Some of the most common sound mixing problems

Monitoring problems

Amateurs usually do not take into account that sound-mixing job is quite exhausting. Accumulated fatigue (both physical and mental) affects the final product too much. Why? Because mixing sounds is first and foremost a decision-making process, and it is scientifically proven that we make worse decisions when we are exhausted. Therefore, it is much better to schedule all activities so that you avoid last-minute backlogs, and, in this way, you can work optimally. Coffee does not work miracles, much less those that the hours of sleep you need actually can bring. In addition to the above, try not to exhaust your body: monitor the mix at a moderate volume, look for a comfortable body posture, look for a screen glow that is suitable for your eyes, and take active breaks. You will notice obvious results after putting this into practice.

Pre-production Problems

When we talk about pre-production, we mean all the processes related to the very content of the sound files, in general. For example, when it comes to a song, pre-producing is about constructing that piece of music, and, of course, taking care of the wide variety of problems that may take place here. Structural problems, per se, are pre-production problems. To this extent, it is vital to focus on correcting all possible pre-production problems before starting a mixing process, and the reason for this is quite simple: most pre-production problems are virtually impossible to solve when mixing, even if the mixer is the most skilled professional there is. It is key to note this because, believe it or not, a large percentage of mixing problems are consequences of pre-production problems.

Low-frequency saturation

If you pretend to hear all sounds as if you were listening to them in a rehearsal room, you will surely face a series of failures. It is simply not possible to hear all the frequencies of all the sounds you are working with. The reality is that a sound mixer always has limited working space in terms of frequencies, and it is necessary to sacrifice several frequencies in order to keep and enhance the best portion of them - those that work better according to your mixing purposes. An example of this problem is when the sound is perceived as a large mass of bass sounds, like a landscape without relief, which eliminates any possibility of contrasting them with others. In fact, this is a fairly common problem, and the way to solve it is through a bass filter. It is about removing a series of bass frequencies with the aim of giving greater definition to the medium and high frequencies that have been overshadowed by them.

Level problems

The main issue we can mention here is the distortion produced by the presence of excessive and simultaneous levels in the same track. Sometimes, it is unavoidable: there is a voiceover sound, there are sound effects, there is background music, etc. However, the amount of available energy, as well as the processing capacity of such an amount of information, will never be infinite. The rule is simple: the more elements, the lower the sound quality. Ideally, at the beginning of the processing chain, you should optimally focus on each element and not overload the gain structure during the sound mix. It is clear that, in some cases, you will have to deal with more than twenty tracks at a time but try to exclude all the unnecessary elements that you have previously selected.

Listening without considering the context

This is a tremendously common mistake made by mixers. When selecting each sound during the editing phase, they may find some sounds fascinating. The point is, they work very well individually but compete too much with others when you try to integrate them into the whole context. Remember that the ultimate goal is to find a perfect balance between all sounds and frequencies, so that they work in harmony, complementing each other. For this reason, sometimes you will have to sacrifice the wonderful quality of an individual sound in favor of the entire mix.

Read also: Yes, Sound Mixing & Sound Editing Really Mean Two Different Things

Incorrect handling of the equalization

Changing frequencies correctly is another common problem, and the way to solve it starts with the order of the process itself. Let us see. Typically, the mixer identifies those frequencies to modify (for example, an excess of bass frequencies,) then he or she starts increasing the frequencies until getting what he or she is looking for. Doing things this way can distort the original sounds too much and often compromises their clarity. Hence, it is best to equalize the frequencies oppositely. Instead of increasing, it is better to attenuate, to subtract the frequencies which are affecting the rest of the sounds in your mix (especially, the main ones) to give them the prominence you need. Instead of increasing the power of these over unnecessary frequencies, it is always better to get rid of them. Of course, do your best not to affect the adjacent frequencies too much and thus keep a natural sound.

*The images used on this post are taken from Pexels.com