What is Mixing? Help

[Pauliofish]

so ive been reading that mixing is a very important tool in producing.

Well, what exactly is mixing? Ive heard of EQ and compression, but is there more to mixing than those two?

What are some good, free EQ analyzer VSTs?

thnx Fp ^.^

[BeatGenerals]

EQ, Compression, Panning, Adjusting Levels, are all parts of mixing. Its basically taking a piece of music that's done, and getting it ready to be presented.

[Pauliofish]

oh cool, can i have a short explanation of each of these?

[RaeTheBastard]

Its basically taking a piece of music that's done, and getting it ready to be presented.

Actually this explanation is more akin to mastering. Mixing refers more to the sound and volumes and their adjustment and placement in space. The two overlap in many places, but the presentation is usually more the mastering engineers job, making sure there's no clipping, tightening up the low ends, insuring continuity in volume.

[3ternal]

Mixing is making everything fit together, and also making those sounds fuller to occupy more space in the mix, give it a thicker sound.

To some people it might sound easy but trust me it's not easy in the sense that it's very long monotonous process.

None of it is really hard per se but you'll end up listening to a song to the point where you probably never want to hear it again.

That also depends on the person though I'm the type who will either do it properly or not bother at all.

So I listen to a song over and over and over, trying to find the tiniest imperfections and what not.

I know I do work on a song longer than most, but my lack of experience doesn't do me any favors either.

[CrabbMan]

Try reading some books to get a real idea what it is,

'The Art Of Mixing a Visual Guide To Recording Engineering and Production' by David Gibson (1997),

'Mixing Audio, Concepts Practice and Tools' by Roey Izhaki (2008), this ones a book and dvd bundle.