking:

“Why am I so bad at this?”

Ask yourself:

“What is it about the production that’s making this impossible to mix in the first place?”

Because most of the time, this isn’t a mix problem. It’s a production problem. And once we fix that, mixing starts to feel the way it’s supposed to feel: totally achievable.

And actually? Enjoyable.