Stop Soloing and Start Muting

One common way to mix is to start soloing the drums, mixing them until they sound right. Then you hit the solo button on the bass and start fitting it into the drum track.

You’ll keep soloing each track on top of each other until everything is solo’d together, at which point you stop soloing everything because everything is basically on at this point.

But even if you carefully solo each part and make it sound perfect it somehow doesn’t fit in the context of the mix.

Solo Overload

I bet you’ve had a similar situation.

“If I only solo this snare drum for a quick second and mix it just the way I like, it’ll sound awesome with everything else”.

Sadly, sometimes the opposite is true.

A solo’d super-vocal will sound glued onto the backing track. The snare will clash with the rest of the drums.

Each instrument will sound GREAT!

In solo.

Do the Opposite

What if I told you there was another way?

Instead of soloing to hear things in isolation, start muting to hear what falls out.

It’ll make a big difference in how you perceive importance of every instrument in context with the mix.

And that’s what’s so important. Everything in isolation can sound great, but if it ain’t working in the mix, it ain’t workin’ at all!

It reminds me of this Stevie Wonder song. We had the multi-tracks to it so we could hear exactly how each instrument was mixed.

Man were we surprised!

The song sounded amazing, as you would think with a Stevie Wonder song, but when you solo’d each instrument they sounded awful!

There was something about the instruments working together to create an amazing sound. It had nothing to do with the individual instruments and all to do with the mix as a whole.

And that’s what I teach you with Recording & Mixing Strategies. I teach you a whole game-plan from start to finish that takes everything into account.

Whether you’re looking to start a studio, record an album or mix a song, the Strategies bundle teaches you a whole new approach to production.

Grab it here:

www.audio-issues.com/strategies

Image by: retratopraiaia

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About Audio Issues and Björgvin Benediktsson

We help musicians transform their recordings into radio-ready and release-worthy records they’re proud to release.

We do this by offering simple and practical music production and success skills they can use immediately to level themselves up – while rejecting negativity and gear-shaming from the industry. A rising tide floats all boats and the ocean is big enough for all of us to surf the sound waves.

Björgvin’s step-by-step mixing process has helped thousands of musicians confidently mix their music from their home studios. If you’d like to join them, check out the best-selling book Step By Step Mixing: How To Create Great Mixes Using Only 5 Plug-ins right here.