Mixing_Mastering Two different Steps

Once in a while I will talk some technical creative aspects of songwriting, music production, mixing and mastering.

Common question: What is the difference between mixing and mastering?

Mixing and Mastering, are two different steps.

Mixing is the art of leveling, equalizing and affecting all the various sources from many tracks down to a stereo Mix. It is also the painter's palette where your creativity and originality come to play. I like mixing big, and go beyond the stereo field and also have the listener lose themselves in my world for a while and create an emotion from them. If they can taste the pain or feel the mood it's a great mix. Technically speaking you can have a great mix but do nothing for the listener. It's all about putting who you are into the mix. Usually a mix starts out with multi-track audio files that were created while making the song. Stems which are multi-tracked audio files consolidated (joined/bussed) into a stereo group are also examples of how you can approach a mix. The mix should also be a dynamic and flowing process where you should feel the song's story and the changes. I will go into different tricks and methods of mixing as days go by for all the music junkies, gear freaks and just plain music lovers, who want to know what goes into a song. I have been blessed with being able to make a song from scratch by playing all the instruments, recording, produce and mix/master and have it sound like a record. I will share that information with you as we keep moving.

Now a little about Mastering

Mastering is the process of taking the stereo mix and putting it in the final album-ready form.
You can do this a number of ways. After your mix is sounding like you want it to then you would normally run the stereo mix through an analog, digital or software compressor (Device that pumps a variety of frequencies or signals to the ultimate amplitude and gluing them together).
Then you would want to Limit and increase the overall song level until it reaches its destination.
I know I might be losing some of you but hang in there. You want to bring your overall levels of your final mix to industry standard. You do this for two reasons.
1. To bring all the sonic qualities out of your mix and have them clarify what it is your presenting.
2. People love loud, clear, big bottom, driving music whether it's Rock, Acoustic, or Film Scores. Listeners want to hear it!

There are many steps in mixing/mastering from equalizer balance, panning, depth, space, compression, and overall gain levels. Some multitrack mixes have 48 tracks with full band and some have only three tracks with maybe acoustic/vocal. At the end of the day it's all about what works for the song and what kind of song it is you’re working on.

This was just to let some of you know what goes into a song on the backend when the song is finally recorded and you have all the tracks. It wasn't to go deep into how to compress a kick drum or bring the snap out of a snare. It was just to give you a heads up of all the details and creativity one needs to dive into these processes.

I will go in depth on different topics of recording, arranging, production, mixing, vocal tips, and everything else that goes with the art of music creation as time goes by.

At the end it's your attention to detail and your no limit to possibilities which will craft your mixes/masters, technicality is only a blueprint and how many people out there actually follow the manual. I like to create my own rules, but I do use the rules that work for me.

C