MIXING ESSENTIALISM

CHAPTER 1

In a world where choice has become a form of musical paralysis, filtering out the essential ingredients from the dross has become one of the most important skills a mix engineer can develop.

What would happen if, the next time you started a mix, you asked yourself: ‘What of these sounds can I mute or discard because they’re non-essential to my objective?’ Rather than spending hour upon hour working out how to squeeze all the various sounds you’re initially presented with into a mix, what would happen if right from the outset your focus was rather on what to leave out?

This is the mindset of the less-is-more approach to mixing, otherwise known as essentialism.

Like our lives, our mixes have become cluttered with a mountain of ‘pretty good’, ‘not bad’ or ‘okay’ musical elements that all too often comprise the majority of our song arrangements. These non-essential, unremarkable elements, while initially looking like they ‘might’ serve the mix by contributing something to the overall sonic outcome, in the end invariably sap our precious time and focus by demanding we find ways to make them work.

So rather than expecting from the outset that everything in an overwrought musical production should fit together – instead of convincing yourself that it’s up to you to make it all work no matter what – it’s critical early on to make some tough decisions about a mix, between what is essential to the best outcome, and which non-essential elements should be cut to avoid them demanding the most of your time and skill for the least benefit.

The Essential Few

If, for example, we were to reduce a 180-channel recording down to 90, or even 45 musical elements, what would the outcome be? Would we not have far more time and space then to get just right the sounds that matter most, or should we instead devote considerably more of our time and skill to squeezing all the mediocre elements of the production into every nook and cranny, thus compromising all the sounds, including the essential ones?

Would making the decision to eliminate the non-essential elements, open up the soundstage, or throw the baby out with the bathwater?

Well, that depends on how you determine what is essential and non-essential. The main difference with the essentialist’s approach to mixing is the understanding that time must be devoted at the beginning of the process to exploring the music – its arrangements, tones and melodic interplay. Not everything has to be determined at once, of course, but our aim is ultimately to discover what ingredients, if any, contribute little or nothing to the overall impact of our mix, or worse, conspire when added to the mix to do nothing but occupy space and compromise other elements around it. These are sounds that you might define as ‘net negatives’.

Personally, I like the somewhat simplistic approach of asking myself, ‘Do I love this sound, or loathe it?’, where everything I listen to is given a grade based on how interesting, generic, derivative or unique a sound is. I particularly find that when two or more sounds work against one another, either sonically or melodically, that only one should survive. If three melodies are trying desperately to co-exist and the result is that you can’t focus on any of them, then trying to make them fit is a classic example of saying ‘yes’ (I can make them work), when you should be saying ‘no’ (I can’t have everything).

It’s your job as a mix engineer to produce a fantastic sonic outcome that’s engaging, fascinating, and entertaining. I would assert that producing a mix that is cluttered and full of non-essential noise is far less likely to engage a listener than one that has had those ingredients removed. A mix based only on essential, incredible and impactful elements will cut through the noise of the outside world better and be far more attractive to a listener who is themselves bombarded with noise from the outside world. Clarity and essentialism cut through – non-essential, messy, ‘determined to have it all’ mixes do not.

But I Want It All

Make no mistake, several tough decisions early on while you still have a modicum of clarity makes for far more interesting mix outcomes than leaving everything in and battling to make it all fit. Applying this ‘right to choose’ to your mixes is more powerful than almost any other aspect of mixing. Making conscious decisions about what improves or harms a mix is essential to what we do. In the same way as you might choose to add compression, EQ or reverb to a sound, being able to spot the non-essential ingredients of a production and removing them is as powerful, if not more powerful, than any ‘space generator’ like a reverb or delay. Nothing creates space quite like muting a non-essential, underwhelming overdub.

‘Noise’ Reduction

If our lives were a metaphor for our mixes, then I’m confident in the general assertion that we all do too much. We all say ‘yes’ too often to far too many disparate challenges, the result being that we perform poorly at all of them. When we’re spread too thin, we can’t apply enough creative focus and energy to anything, and as a result the work we do suffers, along with our private life, our health and our happiness. There is too much pressure applied to us and the ‘noise’ generated by all the demands of these endless tasks we set ourselves generally sets us up for failure. We can’t, as they say, do everything… but some of us like to try.

The same logic applies to our mixes, except that the ‘noise’ surrounding us in this instance is literally that – noise!

Our recordings are often cluttered with layers of ‘experimental possibilities,’ combined with ‘musical options,’ ‘colours and textures’ and – one can only hope – essential ingredients. These are more often than not combined in a DAW session that typically offers little in the way of guidance or firm decision making around what is essential to the mix, debatable musically or entirely non-essential. These elements are thrown together with no real sense of what the musical outcome might be either, because we seem to have grown obsessed with everything ‘possibly’ having merit. Whether this is because we’re too busy in our own lives to make tough decisions about what’s essential and non-essential in our own music, or we’re just in the terrible unproductive habit of saying ‘yes’ to everything. We live in a world where saying ‘no’ seems risky, where cutting something from a mix seems like a loss or failure. That is the wrong mindset.

We all too often think, ‘If I cut that out, I might be muting the one thing about the mix that later becomes the hook!’ What we should be thinking instead is, ‘If I mute that underwhelming part I’m creating space for the essential ingredients to sound even better!’

Muting a sound can seem at first like a loss, but I am yet to hear a great mix where I wished there was more stuff in it getting in the way of all the sounds l love.

I’m always fascinated by the mix engineer who develops highly advanced skills around reverbs, compressors, tone and balance, but who simultaneously never develops the skill of discerning what is essential and non-essential about a mix. It’s as if this aspect of the job is itself deemed (by the mix engineer) non-essential. In truth, it’s vital. Being able to spot a non-essential or ‘net negative’ ingredient in a mix can make or break it, and while I talked about deleting 90 elements earlier on to make the (exaggerated) point, in truth it might only be one.

Perhaps the most fabled example of this process of reducing a mix down to its essential ingredients is the story behind Prince’s ‘When Doves Cry’ sessions, a song that later became Prince’s first No.1 hit. Not only did Prince cull the non-essential elements of this song during mixdown, he also included in that list of non-essential elements the bass, determining that it took up too much space in the arrangement and made the song sound too conventional. He was right to trust his instincts.

Every song production suffers from the paralysis of choice, and even the mixing process itself has the potential to add a sizeable additional layer of complexity on top. As mix engineers, it’s important that we take the time to contemplate the work in front of us, exploring how the various recorded elements of a song might come together before we start diving into the kick drum channel and pulling up an EQ.

Devote time to reminding yourself that you don’t have to deploy hundreds among the thousands of plug-ins in your obese plug-in list for the mix to be successful. Remind yourself again – because we’re prone to forget – that you don’t need to use every channel of audio that’s presented to you for the mix to be its best. You have a choice.

So filter out the mud, pan for gold, and remember that the choices you make define your mix.

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Andy Stewart owns and operates The Mill in the hills of Bass Coast Shire, Victoria, and he’s also the new Editorial Director of Mutech Media. Check it out here: mutech.media or contact Andy directly via: andy@mutech.media.