Starting your career as a mixing engineer can be tough, especially if you don’t know anything. If you are just starting out and have started your career after completing graduation, you will need to consider a lot of things. The engineering educational program often paves the way to success, but how you proceed with it completely depends on you.
Often these beginner engineers tend to make a lot of mistakes. It is necessary to be careful from the beginner level to avoid bigger mistakes later on. Some of the prominent mixing mistakes that you should be avoiding in the long run include the following
- Mixing too loud
Just starting off your career as a mixing engineer? It is natural for you to commit the mistake of mixing too loud. The aspiring mix engineers often start to mix above 90 decibels. Isn’t that harmful. Once the mix is over 90 decibels, it can cause problems in the 80 decibels itself. Why? Because most of the instruments won’t come out as they should. Not only does it cause a hearing problem but it also adds up to different problems. Also, it will sound pretty full when heard at less than 80 decibels.
- Not having a reference mix
Every beginner and expert prefers to have a sample or reference mix before making an original one. Reference mixes can be like double edged swords. It helps to bring a balance in the frequency and dynamics to meet the client needs while on the other hand, it feels like they have been professionally mixed.
It is necessary to follow the professional mastering technique so that everything can match up to the client’s needs. If you have suffered from frequency balance problems, you may want to proceed with reference mix. This helps to avoid the risk of compressing and screwing up.
- Bad mix management
Not everyone knows mix management. Often, these beginners start from drums and by the time they reach the bass guitars, a lot of chaos is already made. The continuous addition of instruments already makes up a lot of things bad.
Experts of Songmill Studio mixing suggests that one needs to be extremely careful while mastering the art of mixing. The kick drum needs to be around -5db so that you can proceed to the later on. You may want to proceed with master fader, but it is necessary to maintain the ratio of noise and distortion character.
