Mixing and Mastering
Mixing and Mastering is the process of tweaking attributes of sounds within music to make it sound clear and organized. This skill is essential to make music regardless of which medium is used to create it. In Online Sequencer, limited tools are available for mixing, but good results are still possible, even with complex and layered songs. Here, most mixing is accomplished through the instrument settings, using volume, panning, equalizer, and reverb. Others like detuning and distortion are useful too but are not always necessary.
Hardware
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
- Alex!: Audio Technica ATH-M50x
- Ashduino101: Audio Technica ATH-M40x
- Benvisions: Sony WH-1000XM5
- Calico: Audio Technica ATH-M40x
- Cool172: Beyerdynamic DT-770 Pro 80ohm
- Crumthecrumb: Anything that works
- Jacob_: Sennheiser HD 558/650
- Liam: AKG K712 Pro
- Lopyt: Kali LP-6
- Lumien: AKG K240 Studio
- Syntax: Beyerdynamic DT-770 Pro
Another important thing that is useful in music production is the Audio Interface. It acts as another way to plug your headphones or speakers into the computer, and can also be used to plug in and record instruments or microphones. If your computer's audio output is noisy or doesn't sound good, using an audio interface is necessary. Some headphones can also require amps or audio interfaces to sound correct. An audio interface is not necessary if the audio output on your device is already good, and you aren't plugging in audio inputs.
Creating Clarity in Music
A well-mixed song allows the listener to easily hear the parts that different instruments are playing, without blasting the volume or causing discomfort.
Ideally, it's good to find the right balance between no reverb vs. full reverb. Often it's not about knowing values but using your ears to determine whether or not the mix of the reverb is well used or not.
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
Volume is how loud the viewers are listening to the sequence.