Greetings!

Nice job creating the song tracks. It is a very interesting song to listen to. I do not have much music production experience but enjoy active listening. So my thoughts may provide more ideas than techniques.

I do not have any idea how you approached mixing the song but I would have approached the song as a mono mix. I would have worked on separating the tracks by arrangement and frequency. Arrangement by having different backing instruments silent while others perform fills so two instruments don't try to exist in the same aural space at the same time. Frequency by letting each instrument reside mostly within a frequency range then subtract frequencies outside the instrument range. Both tasks complement the other and minimize the potential for things to clash. Visualize all the instruments (including the vocalist) stacked one on top of the other; bass drum and bass on the bottom, cymbals at the top and everything else in between. When one instrument is removed from the pile (even for a few beats)replace it with another instrument.

A really good way to approach this is to set all tracks at 0dbFS and your main output at a comfortable listening level then pull all track faders down. Raise one fader until you can just barely hear the track. Set an equalizer for narrow frequency (high Q), high gain and sweep across the frequency band to identify the frequency range of what you heard and thus what frequency range is most important for that track. That frequency range belongs to that track! Reset the EQ to normal then start subtractive EQ to remove all the frequencies that are not important to the track. When you've removed as much frequencies as you can set the track volume level to 0dbFS. Repeat with the next track.

Once you've finished with all tracks, you should have a static mono mix with all track faders set at 0dbFS, none of the tracks should clash with the others and the overall volume level of the mix should be pleasing. Also realize getting to this point is most likely 90 - 95 percent of the work in mixing.

Now you can pan the tracks however you want and they should not clash! Use delay and effects to add interest. If you have a track panned 50 percent right then you can place an effect or delay using the same frequency space 50 percent left for interest. As you add effects you will need to watch your output volume level since the additional material will add gain.


Jim Fogle - 2025 BiaB (Build 1128) RB (Build 5) - Ultra+ PAK
DAWs: Cakewalk Sonar - Standalone: Zoom MRS-8
Laptop: i3 Win 10, 8GB ram 500GB HDD
Desktop: i7 Win 11, 12GB ram 256GB SSD, 4 TB HDD
Music at: https://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home