Why I don’t concern myself with technicalities and just listen to the song instead…

I was asked a question about starting your mix the other day:

I was taught in digital mixing to start by setting all tracks to approximately -18db to -12db through clip gain to make mixing and headroom better. Did anyone else do this?

Maybe I’m just really bad at this but I don’t really concern myself with details like this.

I usually just play around the with the tracks and try to keep the volume down. Because I use groups and busses a lot I usually start worrying more about the level going out of the busses into the master rather than trying to calibrate everything to a specific setting from the start.

I’m not super technical about it to be honest.

I listen to the monitors and make sure nothing is clipping audibly.

I think that there’s a lot more headroom than we think we have so as long as it doesn’t sound distorted or clipping.

And finally, if the mastering engineer or consumer/fan/band isn’t complaining I’m happy.

I don’t know if getting wrapped up in the technicalities is such a good idea?

Or maybe I’m just too nonchalant about the details that I’m losing out on something.

However, I firmly believe in the “if it sounds good, it is good”

But I would also add one more thing:

As long as it sounds good compared to a reference or next to a commercial track.

I assume most people know how to import tracks to their DAW and at least start to mix.

I bet most people here know how to listen through their monitors and headphones and can push the faders around until it sounds good to them.

That’s the most important part I think.

Not whether it’s exactly according to a specific number on your fader.

But rather, whether it’s sounding good to you before, during and after the mix.

That’s what Mixing Strategies is.

It’s not a technical manual on how to calibrate things according to a dB number. It’s about strategies and ideas you can creatively use to make a better mix.

Check it out here:

www.mixingstrategies.com

Image by: Tsahi Levent-Levi

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