Originally Posted By: floyd jane
START your mix with DRUMS. Get them LOUD. Then add your bass. Get it to play nicely with your drums. Then add your vocal. You can have had all your other instruments involved earlier to track your vocals... but after that, do your FIRST FULL MIX with just DRUM, BASS and VOCAL. THAT should sound really good. Then add those other things - guitars, piano, mandolin, strings... UNDER that basic track of DRUMS-BASS-VOCAL. Add them one at a time. Let them "add some flavor", not "take over". Drums, bass and vocal should rule.

floyd,

I've never tried the above approach before! I'll definitely give it a shot with the present song I'm working on. Thank you for taking time to write your thoughts down.

For what it's worth, part of my plan of attack with mixing is that I always listen to tracks in pairs to make sure that there are no audio conflicts that need resolving. For example: bass + drums; bass + guitar 1; bass + piano; guitar 1 + piano; etc. While the above takes a little time, I find that it's time well spent. Also, low frequency audio clashes such as those that can occur between bass and drums, and piano (or guitar) and bass, can seriously impact the overall quality of the arrangement/production.

Regards,
Noel

P.S. I think I'm one of those 1979 guys (maybe earlier even)!

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