As mentioned in the previous topic about “What is mixing ? (part 1)”, we defined the mix as a three dimensional world :
- Frequency
- Dynamic
- Stereo
Of course, like in the real world, we can also take into account the time as the fourth dimension, which is absolutely right. But for now, let us focus mainly on the three first ones. Since the frequency dimension has already been covered in the previous section, let us now move on to the dynamic aspect of mixing.
For some of us, in mastering, dynamic is everything… But from a mixing perspective, what does that mean ? Well, it is fairly simple: Some instruments are more dense than others, so they need to be compressed in order to be “competitive” in the mix. Some people (a lot actually) just compress everything to the maximum in the hope that it will sound crazy loud. Well, if it sounds loud, don’t expect me to believe that it sounds right, or either close to be good.
Honestly, if you want it to sound loud, ask your mastering engineer. This blogpost will encourage you to focus on relative dynamic rather that absolute dynamic (or loudness). What I mean by that is that you should make sure that the dynamic between your instruments is making sense, no matter what the dynamic of the whole song is.
That said, as a rule of thumb, start by simply compressing elements that are not dense enough to compete with others. A convenient example of that is vocals compared to brass. The compressor has not been invented to kill the dynamic, but simply to blend the instruments together. Keep that in mind and your mixes will sound better, I promise.
Tags: Compression, dynamic, How to, Mixing