Mixing and Mastering: Difference between revisions

To mix correctly, speakers or '''headphones''' that provide an even listening experience are required. Many will sound wildly different from one another, but professional and critical listening models will be calibrated properly. For a sound device to be appropriate for mixing, it must have a flat frequency response. This means that the device will produce an equally loud sound regardless of how high are low pitched the signal it receives is. Listening to music with speakers that provide extra bass sacrifices clarity elsewhere, and gives you an experience that is skewed toward those frequencies. It is long debated whether headphones or speakers are better for mixing; that will not be addressed here.

=== Headphones OS Creators Use ===

A well-mixed song allows the listener to easily hear the parts that different instruments are playing, without blasting the volume or causing discomfort.

 

Panning can be used to separate elements to make the mix a higher quality due to the separation of certain elements like the kick and bass which often share frequencies especially low to low mid-range. This could cause an effect called masking which should be avoided. This can happen when an instrument like a bass is louder than other instruments around its frequency spectrum and causes the kick to be muddled especially when the volume is louder on the bass.

 

Ideally keeping instruments below a level where clipping or digital distortion prevents digital distortions that you would not necessarily want in a mix or recording. Use your ears to tell whether or not the instruments are clipping or not.

Volume is how loud the viewers are listening to the sequence.