Balanced mixes are boring (do this instead)

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[@TrevBarnes]

“Produce music as if mixing does not exist”. As casual as you mentioned that, that hit so deeply. I take pride in my production skills, but I find myself saying a lot “it’ll sound better when I get to mixing”. When in reality, if I didn’t get it exactly right at the source, all of my mental RAM goes right into mixing that. Needed to hear that, thanks man! I try to make similar content to you, very inspired by the philosophy of making music. Love the perspective you bring.

[@lyrixFH]

Agreed

[@mystikrebel1089]

So spot on ! Its intersting that presently as I'm working on a track and the points made here are answering questions I'm stuck on

[@halfcaptainmusic]

So in Graphic Design I’d call that contrast. Contrast is the difference between things. If there’s no contrast it’s boring and over ‘balanced’ as you say. Everything is the same. Totally agree. So what we need is contrast. Contrast of loud and quiet, contrast of texture and washes, etc.

[@silentman-ze3gu]

I add OTT and supercharger then a limiter to my already finished masters 🙊 sounds great

[@mukeshpathak7302]

what settings you use on Limiter?

[@StephenLyonsMusic]

Creating “A hierarchy of sound” that’s a helpful phrase to consider when approaching mixing.

[@johnkosch2757]

Really thorough explanation, Nathan. Excellent teaching.

[@jakestagg]

Fantastic advice

[@ProducingInTheBox]

Love this. I love to think of mixing as "focus". You can't focus on everything, so choose and place everything else in the background

[@MrJekal]

I love how I just got done participating in a mixing competition in Nashville and this video drops a day after 😂. Awesome content as usual keep up the great work

[@breakfastgun]

A little while ago I went back and listened to one of the old songs I produced. It was VERY balanced.... it sounded awful, lol.

[@P-78official]

Oh man, how I would love to spend a day with you in your studio!

[@leader6303]

man i have so much to learn

[@jimboggs1041]

Wise words, as usual! Until (very recently) bringing in a mixing engineer on one of my songs, I didn’t know how much the mix was an integral part of the composition/arrangement process. I had been avoiding studying mixing bc I didn't know how much of the comp/arr process it is. This means I am now (mostly) going to do the mixing myself from now on. Unless I can stand over the shoulder of the engineer at the mixing console, it’s really hard to communicate every element of the vision of the song (like you said “what to focus on at this moment”). As an example: the difference between having two different electric guitar parts play a duet, vs. one supporting the other. Nathan, is there a line (porous, of course) between mixing-as-comp/arr and whatever the next stage is (the one right before mastering)?

[@RV_beat]

thank you so much,,❤ please upload more videos about arrange

[@kevinsmoore1172]

The Christmas tree of sounds!

[@VarshaVallagiMusicSchool]

Hey Nathan! I have been watching your videos for a long time, its been really beneficial for me regarding my music journey and I cant thank you enough for guiding me through your videos making me to focus on things I should rather than waste my time. The question I have is , is it possible for two artists, A music producer and a singer, to work together despite them being far away from each other?( Through online ) and if so , will they get the results they truly seek with their project?

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Thanks a bunch for the comment - really appreciate it :) And yeah you can definitely do that. I have done a ton of remote work and it works well. Recording vocals is the hardest part but as long as the person recording vocals know what they are doing it works well

[@VarshaVallagiMusicSchool]

@@NathanJamesLarsen Thank you !

[@echoesandnoise]

Awesome

[@AlexKosSaheli]

I wonder if there're sidechains in these productions.

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Nope not on these examples I showed. Any pulsing you hear is more as an effect and not to push things out of the way

[@AlexKosSaheli]

@@NathanJamesLarsen amazing 😀

[@AlexKosSaheli]

Сool vocal ^^

[@jorgemartinez42069]

Yeah I wish the lyrics were less cheesy but they sound super good for this style of production.

[@whhhhhhhhh]

thanks for this advice! im gunna go bump my bass up for a section of my song!

[@majorwaveproductions]

Person: How many times does Nathan need to rearrange his room? Nathan: yes P.s. loving the content, super informative and helpful!

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

yep - I rearrange regularly very intentionally. I find that rearranging often helps my brain break out of ruts and feel like that environment change helps my overall creativity.

[@majorwaveproductions]

Hey man, noticed you haven't uploaded recently. All good, just making sure you're doin alright and not burning yourself out too much, hope PA is going well!

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

@@majorwaveproductions love comments like theses of people who care. Thanks a bunch. Things are good - will have a video this week :) just been super busy between artist projects and also wrapping up PA 2.0 which has been a lot of work updating.

[@kenvives]

When I hear people talk about balanced mixes, i think they mean tonal balance. Letting elements live in their own frequency space.

[@tundraosu]

first?

[@im_2edgy]

I just do whatever choose sounds that already sound good and in some cases I don’t mix. Maybe I might at a little reverb and delay but if you have solid sound selection, the mixer is in some cases not needed.

[@saxmanash]

Vocals should be the loudest. Unless you're the band Inflames lol. But then that's why I've probably always had an issue with them

[@V0ID_beats]

Not always. For example listen to some of the newer Vinnie Paz songs, the vocal almost get lost in the beat but overall it sounds soooo good

[@Biffinnbridge]

Stick on beard?

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

... no? Lol

[@svenisaksson3970]

Nathan. A good example on why music sounds so bad these days. Your "students" mixes sound much better than yours! The problem is that your vocals is so loud that they loose connection with the music. It sounds like the vocalist is in the room, while the musicians are in the next county. If you listen to older mixes, the vocals was actually a part of the mix. Not something that was hovering, disconnected, far above it. In the beginning, you mix problematic because the vocals are way too loud. At the end, it fits better. Because the music is much louder. When the music is pp, the vocals should be pp. When the music is ff, the vocal should be ff. There is a term for this. What is it? I've got it on the tip of my touge. Oh, yes.....balancing! That this kind of mixing is popular (especialy among excecutives), doesn't make it better. It makes it worse, in my opinion. I have made several test, where I've lowered the vocal by about 3dB. In all cases this has improved the mix. The vocal suddenly feels like it belongs with the other instruments. If you want to improve intelligibility, raising the level of the vocal is the wrong way to go. You should: 1) Teach the singer to articulate! Too many singers a mumbling their way though life, these days. 2) Carve out a dip in the mix (usually about 3kHz, depending on the singer), for the vocal to sit in. That is if you intend the vocal to NOT belong to the mix.

[@tomhuvenaars3580]

hello @NathanJamesLarsen I love your video's and i just bought the Producer Accelerator course but I dont have acces to it i don't have a e-mail or any thing I think something went wrong here :( the payment has been debited from my bank account. is there any solution for this?

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Well that's obviously not good! Can you email [e-mail] ? Brandi is awesome and she'll get you taken care of right away!!

[@tomhuvenaars3580]

thanks for the quick response :) I wil do that!!@@NathanJamesLarsen