A New Method for Starting Your Mix (Without Using the Mixer)

I know it’s not great to mix with your eyes.

But sometimes you have to.

In a mix I did this week I wanted to get a Every time a loud track popped out I scrambled around the mixer trying to find it.

So I decided to do something different that I hadn’t done before:

Mixing in the Arrangement Window

Yeah, crazy innovative right? #sarcasm

I simply set all my faders to about -6, or a little bit below unity gain before I flipped over to the arrangement window. It’s really not about the exact number here. You just want to have some space in case you need to add volume to certain tracks.

I know it might not be the most original way of mixing the world but I hadn’t really done that before.

In case you haven’t either let me explain the benefits of doing it this way.

Seeing the Waveforms Helps

Seeing the waveforms on the tracks as you scroll up and down the arrangement window is incredibly useful.

You can tell what tracks will be playing next so you can be ahead of the mix, knowing exactly which fader you need to work on before the track starts playing.

Using the inspector window in Logic it’s easy to simply click on the track and raise or lower the volume of the fader to where you think it sounds good.

Of course some instruments might get lost during the first pass but it’s a quick and easy way to get a good static mix going.

So try that the next time you’re firing up your next mixing session.

It might save you a lot of time.

And if you want more strategies to help you take your mix from a static mix to a finished production, check out the Recording & Mixing Strategies bundle:

www.audio-issues.com/strategies

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