Typically you are focused on creating a sound that has good size and loudness. There is absolutely nothing wrong about that, these are important qualities about great sounding mixes. This is stuff that is discussed out there, how do you get the mix loud enough, which actually is the question how do you make a mix present enough.
However, there are a few important aspects that easily get lost in that perspective. The focus on the mix dimensions tends to be more towards either the master busses or towards the individual tracks, rather than on both. Secondly, in terms of the dimensions themselves there tends to be more focus on some specific dimension such as depth or width, rather than height too.
Let's now break this down and have a closer look at how we can achieve a more optimal mix when working with its dimensions.
Width dimension: Pan, delay
Depth dimension: Volume
Height dimension: EQ
Typically, what happens is that you might get the width and depth dimensions pretty nice, but the height dimension might not be optimal at all.
So locate all sound sources inside of the mix also in terms of their height. Then once you have set the right height for all sound sources individually inside of the mix, don't forget to also set the correct height for the mix itself. If you do so only with the volume faders, it means that you do adjust the height indirectly but you also move the whole mix back and forth in the depth dimension. So if you want the mix to sit higher up, which you most commonly do, then probably you are losing important depth at the same time when you do so with the volume faders when you are not aware that you are actually trying to tune the height dimension of the mix.
For instance, the drums are such a sound source that commonly sound very good when they sit pretty high up inside of the mix, especially in softer genres like pop and country. If you for instance listen to Cassadee Pope's newest summer hit mix 'Summer' you will instantly notice how high up the drums sit inside of the mix. If you also have a nice wall of sound which I think this mix has, then it sounds pretty nice. But this suggests that drums can actually sound pretty nice when they are relatively high frequency intensive and relatively light in density compared to other sound sources in the mix.
If you leave the bass guitar dead center and you are able to keep it lower in height than all other sound sources, then you do not have to make it as up front as you otherwise would in order to make it cut through the mix, which means that other sound sources in the mix get more room inside of the mix to be up front and you now get some added sense of depth as well since this means the bass guitar can exist a bit more towards the rear between the speakers. However, one of the most effective way of "lifting" the mix as a whole in height, is by hi-pass filtering the bass guitar. This blends the bass to exist inside of the other sound sources, therefore do it with proper settings, try to lift the other sound sources in the mix even more. You will get a brighter sounding mix and that's what you want...
So, balance all dimensions.
However, there are a few important aspects that easily get lost in that perspective. The focus on the mix dimensions tends to be more towards either the master busses or towards the individual tracks, rather than on both. Secondly, in terms of the dimensions themselves there tends to be more focus on some specific dimension such as depth or width, rather than height too.
Let's now break this down and have a closer look at how we can achieve a more optimal mix when working with its dimensions.
Width dimension: Pan, delay
Depth dimension: Volume
Height dimension: EQ
Typically, what happens is that you might get the width and depth dimensions pretty nice, but the height dimension might not be optimal at all.
So locate all sound sources inside of the mix also in terms of their height. Then once you have set the right height for all sound sources individually inside of the mix, don't forget to also set the correct height for the mix itself. If you do so only with the volume faders, it means that you do adjust the height indirectly but you also move the whole mix back and forth in the depth dimension. So if you want the mix to sit higher up, which you most commonly do, then probably you are losing important depth at the same time when you do so with the volume faders when you are not aware that you are actually trying to tune the height dimension of the mix.
For instance, the drums are such a sound source that commonly sound very good when they sit pretty high up inside of the mix, especially in softer genres like pop and country. If you for instance listen to Cassadee Pope's newest summer hit mix 'Summer' you will instantly notice how high up the drums sit inside of the mix. If you also have a nice wall of sound which I think this mix has, then it sounds pretty nice. But this suggests that drums can actually sound pretty nice when they are relatively high frequency intensive and relatively light in density compared to other sound sources in the mix.
If you leave the bass guitar dead center and you are able to keep it lower in height than all other sound sources, then you do not have to make it as up front as you otherwise would in order to make it cut through the mix, which means that other sound sources in the mix get more room inside of the mix to be up front and you now get some added sense of depth as well since this means the bass guitar can exist a bit more towards the rear between the speakers. However, one of the most effective way of "lifting" the mix as a whole in height, is by hi-pass filtering the bass guitar. This blends the bass to exist inside of the other sound sources, therefore do it with proper settings, try to lift the other sound sources in the mix even more. You will get a brighter sounding mix and that's what you want...
So, balance all dimensions.
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