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A Collection of Mixing Tips and Suggestions
I'm bored, and so I figured I'd start a helpful thread for relative newcomers to music production that we all could add to, and so I'll start the ball rolling. Note - these are somewhat subjective and are the way I usually achieve a good mix. Take with a grain of salt if you will...
EQ Tip - High-passing the low end of each track in your mix will clear up headroom and make the mix punchier. And I know what you're thinking. "Even the kick and subbass?" Well yeah, but when it comes to subs and kicks, high-passing around 30Hz-35Hz does the trick. You can't really hear a difference unless you have really good monitors, but when it comes to the mastering stage, you'll suddenly realise that your mix can be maximised further without too much loss of dynamics.
EQ Tip - When high-passing each track other than the subbass and the kick, some people suggest high-passing until you hear the loss of the low-end and then dial it back and park it. Instead, I suggest using a low-pass filter to single out the unwanted frequencies, park it, and switch it to a high-pass filter. If you want to know what unwanted frequencies sound like when low-passing, they usually sound like unintelligible rumbling. (The kick and sub don't apply to this method as they are special cases where you only need to cut around 30Hz-35Hz and no higher, no lower.)
General Mixing Tip - Mixing a track that sound clear and punchy doesn't start in the mixer. It starts in the arrangement, note programming, and sound choices one makes. For instance, say you have a vocalist who sings in a range between C4 (middle C) and E5. When programming melodies to compliment the vocalist, avoid programming notes that land on the same notes the vocalist is singing (at least as much as possible). A good thing to study to understand this more is classical counterpoint and voice leading. https://www.artofcomposing.com/voice-leading-and-counterpoint
General Mixing Tip - If you're the type who prefers subtractive mixing (where all tracks are at the same dB level before you start pulling back faders), set all of your faders to around -15dB. If you're the type who prefers additive mixing, set your first track to -15dB. This way, your overall mix won't clip (which will make it sound like shit).
General Mixing Tip - Less is more. One of the biggest errors any producer can make is stuffing the track with too many instruments and elements. This muddies the overall product. The best way to reduce the clutter is to "search and destroy". By this, I mean play back the looped section of the track that's causing you migraines due to the constant masking and/or other issues, and start muting things. If the track starts to sound cleaner and doesn't really lose anything, don't delete the instrument. Instead, simply remove the MIDI notes in that particular section.
General Mixing Tip - However, if your overall mix sounds a bit thin/lacking like there's something missing, add a "hidden instrument" - one you can't really hear. This can be anything from a simple synth patch performing an arpeggio to a low-level pad or even a secondary bassline. The trick here is to "hide" it using a couple of different insert FX. A good EQ starting point is to shave off the low end up to about 500 Hz, shave off the high end down to about 6kHz, one narrow dip at around 5kHz at -5dB, and one narrow dip at around 3kHz at -5dB. Then adjust to taste. Next, apply a reverb to the sound. The tail should be longer (around 5 seconds for starters) since we're simulating the sound source as being far across the room from us. Adjust the wet signal to about 70% and dry to about 30% for starters. Then you can adjust these controls to taste. Lastly, dial the volume way back. When you solo the track, you can hear it, but when you listen to the whole mix, you can't hear it, but your mix will sound inexplicably fuller. Tiesto used this trick a lot on his "Just Be" album to help fill out his mixes without detracting from any of the main instruments (at least if memory serves proper).
Reverb Tip - This is something I picked up when I studied Electroacoustic music and Spatialisation tactics back in college. You can potentially add reverb to just about every element in a mix, although I'd suggest NOT adding it to the kick drum and subbass if producing dance music. The purpose of a reverb isn't to "make trance leads sound super cool". It's to simulate acoustic space.
For example, if you want a dubstep mid bass to sound really "in-your-face", add a touch of reverb. Sure it sounds counterintuitive at first, but make sure the reverb tail is super short (I'm talking less than a half of a second) to simulate a small drum room rather than a friggin cathedral. Shave off the low-end and high-end of the reverb (most reverbs have low pass and high pass knobs already installed), and make sure your dry signal is 100% and the wet signal less than 10%. If your reverb has a gating function, you can use that too. (A gated reverb is commonly heard on the snare drums in many 1980s Rock n Roll records). If your reverb has an actual EQ section, also make a couple of dips at 3kHz and 5kHz to help "hide" it better.
General Mixing Tip - Always check your mix in mono from time to time. Many listening systems these days will play back your track in stereo, but there are often situations where a mix can only be played back in mono (such as at a club, over a cheap radio, or even from your friend's Android phone speaker). Make sure there aren't two conflicting frequencies cancelling each other out (especially if one of the instruments is using a chorus effect).
EDM/Dance Music Mixing Tip - Always low-pass your overall mix to check the bass frequencies to make sure they aren't cancelling each other out. Often times, phase cancellation can occur between a kick drum and a subbass. If this is happening, consider reprogramming the notes of the subbass to compliment the kick rather than conflict with it.
Sidechain Compression Tip - Sidechaining is often a "dirty word" associated with that pumping effect you hear in dance music. However, sidechaining can also be used more as a subtle way to allow your main elements to be more prominent in a mix. Does your vocal sound a bit drowned out? Use the main vocal as a sidechain input to mildly duck the other instruments (say around a -2dB reduction). You won't necessarily hear the ducking effect, but your vocals will certainly sound a lot cleaner. It's also usually better to duck each instrument individually rather than an entire buss of instruments. If there's still a masking conflict between the vocal and one particular instrument, consider removing the instrument's MIDI notes from that particular section. There, no more conflict, lol.
Mastering Tip - Please don't over-squash your mix. 
-9 LuFS should be loud enough if you're shooting for a balance between a loud master that still sounds dynamic.
Man I've spent too much time on this. If any of you out there have additional tips and suggestions to add, be sure to add them below. 
Comments
Thanks for this @jwmmakerofmusic. Sounds like you know what you're talking about. Very interesting concepts ( even tho I only understood 50%!)
Guilty as charged, lol...
Not necessarily true mate...
https://www.facebook.com/100000993944035/posts/2046307352079043/
My usual techniques applied. Then again, I suppose one does need to know what they're doing. If that sub and kick were high passed around 100hz, then the mix would sound like shit (and not just due to Facebook's severe sound quality reduction).
Acoustic genres definitely have other types of production guidelines to follow, such as choosing proper mics to get the best sound (rather than choosing the best samples and patches), mixing dry signals with overheads (which includes phase adjustments to fix phase cancellations), knowing how to buss your tracks and "glue" them with NY compression, surgical EQing, overdubbing, etc. Bruce Swedien was a bit of a god at this sort of thing.
Still, it is of my opinion that recording the best takes, proper miking, voice leading/counterpoint as well as SUBTLE sidechain compression are still major factors in nailing a solid acoustic mix.
At least in my own workflow. I admit I'm not as well practiced in non-electronic genres but do have some past experience for which I was paid. Auria paired with a proper portable mixing desk are perfect for multitrack recording on the go.
Lol, bad dog! That's why this thread is titled "suggestions and tips". Subjective, grain of salt, based on personal workflow and all that. More of a springboard thread made by a bored sozzled git like me rather than some pretentious "this is the way everyone should do it and there are no other workflows" drivel. Best to avoid that latter sort.
I suppose I aimed this more towards beginners/intermediates rather than more seasoned types.
I don't know really. Don't mind me.
@jwmmakerofmusic
Great overview of most important things ! Saved this thread to bookmarks - will refer to it all people who will be asking for mixing tips !
Few important points which should be written with golden letters into stone !
This !! Doing this for years (with small exeption - not for kick/bass at all, i rather solve potential issues here in sound design phase, or i leave it for mastering guy. Here is big chance you make things worse, especially if you don't use very good phase linear EQ or you do use resonant filter with thumb on cutoff frequency)
This is probably MOST IMPORTANT thing you wrote. This is true alpha and omega of clean mix !
I see this all the time, for years - people put many melodies into same arrangement space, and then they are trying fix conflicts by EQs and compressors instead of for example transposing concurrent melody octave up or down ... Arrangement in first place, only theb mixing !
Ha ha yes, just having a bit of fun too.
They are top tips for playing around with and have probably used most of them at some point. But a good deal of the fun with these creative larks is in breaking the rules as well.
Good work, keep, em coming.
Let me elaborate on your spatialization tip. I really think this is missing often from electronic music. Not that Im saying all songs need it, but I do think most would benefit.
From a blog post I did for a local studio:
2D Sound in a 1D System
Most humans live in three dimensional space - up/down, left/right, front/back. Typical audio systems have two channels - left/right. And you can think of our ears as being two left and right inputs.
If we only have one dimensional hearing, how can we hear in two dimensions? If you were in a completely anechoic space, a space with no reflections, it would be much harder. (Interestingly, artificial rooms like this make people anxious and even hallucinate- google “anechoic Orfield Labs”).
In natural spaces, however, we do perceive two dimensions. Left/right is easy. Tap something to your left, the sound reaches your left ear before your right ear, is louder, and isn’t filtered by as much of your head.
Near/far is more complicated. In short, we perceive it through environmental clues.
If you have ever looked at a reverb pedal or plugin, you may know the terms pre-delay, dampening, mix, time. But let's examine where those come from. Many people turn these knobs and aren’t clear on how they relate to perception of distance. Understanding this can help you use these effects yourself or in critically listening when working with an engineer.
First, a brief history of reverb.
Humans long enjoyed the natural reverb characteristics of caves, cathedrals, and dungeons. Our first artificial ‘analog’ reverb units ran electricity through springs or plates. Spring reverbs are still quite popular in guitar amps; think of the iconic surf reverb sound. Digital reverbs have come much closer to simulating natural spaces. These developments are especially helpful to many of us in metropolitan areas like D.C. where room space is at a premium, but are relevant considerations any time your recording includes overdubs, direct ins, or close micing.
I tend to think of using reverb in two ways - to simulate a natural room or as a special effect. As a special effect, I might use a huge wash of reverb on guitar in place of a synthesizer pad. Or I might use a reverse reverb on a track - a sound that doesn’t occur in nature.
With special effects, there are absolutely no rules. In simulating a natural space, some understanding is helpful.
Before we get to effects, you want to consider how you will record things. If you have a nice sounding room like Blue Room Studios, you might want to put the microphones farther away to capture more of the room’s natural reverb. On the other hand, you might want to close mic them because some elements, e.g. a synth, might be overdubbed directly, or you might want to close mic things for isolation. There, you might want the freedom to add similar reverb to each element to ‘glue’ the mix later. Granted, you can have some room mics on the drums and dial in reverb on the overdubs that matches it, but this takes skill and practice and is hard to get perfect.
With that background, here are the key parameters that help us perceive distance, our second
Panning
The farther something is from you, the smaller the difference is between any left or right signals. Image a room 20 meter long room. You are facing the drums. The low tom is on the left, hi hat on the right. If you are at the far end, the angles to your ears may only be a few degrees. If you move the drums to a meter in front of you, they may be at 45 degree angles to your ears, making it much more obvious which is to the left and right.
So anything intended to be far away should be panned more to the center. Close items can be panned anywhere, those are just perceived as being to your left or right.
Pre-Delay
Imagine again you are in the back of a room, a singer is in the middle. When they sing, the sound of their voice will go straight to your head. That is the ‘dry’ signal. Their voice is also radiating in multiple directions, off the walls, the ceiling, and the bass player’s vinyl pants.
The pre-delay parameter adjusts the delay between the dry signal hitting you and the wall or ceiling reflections. If the singer is farther back in the room, some of the reflections would hit you much closer in time to the dry signal. If a guitar amp intended to be at the far wall, you might use a pre-delay of near zero.
If you are trying to match overdubs or a specific hypothetical room, note that three milliseconds is about 1 meter.
Reverb Mix or Wet/Dry- Far away sources tend to have more reverb overall. There is more opportunity for more reflections on the way from the source to you. In some scenarios it can even mask the dry signal - remember the way it sounded when you locked your accordion player in the basement? Raise the reverb mix to move items farther away.
Equalization or Damping- High frequencies get absorbed more easily than low frequencies. So things that are farther away will have a high frequency cut or added dampening. It is difficult to give a default starting point here. I may use anything from 1000Hz to 6000Hz, but that is as much subjective taste as near-far positioning as different surfaces absorb frequencies at different rates.
At the other end of the frequency spectrum, you tend to have a tighter window of what is cut. A roll off up to 200Hz is not unusual.
Decay Time or Room Size - Things will tend to be perceived as farther away if the virtual room is larger. This one is more obvious, but note that if you are trying to ‘glue’ your mix, having a long decay on some tracks and a short one on another will sound unnatural. A slight variation though just makes the room sound irregularly shaped. Remembering regarding pre-delay that three milliseconds is about a meter, note that big concert halls may have just 2 seconds of decay.
My advice having hopefully gained some understanding of these psychoacoustics, is to pay attention to these factors in your natural environment.
My book on eq
Frequency Consciousness..not a new yoga fad, but it should be.
One key reason that a lot of mixes suffer from being ‘muddy’ is that many of our common instruments have most of their power in a relatively limited frequency range.
The Fundamentals
A key concept is note fundamentals versus harmonics.
The 'fundamental' frequency, the lowest resonance, the note you hit, e.g. a low e of a guitar is 82 Hz and bass, 41 Hz. This is is what we refer to casually as the 'note.' Yet if you run these into a spectrometer, you can see even one string produces sound across the spectrum.
If we add a distortion pedal, you will see a new crop of upper frequencies. You wojld see the same shift with a synthesizer starting with a sine, triangle, and then to other wave forms.
The dirtier sounds are in part adding upper frequencies, invading the space of instruments with higher fundamentals.
Dynamic Range
Second, to understand the context that your frequencies will fit onto a recording, first think about dynamic range. Maybe you are a guitar player and are already thinking, “Yeah Mr. Multicellular is just gonna tell me to turn down my bass. Soundman/woman keeps telling me that.” Well, 90% of the time I see live bands it is a problem, yes, the bass frequencies of the guitar are covering up the bass guitar or keys. So yes I probably would tell you that.
The more sophisticated answer in mixing however takes into account dynamic range. When you record, what you put into the box will be compressed. The loudest bits will be pushed down. It will often be compressed dramatically and with modern tools, this will not even be obvious. Without getting into more complicated physics explanations, this should tell you that you have much more dynamic range to work with live. There is more room for those bassy parts of your guitar signal. The issue is that guitar players should turn the bass knob down 2 or so notches live and 4 notches for recording, but we will come back to that.
Bottom line, you have less dynamic range to work with on a recording so how much your frequencies are fighting for space makes a more dramatic difference.
The Instruments
All instruments have frequencies, we think of an ordered set of those as being notes, but percussion instruments have frequencies – but they are complex enough that it is hard to find the note.
To elaborate on why you may not hear the bass over the guitar, or kick over the bass, beyond the mix levels, there is 'masking' – yes like the tape. One sound covers another up. The interesting thing about masking is that it is as much a perceptual thing as physical. The idiom “you could hear a pin drop” speaks to the perception of masking. In a sonic space with more than one thing hitting at the same time, even though the masked sound is quite loud, we lose awareness of it because of relative volumes. This effect is much greater when the frequencies are close together - the low bass notes are not going to cover up the hi hat.
Those ideas in mind, lets look at how bunched up we are.
Low note/string (Hz) Highest typical note/string
Bass
41 198 (12th fret of G)
Bass Vox
82 329
Guitar
82 659 (12th fret of E)
Tenor Vox
131 523
Soprano Vox
262 1047
Drums
EVERYWHERE
Keys
Could be anywhere. Usually same as bass/guitar.
These are the fundamentals, but most of your frequency content overlaps when you introduce harmonics.
So what is a now frequency conscious person to do?
There is no one-size fits all here, it depends on the type of music and the particular song. I will even temper my one specific point of advice above about turning the bass knob down on guitar with an example. Modern metal, which I am as guilty as the next of loving, is exemplified by a 'scooped' mid-range tone – think Pantera or Metallica. Contrast that with much of Slayer though, plenty of mid range on tap – still heavy.
But again, with the caveat that things are song/style dependent, here are some specific techniques in arrangement and gear use that are underutilized:
* Again, check that that awesome bass knob on 11 that sounds awesome (it does) on your guitar actually comes through when you're on stage or recording demos/practice tracks.
* Use the 'Low Cut' switch on your mixer. You may note it is usually at 75 or 80 Hz. Again, only the drums, bass, and keys should be down there.
* If you are using a lot of delay or reverb, it may have a low cut. Chances are you will barely notice that is cut, even when cut dramatically, but can clean up the mix a lot.
* If you're gonna scoop the mids, scoop lower. The 'mid' knobs on guitar or bass amps really don't follow much of a standard; I find mids that seem to peak from 300 to 1000Hz! If you have a low mid/high mid or a parametric EQ option, look again at figure 2, or look up whatever instrument you play. If you can cut low mids without sacrificing your tone, say 200 to 500 Hz, good. The sound engineer is going to cut them in the mix anyway.
* Do you really need to be playing the root all the time if the bass player is?
When the vocals are in, switch your pickup setting or simply play closer to the neck for a less trebly tone that stomps all over the 1000+ Hz range we mostly hear consonants in.
* Play quieter when other similar frequency parts are the focus. Some guitar players and drummer will need to read this twice – play quiet does not compute.
* When on keys, you have the easiest time switching octaves, try it. If it doesn't work, tell your bandmates to read this and get their heads out of the mud.
* On drums, take a look at the frequency response of your kit with an analyzer. The one above in Figure 1 is by Melda and is free. A snappy kick beater side sound is often focused around 2000 Hz. Watch an analyzer live and see how widely different your cymbals and even drums can peak depending on where you hit them.
http://innerportalstudio.com/articles/Mixdowns.pdf
http://innerportalstudio.com/articles/Mastering.pdf
http://innerportalstudio.com/articles/DynamicsControl.pdf
http://innerportalstudio.com/articles/CreatingSpace.pdf
Sorry for links, easier than retyping it all. Great idea for a thread.
little helper..
I like reading the posts on this Twitter account: https://twitter.com/MgntcSound
@Multicellular as far I understand it, vibrations or sound waves are sent through a spring or plate in an analogue reverb. Not electricity.
Before filtering out all the low-end of instruments, try using a modest shelf instead. And after you find the crossover point while in solo mode, switch it back to the full mix while reducing the bass.
You are both correct but "soundwaves" are avoided as much as possible.
1) electrical waves are sent to a transducer (a coil around a magnet usually like a speaker's driver component) which causes the plate/springs to vibrate and add their natural resonating qualities.
2) pickups (recording electro-mechanical disturbances nearby) are close to the plate/springs to re-record the plate/spring sounds with added reverberations. This enhanced sound is now available to mix in with the original dry signal as an effect.
It's the mechanical vibrations of the plate/springs that are recorded with electro-magnetic vibrations so there aren't any sound waves (traveling in air) involved in these reverb units but I'm sure they are susceptible to feedback from the powered speakers nearby.
Thanks @McDtracy it can be quite interesting to understand how the sound is effected. I remember you could get a satisfying noise by kicking the thing.
mechanical vibrations - which is actually exactly what soundwaves are
)) Soundwaves does’t spread just in air... actually they are moving lot faster in metal material than in air 
I play guitar, and I’m surprised how bad I have to make it sound if I want it to sound good in the mix. When I solo the guitar track, it can sound pretty thin. In the mix, the “thin” guitar bites, and occupies the space I cut from the other Instruments.
Another tip. Put your mix on your iPhone and listen to it on your EarPods while you walk. You’ll soon notice problems in the mix, and even in the arrangement. I have come up with some of my best ideas for song parts this way. Sometimes I even find myself humming a missing part. It’s a lot better than auditioning the same old loops over and over.
@jwmmakerofmusic great thread! I find it useful to read through something like this every now and then as it’s easy to forget techniques. Sometimes you understand them on a deeper level as your experience grows.
Interestingly, when I was doing the mixdown and mastering of Electric Ian in the summer of 2018, I intentionally got rid of as much bass and low-end as I could. It isn’t dance music, it’s pop, and I really intended a thin and airy (or in some songs, a denser, yet airy) lightweight and ‘electrified’ feel. Intentionally killing almost all of the bass was quite a refreshing approach for me. I wanted the energy to be mostly what you can hear on a transistor radio or Dansette record player, or the remains of what you can hear in a train or vehicle.
Understanding of 50% is fine, typical I might add. With this much headroom (Max), flow-thru filtering and mastering, you actually understand about 93% give or take 2%, depending on resolution conformity and heliotypical phase detractors.
@breezee, is that dry or wet, cause at 70 things start getting a little dry.