If there were a way to make the mixing process easier on yourself – would you do it?
You see, too many home studio owners struggle with their mixes, battling for clarity and impact only to collapse in defeat. The mix has won – and they are left wondering if a new plugin or better monitors would help.
Turns out there’s an easier way.
Don’t Play To Lose The Game
Most home studio owners have already set themselves up to fail come mixing time, long before they sit down to mix.
No matter which DAW, plugin, converters, or speakers they use – they are playing the game in such a way that they can’t really win. And by win, I mean crank out a killer mix.
How are they playing to lose?
By recording far too many tracks in the first place.
The Curse Of Unlimited Tracks
There are two major (and related) negatives to home recording in the digital age.
The first is the “freedom” of recording virtually unlimited tracks. A DAW has no physical track count limitations like a real console would.
No longer confined to 16, 24, or 32 tracks – the home studio owner can record track upon track, without any consideration of each part’s contribution (or lack thereof) to the rest of the song.
This is a huge negative (I’ll explain why in just a moment) – but it’s usually paired with just as big of a negative: the lack of a producer or collaborator in the studio.
Most times there is no one in the home studio giving feedback on the recording process, helping to keep the big picture of the entire arrangement in view as you (the engineer and artist) record track after track after track.
The lack of these two “filters” or “limitations” leads to one giant problem.
Too Many Pointless Tracks
Simply put, the typical home studio song these days has far too many pointless tracks recorded. In other words, these tracks contribute nothing truly necessary to the arrangement or the song.
From layers upon layers of guitar parts, to excess drum mics – these wasteful tracks simply take up sonic space, headroom, and they muddy the arrangement in such a way that covers up the greatness of the remaining tracks.
And this my friends is precisely why mixing is so hard for many of you. You are trying to squeeze too much junk through a narrow pipe.
Only Keep What’s Absolutely Necessary
You open up a session, ready to mix, but it takes far too long and you’re left with far too much mud and mushiness (is that word?) when all the while the simple solution was to delete or mute a few unnecessary tracks.
In fact, the best thing to do would be to not record them in the first place – or if you unsure, sift through your session after a recording day and keep only what really is critical to the song’s arrangement.
This gives you smaller track counts that make mixing faster and more fun. And most important of all – your mix sounds better.
Less Truly Is More
With fewer tracks to mix, there is less masking (tracks covering other tracks) which leads to less EQ needed, which leas to a cleaner more musical mix.
With fewer competing tracks there is more clarity and separation in the stereo spectrum.
Wouldn’t you want that? More clarity, separation, and less need for EQ? Wouldn’t you want the mix to be easier for you?
And yet it’s completely up to you. You can set yourself up to win, by simply keeping your track count during recording day down as low as possible.
It honestly is a breeze to mix songs with fewer than 24 tracks.
16 is even better!
It’s Entirely Up To You
But no one can do this for you. To help yourself you must take action.
To do this you’ll have to be ruthless and have the maturity to know what tracks must be there and what tracks don’t add much if anything.
I promise, though, that the reward is worth the extra time and effort that goes into putting on your producer hat and having the guts to delete tracks that really aren’t needed.
You’ll reach for extreme EQ boosts or cuts less and less. You’ll get a fuller mix with greater ease. And and in the end it’ll take you less time overall.
So – tell me, what is your typical track count when you go to mix? Have you experimented with trimming them back to as low a number as possible?
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My name is Graham Cochrane and I'm the founder of The Recording Revolution, one of the world's most loved audio recording and mixing blogs with over 200,000 readers each month. 
Graham,
Normally, I record a solo classical guitar – so nothing really to mix. My Kirtan group – Guitar (1 track stereo), Djembe (top mono and bottom mono), Lead vocal (mono), harmony vocal (2 tracks), response 2 tracks mono. Maybe an egg shaker and tambourine (2 tracks). Usually I am mixing under 10 tracks. Even my rock stuff tends to be under ten tracks.
One thing I work for is to make everything sound human. So for Kirtan projects I wont play to a click track – there is no snapping to grid and quantization – everyone is locking into the same groove even if the tempos shift, they shift naturally and dynamically, it feels like we played it live even if we didn’t.
With my rock stuff, I use drum programing and this is obviously snapped and quantized but by going through and making sure all the bass drum/snare/hi-hat and cymbal velocities are variable (manually selected and adjusted) can make it sound like a “real drummer” who doesn’t hit the drums with the same force with every hit. I set that up first – whole song – it forces me to know the arrangement. Then play live electric guitar all the way through – I try to do the entire song in one take. Everything else is then built on that foundation but it is still under ten tracks usually.
Thanks for another great article!
Each time I visit this blog it’s a relief. I’m 9 days into mixing month for my acoustic band project (after ~15 recording months :S) and in the midst of all the doubts that come to me when I’m mixing your blog is like a lighthouse.
I try to help!
why?
Great post, Graham! This is so true.
I think we can fall into the trap of recording parts just because we can, rather than being intentional. Instead of thinking about what is missing and how to fill in what the song needs, we just keep recording tracks, thinking that more is better. More can be better, but only if it’s intentional and each track serves a purpose. Otherwise, as you said, it just slows you down and clutters up the mix.
I actually mentioned this point in my music production ebook. My suggestion is to record enough tracks that the song sounds nice and full and there’s nothing missing, but to do so in as few tracks as possible. See it as a challenge. That way, as you said, there will be less junk to filter through when it comes to mixing.
Great post, once again! Thanks, Graham 🙂
I often struggle when mixing 8 tracks, so anything above 16 is no thanks for me 🙂
I am so glad that I am “Old School” 8,16,24 track Hi 8 digital.It makes mixing so much more easier.When the famous Minnesota Surf Rockers “The Trashmen” (Surfin Bird) fame recorded there new album here we used a total of only 9 tracks all live at the same time.Only overdubs were the vocals the next day. They recorded a total of 17 songs in less then 2 days time.No punches or overdubs on the basic tracks.Just great sounding Neumann U-87,U-67 microphones on the Fender amps.
Mixed a song of mine one time that had 52 tracks & it near about KILLED ME!! Never again; if I can’t get it done in 24 tracks, it doesn’t need to get done, IMO.
Thank you Graham.
For my most recent release ‘Shadows’ (shameless plug 🙂 I recorded (2) acoustic guitars, (2) electric guitars, (1) bass guitar, (2-5) vocal tracks, (1) Drummer track on Logic, (1) midi synth, (1-3) pre recorded royalty free loops. I was very intentional about keeping the track count down. I panned everything hard Left, dead Center, hard Right. It’s my best sounding EP yet.
If I keep this up one day I’ll be as good as Graham and the other TRR subscribers! Lol.
-Travis
Love it!
Interesting. I’m still fairly new at this, but have noticed what a pain it can be to mix a song with a ton of layers. Especially if a lot of these tracks take up the same part of the frequency spectrum and contain sounds that are playing at the same time. Great points here.
My template is always 24 tracks + 4 aux for effects and parallel compressions. No exception!
My first album, which had major label release, was 8 track. All my demos are done 4 track to this day. Some of The Beatles’ greatest recordings were 3 track, mixed to 1 track.
5 tracks, usually. Lead guitar, rhythm guitar or keyboard, bass guitar, drums, vocal. Maybe 6, or at an extreme 7 tracks if I do a harmony vocal or overdub a rhythm guitar. Never needed more than eight tracks! Because yes, I AM that good a musician!
I typically have anywhere from 40-100 tracks on one of my songs, but they are mutli-part progressive rock somgs, so the instrumentation can get kinda dense. 🙂
Another ason is that I typically double most guitar parts and then decide whether I need that symmetry after all of the other elements are recorded. Those redundancies are then muted at the event level.
I do not view this as either indecisiveness nor clutter, just a different recording approach that allows me to capture the moment when tracking and then I schedule another session for myself later on in the production schedule (typically after tracking is complete) to scale things back for maximum emotiinal impact.
I do agree with the philosophy of things being as simple as possible and no simpler — I just have a different method of skinning this particular cat. 🙂
This is for my own stuff, however. If I was recording someone else, especially a n00b, I would advise the less is more approach.
Very good points. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with lots of tracks if you have a *reason* for each track you record, which it sounds like you do. I think the danger is when you don’t really know what you’re doing, and you just keep recording tracks because you think you’re supposed do. Intention is key.
Agree. But what about hardcore guitars and metal/rock sounds, arent people supposed to dub guitars and stack them up to get that beefy sound?!?! Someone please explain thanks!
Definitely, record as many guitars as you need to, as long as you have a good reason for doing so. Don’t just keep recording stuff without having a purpose. But if you’re going for a specific sound, and the way to do it is to layer several takes, then go for it! There are no rules. Whatever makes your music sound how you want it to.
I’d say record 2 guitars with a killer tone, pan them left and right and there you go. I don’t know the specifics, but the other day I was listening to Slayer’s “Reign in Blood” and it’s just 2 guitars kicking your jaw from both sides, nothing else needed.
—-unless you want to add more layers to make some kind of “wall of sound”, merging layer s of cleanish and crunchiest guitars and get a specific tone, but that depends on what you go for, raw simplicity or something more elaborated.
Beefy sound guitar and punch sound in ‘rock mix’ is actually comes from track which is precisely layered, tight pitch notes, not loose on notes. Then it will become fast transient in low mid freq causing “punch sound”. Editing in recording session is more worth than mixing session. They can back searching better sound before its done to next level.
You wouldn’t want too many guitars even with metal. “Duel” rhythm guitars one in each channel sounds great. And at most 2 lead guitars harmonising with each other. The rhythm guitars will have a fat and beefy sound, but that’s not achieved with loads of multiple guitars.
I agree. Having tons of tracks does not necessarily make you a better mixer nor make the song better. Regarding collaboration, there are so many of my producer friends that write, track and produce alone. To me this is a no no. By time I hear the track there is so much that could have been discussed in the process. For those producers that are using pre-recorded midi files be very careful. Your music is starting to sound the same. Pay close attention to the song format. Many times the count is inconsistent and the progression are not theoretical. Make sure you listen and be open to criticism. Better yet ….collaborate! And stop introducing instruments at the end of the track. Would you introduce someone when you are leaving?
This article can be referenced to a previous recent where you talked about variation and contrast in a mix. If I have a guitar part and want something extra I’ll record it again and hard pan them. Or I often contrast the guitar part with an organ, which often blend pretty nice together. If there’s too many mid rage instruments I’ll add piano playing higher notes or a glockenspiel for some extreme high end. If there’s already bass part and I want to add piano I won’t be heavy on left hand and only play one note in the left. It’s all about fitting each part in like a puzzle.
Hey Graham,
Less is definitely more. I have a self-imposed limit of 8 tracks in Logic when I go to record a song. I’ve found that if I can’t make a song sound good with 8 tracks, it’s probably not that good of a song; I either need to write better melodies, practice my instruments more (especially vocals), or write an entirely new song. I’m always improving so there’s no use getting hung up on one idea. Over the years, using only 8 tracks has made me a better musician (one song long performances, no punching, no copy and pasting, no splicing takes together) and a better engineer. All the work is done when I sit down to mix; I get the levels right, do some subtractive EQing, do some simple compression as needed. Having less tracks is also a testament to the philosophy of getting your song sounding right at the recording stage before it even makes it’s way onto the computer. Working like that, the rest of the process is a row of dominoes waiting to be tipped over.
Thanks again for another great post, Graham!
Love your thoughts Mike.
I limit all projects to 24 tracks max and if we can accomplish the song with less, we do. I’ve had a couple of potential clients go elsewhere, maybe they’ll be back after they hear the results we’ve gotten with others, maybe not. One project was done on a Tascam 4 track cassette unit, with a total of 12 tracks recorded, bounced down just like the old days. Mix decisions had to be made up front and everyone involved, me and the band, really got into the vision of what the song should sound like. The scariest part was printing effects on individual tracks. We split the signals to the DAW just to be safe, but in the end, went with the tape, mixed down to 2 tracks on the DAW. That was a real fun project and went surprisingly quick from start to finish.
I’m just a guitar player but through in keys and bass some times . I had at most 22 tracks but this was for little pop in parts not if that matters but nothing that was full leanth tracks with that high of a track count .
Mostly I’m solo guitar with one to five tracks but mostly less as an average .
I’m sure me and Graham are psychically connected. The last 15 mentoring emails from him have been ‘precisely’ what was going-on in my mind at the time, and what i had concluded personally within hours of then reading his message explaining and defining the exact same thing; astonishing! He always nails the fundamentals and associated details; glad i received this latest mail-out from him. So true Graham, thankyou bro!
Graham Cochrane – reading minds since 2009
I probably have around 20 tracks per song on average. But being a keyboard player, most of those tracks are stereo synth sounds. As you mentioned before, too many wide stereo tracks can cause problems too. I’m still working on that!
9 tracks for a 5-man band: 3 drum tracks (RecorderMan OH setup plus a kick mic), lead guitar, keyboard, bass, 2-3 vocal tracks depending on how many are singing. All done simultaneously and live, recorded on an Alesis HD24. The biggest problem is minimizing bleed, but judicious mic placement and direct outs from the bass and keyboard handles most of this.
Hi Graham,
Thanks for pointing out, and making me aware of something that I have been doing instinctively regarding mixing down my home recordings. My main instrument is guitar, with usually 2 electrics (Lead/Rhythm) and sometimes I’ll put in an acoustic track if the song calls for it. When recording my guitars, I commonly use multiple virtual tracks to piece together a complete guitar track, and that is only if I am not able to nail the track on one entire play through. Whilst using the same patch on my guitar effects processor, and with out making any changes to my sound/input volume, or eq going into the DAW, i can usually lay down a complete guitar track (rhythm or lead) across 4 or 5 virtual tracks. Once i am happy with the set, i merge them into one mixdown file. Because everything I recorded was done with exactly the same settings, I feel confident merging them into one track. I then blow away the individual virtual tracks used to make the one complete guitar track. (get rid of the virtual track clutter at the earliest possible time in the recording process)
I believe that as my baseline settings going in did not change, the resulting mix-down file is consistent from start to finish, the result being I am left with only ONE virtual track for that guitar part ~ which is easier to manage, come final mix time. Your pointing this out – reducing the number of tracks – just made me more aware of the fact, Less is always more! Keep up the great work Graham, I certainly appreciate your efforts, follow and learn from you regularly.
Most of my recording is my own songwriter demos, and they are usually less than 16 tracks -(software drums only using 2 tracks in the mix). Even with a fully arranged, dense mix, I still end up with no more than 20 tracks.
Well, when you work on a 15 minutes piece of prof rock music, with a lot of changing in the ambiance, it is hard to only keep 24 tracks!
My biggest project has something like 70 tracks. Of course they are not playing at the same time! But it is really fun to work on!
But, in a way, it is more a writting problem than a mixing problem? I always do a demo before recording the real stuff. This is, IMO, great to test everything you want, and when you go for the real stuff, you know exactly what you need and what you don’t need 🙂
Right on the nail bro! I prefer to stick with 24-32 tracks!
When clients go over that….I charge the hour studio rate.
The mix sounds cluttered and lots of frequencies fight each other when I go over. It does take longer to mix.
Graham,
Your Posts are so timely! I have been working on a project where I recorded a singer-songwriter who plays guitar and banjo – both instruments had DI outputs and I used the DI, a ribbon and condenser on each – so 3 tracks for each pass on each instrument. I wound up with 6 acoustic tracks (2 parts) and 9 banjo tracks (3 parts)… I had a terrible time trying to mix all of those tracks – the midrange mud was thick! I also had drums, bass, violin and vocals in the mix… With all of the parts the track count got close to 30! I started listening to all of the guitar parts and decided to mute the ribbon and DI tracks for both the acoustic guitar and banjo the change was immediate – less mud between 500Hz- 2.5KHz. This made it much easier to mix. I recorded the different ‘flavors’ because I thought at record time that they would all ‘add’ to the overall sound – I was partly right, they added mud to the overall sound! By trashing those extra inputs and choosing the one that represented the guitar and banjo most accurately (the condenser in this case) it made the mixing MUCH easier! Following your principals in the “ReThink Mixing” videos, I was able to get to a mix that was much better than where I was going on my own…
I went back to a recording of my band that I did when I first started my home studio several years ago – 8 tracks, Kick, Snare, 2 OH’s, Bass, Keys, Guitar and Vox – and that recording sounded more natural than when I try to “cover” every aspect by throwing up multiple mics on every source… For that old recording I used a Tascam US-1641, cheap “Digital Reference” drum mics, 2 MXL 990’s for the bass and guitar amps, keys went straight in and an SM58 for the vocals, all into Cubase LE4 (came with the Tascam unit) – nothing high end or fancy by any stretch of the imagination, but it sounded much better than the recording I did recently with high track count on much better equipment!
Graham, you are right on target and always the voice of reason! Thanks so much for helping to keep us grounded with your experience and engineering wisdom! Much appreciated!
God Bless!
Thanks Randy, glad to help!
To all of the engineers and recording artists that frequent Graham’s site and these posts – if you have not yet invested in Graham’s “ReThink Mixing” tutorial videos, do yourself a favor and make that investment! Very useful information – you will get better at your craft after utilizing the principals Graham outlines in the series!
Cheers!
Usualy:
– Drums:
o 2 overhead + one front,
o 1 per tom when used,
o 1 snare, 1 HH, 1 kick close
— 7/9 tracks
– bass: DI through markbass most of the time
– rythm guitars: 2, doubled each, Di through amp sim most of the time,
– lead guitar: 1 or 2 depending the part (one at each time), Di through amp sim most of the time too,
– keyboard: 1, but may use different layer & sound (mixed through their own midi console),
— 7/8 tracks
– choirs: usualy 2 (one per voicing),
– lead vocals: 1,
— 1/3
As a lot goes through their own environment (amp sim, midi console), most of my adjustement on tracks are mainly pan and cleaning up of low frequency, sometime some light compression or limitation to keep the track coherent, but most of “the things ” happens on the groups leaving me with 6 or 8 group max.
Using Samplitude pro as DAW, either M-AUDIO FT or Zoom R24 as interface depending the situation (light cause standalone with the zoom, heavy with the m-audio as it requires the computer). I’m the kind of guy who started some years ago with an R8 Fostex analogic 8-tracks 1/4″ band for fun and keep going ^^
Yep. I’ve been following your advice for some time now. I set a 24 limit and stick with it (sometimes two or three more, but only if they’re absolutely necessary).
It might seem like too few, but you’ve said it, too many crappy tracks end up covering the good ones.
I’m a year new Noob to Daw, and I’ve done way more learning than doing so far. With that said, I love this article of the day, as usual Graham. The reason I am inspired even though I’m not really doing much yet, is because I am drawn to, fascinated by, and will incorporate into my workflow these things you mention because I want to learn how to do it more the old,analog way of yesteryear even though I’ll be learning and using a Daw. I LOVE the idea and what comes with doing things in the 2-4-6 track method of some of the greatest songs, productions, and mixes of our time did. What you mention here is kind of the same mentality of keeping it simple, focused, and relevant the whole way thru! So 16-24-32 seems totally “open” when you have the end goal, or realization, of old days 2-4-6 track final mix limits in view, or respect for along the way…. Thanks for all the wonderful info at Recording Revolution Graham!
You’re welcome Greg!
Great article Graham. What about large pop productions where the track count get ridiculous? I know a lot of engineers go through, remove clutter, and bounce a lot of stuff down to a “manageable” 48 tracks or so (especially if mixing on a board) but how do you differentiate and know when things need to be doubled, tripled, quadruple-tracked or if things are just cluttering up a mix?
I guess your ears are always the final judge 🙂
Yeah I agree. It’s really up to you.
I guess I would ask, why am I recording this next track? Is it because I *need* it in order to get the sound I want? Or am I just recording it because I can? If the latter, then maybe it’s just cluttering things up.
This is good.
Great advise for the typical acustic band, rock bands and music played in the human realm. But what about electronic music, or the combination of both(think of LINKIN PARK, NIN, CHEMICAL BROTHERS) those styles are filled with layers and layers of instruments/sounds.
I read the song “we re in this together”- (NIN) even ran out of tracks in the console just for the guitars.
Queen made killer records with layers upon layers and only had 24 tracks. They had to bounce stuff down and commit. A long lost art if you ask me 🙂
Ok let’s try to count an avarage music production, not on the small size and not overblown:
Drums=8
Main vox=2 (doubled)
Bvox=4to8 (L&R of two harmonies, and often another part) in between it’s 6.
Stereo piano (sampler or not)=2
Acoustic guitar (doubled, 2mics)=4
Electric lead=2
Percussive element/loops/fx=2
Let’s say staccato strings (or any one type of strings part)=4
Pad/synth/ambiance support=2
Bass=1
==total==
32.
Meaning I can see how I’m doing a full size production with fewer than 32tracks. And that’s before using kick/snare triggered samples, more vox (often), and other candies. When I send my production to another mixer engineer it’s offer around the 40plus (also depends A LOT on the genre of the song).
Of course if you bounce the 2gtr mics to 1 and the stereo piano to mono, etc, you reduce the track count. But that’s part of the mix isn’t it?
Also why then all recording techniques speak about piano/gtr recordings with 2 mics, for variety of sounds and stereo spread, if essentially we’ll “mono” it either for panning reasons or track count reasons?
I think that comparing modern days production/mixes to older days is tricky, as an 8 track mix wasn’t really an 8 track mix – the 2 tracks drum at the end were first mixed/bounced from another 8/6tracks, and same goes for vocals an other stuff.
It’s just that with 8/16 track all those instruments I’ve mentioned were mixed and bounced during the production stages, to clear the mixer limited track count, but it’s not as if the production track count was smaller. As we all know from Sgt Pepper.
Now days we just do those bounces during the mixing stage, not before (as we can enjoy the control over the instruments level, let’s say in the abbey road orchestral group, until the very end), so the final track count seem bigger, but it really is the same.
Hence the challenge and aim should really be that all tracks be summed to groups(buses), and we should keep that group count between 8-16!
Then try and mix only with these groups (on the next day of the mix/at the last couple of hours if the mix).
My 2cents 😉
I agree!
An example: February’s song for Dueling Mixes was a good 60-some tracks. When I mixed it, I spent plenty of time routing the tracks so that ultimately they came down to 6 buses. Then, I spent a good amount of time (an hour or so) on the “static” mix, with just volume and panning. Once I was happy with that, I started EQ and Compression, and probably 90% of my EQ and Compression work was on the 6 buses that I had boiled everything down to.
I don’t think that having a lot of tracks is necessarily a bad thing, although it can be. Sometimes it’s best to be minimalistic.
But I think it’s easy to go too far the other way. Record a whole bunch of tracks just because we can. At that point, it’s easy to end up with far too much unnecessary clutter.
As long as you’re intentional, have done some pre-production and planning, and focus on just recording what is needed, I think you’re fine 🙂
Spot On!
Right, on the old analog limited track days, I was aware of the production mixing down to less tracks from many more. Was just making a point to simple, and much smaller numbers of 16-32 should be easily done…..if you consider what was done on some of the great albums. Also nothing stopping one from bouncing tracks together in Daw to mimick the old tape mix days either, if you had/wanted to keep the track count down that is.
Good point you made though! Yes, who knows how many tracks were used for some 4 and 8 track greats along the way……… Thanks for clearing up better than I did!
Exactly!
With pleasure Greg.
I think the whole “DAW group/buses are the old days mixer tracks” approach should go hand in hand with TopDownMixing http://therecordingrevolution.com/2014/03/14/the-art-of-top-down-mixing/
the most tracks i’ve had in a song i think it was around 25… 16 of them being just the drum tracks
This is probably the second most important thing I have learned about mixing behind proper gain staging. I’m a writer by trade (was anyway, now retired. Over the years I studied the craft and once came across a Stephen King quote from his book “On Writing”, that sums up the lesser track count philosophy.
“Kill your children.”
What he meant wasn’t to go postal on your actual kids, but on your creative ones. Everything you do in a song/mix etc. isn’t necessarily needed no matter how brilliant or loved you think it is. Everything you add isn’t moving things in a good direction. Which is the mirror of what G has said here. And it’s true. Addition through subtraction. You can often say more with fewer words.
Normie — How interesting that you used this writing philosophy to music, because I did the same thing. When I worked as a newspaper reporter years ago, an editor taught me his “Kill The Babies” approach, though I never knew it originated from King. Like you said, “babies” were parts where you assumed readers would pause, and perhaps read twice because they were so clever and well-written. In reality, though, they are just clutter that slowed down the story. I resurrected this approach when I started a band a few years later. To remind musicians, I even posted “KILL THE BABIES” signs around the rehearsal space.! I'”m not sure if the other guys ever bought into the idea, , but just making them aware of the tendency to overplay was enough for me. Besides, I was on the lookout for their babies — and I murdered without mercy! As for multi-tracking, the old writing truism “Less is more” always applies as well.
I mix sometimes only 8… I do bluegrass so keep it standard and super easy
Set up
-kick
Snare
Hh
FT
Overhead
Aku
Banjo
Bass
Super easy… I just downloaded a mix where it was like 9 different electric, 4 aku, 2bass (di/amp)
11 drum/4perc , bunch of pads and vocs. It,so ok but it’s more complicated with more tracks
It’s horrible and once you put a compressor, eq and gate it slows down alot cause it takes up computer space in processing… So keep to around 8-12 tracks it will be alot better and fuller mix.
Lately, I’ve been trying to get by with the absolute minimum number of tracks – usually @ 16. I find that my mixes are punchier, clearer and just plain better. Settling for one great guitar part instead of three or four so- so ones. (I guess that’s not really settling) It makes these mixes so much easier to mix, and they end up sounding way better than the ones where I’ve had 24+ tracks.
We are a 3 piece. Usually 10-12 track max, but 6 of those for the drums, 2 vocals (lead and harmony), bass, 1-2 guitar track depending on the song. We keep it simple, try to sound on the recording as close to what we would sound like on stage.
Typically about 10 tracks, eg, vocal, piano, guitar, bass, plus a track for each piece in the drum kit. Usually I group the drum tracks, so I have less tracks to actually mix. There might be a couple of extra tracks for vocal harmony parts, and maybe another instrument, such as mandolin or trumpet.
Hi everyone!!!! Mark here!
Great post Graham, life is so easy following this steps.
I would like to share with all you guys an instrumental piece I mixed today, the mix is integrated by:
1. Drums
2. Bass
3. Electric Piano
4. DistoPad sint
5. Sint pad named SkyWatcher
Would you be so kind to listen to it, would love to receive some feedback, Thank you all.
https://soundcloud.com/markblues/journey-by-gaby-melendez
Sorry guys that wasn´t the correct link, this is:
https://soundcloud.com/markblues/journey-instrumental-piece-by-gaby-melendez
By the way, just forget to mention that in every section of the piece I tried to let show only four elements or tracks, so when a lead instrument comes in always someone is geting out to let only 4 elements in every section, to get more clarity and punch.
Thanks again.
Most of my major influences and fav hero albums were recorded on 16, and 24 track desks.
If its good enough for them, then its good enough for me.
And that is whst i try to emulate.i also took Grahams advise from
Joe Carrell and set up my daw mixer as an analogue desk, with my plugins as a rack effects.
16, tracks ,analogue desk , less plugins =
The best thing i ever did! Full stop!
Joe is a smart guy. I would do what he says 🙂
DAW mixer as an analogue desk? What do you mean?
i can’t remember where I heard this but it went something like this, ” a great song, that has a great melody can be can be done with one instrument, the voice ” I used to try to write complicated overdone songs, that really only I was getting into. Now I try to right a simple but strong melody line, then I start thinking of what instruments could enhance it. Usually keys, ac guitar, maybe electric guitar, some kind of bass, and simple but grooving percussion. I rarely go over 16 tracks. 6-8 tracks, I might use on percussion, sometimes it might just be 2.
Hi Graham,
This is an easy one. Since I started out on an 80-8 and had only 8 tracks to work with, working with a minimal amount of tracks is still baked into me – sort of.
Typically I seldom exceed a track count of 16 – I don’t need more tracks to do “my thing”.
Using more tracks than one really needs gets confusing in the end, and it costs time:
I’ve recorded some lead guitarists who record a dozen versions of the same solo and then want to sift through the whole thing and try to decide which part was the best…. “Yeah, that one passage was really cool I think – remember on which track did we record that one?” Know what I mean?
Started out on 4-track. It had it’s good points but I’m not interested in going back to that way of working. Can’t honestly say I was any more reserved in my arrangements because of it. The limitations just made it a PITA. Better off just learning some arranging skills and making the most of the relative technical freedom.
Creative limitations are a good thing; technical limitations are just limiting.
I think there is a sweet spot. The 24 track mark is that point for me. If you need more than 24 tracks, then it should at least make you pause – the benefit to adding that track has to severely outweigh the fact that it’s adding one more track to an already crowded mix.
Thanks for taking the time to respond, Graham.
I agree; you should definitely pause if you’ve got a crowded mix. I just don’t necessarily think crowding coincides with any particular track count threshold. One guy can make a mess with a 4 piece band and 8 tracks, while another does beautiful things with a full symphony orchestra, which you could equate to 100+ tracks.
My only point is that, rather than constricting the boundaries to protect us, we should expand and build up our arranging skill so it’s no longer a weakness that needs protecting.
Thanks for another great post! I’m new to mixing and I had the thought that a song needed to have a lot going on to sound good, but then I realized about what you talk about in this article by listening to Ed Sheeran’s songs. There are some where the only thing you hear is a guitar strum and his voice and the song sounds awesome. Other times just a beat, some strings, bass, the main vocals and the back ones. So it’s not a lot going on, but every single thing sounds spot-on, it has presence and it owns a place in the mix. So then I realized I didn’t need so much, but a few things that sound right, and this article helps me have that inner peace about it.
I do a lot of analog recording with external MIDI devices so I’m able to do a lot of eqing and compression before I record to audio. I’ll record instrument synths in groups to one stereo track (multiple guitar or brass synths, drum overheads) That way any effects needed can be minimally used. There is still some work that’s needed to make the sounds blend. I haven’t been able to get a good mix by simply recording vocals to a premixed instrumental. I do try to apply a way of mixing as if I’m working in a studio before the days of computers
hello graham and the blog members,
i have a question how can this approach be applied to orchestral scores.
An example
strings — violin1——-violin 2—–cello——-viola——contra bass
wood winds— flute—- clarinet—- picolo
brass ——trumpet— horn —- tombone
piano
guitar
vocals
synth
percussion
fx and group tracks
if i do that it exceeds 24 tracks
what do you suggest when it comes down to such arrangements.
thanks,
With these type of tracks I like to do submixes. Mix the strings down to a stereo track. Then the woodwinds, etc.
A good melody and skilful arranging to keep the song interesting are they key factors. Also, getting the recording right before mixing plays an important part.
True! True!! True!!!
The Beatles recorded Sgt. Pepper’s on two four-track Studers married together (thought they were using reduction mixing).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sgt._Pepper's_Lonely_Hearts_Club_Band
Correction: (though they were using reduction mixing)
After read “the #1…” I work with 16 tracks diet! That’s all and ok!!
I start worrying about when i go over 40 tracks or less. On some projects from customers with 70-80 or more tracks i decide for myself what to leave out before the first rough mix. Most of the times they don’t even realize that i muted some of their tracks. I can save up to 15 tracks without noticing whats going on. Those tracks where only masked by others, but making everything “dirty”.
I often make workshops and one thing that i try the students to learn is that: “It is not important to know how to add more tracks to your songs, but decide what to take out. Knowing what to mute and leave outside is the best decision”.
I totally agree with you Graham…nice tip.
Javier Coloma
Bingo
Typical track count? Well, as a composer, I’m often working with large orchestral fusions that look something like this: (NOTE: these are also from a musical with multiple characters and full cast chorus and live drum line)
Piccolo
Flute
Clarinet
Horn in F
Trumpet 1
Trumpet 2
Trombone
(Multiple Characters up to 14 + Cast Chorus)
Soprano Vox (4)
Alto Vox (4)
Tenor Vox (4)
Baritone Vox (4)
Piano
2nd Keyboards (Organ, synths, fx, etc…)
Assorted Percussion (sometimes up to 16 tracks itself)
Snare line
Tenor Line
Bass line
1st Violins
2nd Violins
Violas
Cellos
Contrabasses
Acoustic Guitar
Electric Guitar
Bass Guitar
By my count, the largest arrangements are 60 – 70 tracks!
That being said, I definitely take advantage of TOP DOWN MIXING!
And never underestimate the power of subgroup buss-ing!!!
The 12 orchestra tracks and 16 percussion tracks go out to one buss to keep them in the back.
The 14 character voices get another buss.
The 16 choir tracks get a buss.
At that point, I’m really just mixing: Piano, 2nd Keys, Drums, Bass, and Guitars with the other 3 busses, so…. 8 tracks?!!!
Beefy sound guitar and punch sound in ‘rock mix’ is actually comes from track which is precisely layered, tight pitch notes, not loose on notes. Then it will become fast transient in low mid freq causing “punch sound”. Editing in recording session is more worth than mixing session. They can back searching better sound before its done to next level.
My last mixing project I would often have 30-40 tracks. Sometimes these were alternate takes, but mostly they were not.
My first DAW was the eight track Pro-tools free. So, as an experiment, I decided to limit myself to 8 tracks and strict LCR panning. Although I broke my own rules almost immediately (counting all the drums as one track for example), I was still limiting myself in terms of how many elements I could hear at once. Needless to say, the mixes sounded full, but with great clarity.
The old PT free didn’t have any reverb either, but I ignored that fact completely. However, after reading up on how Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake used to work, I probably should have done that too.
Graham,
I try to keep it simple as possible when it comes to track count. I produce more on the side of Hip Hop music and although it can sometime consist of kick, snare, hat,sample ( if used), I can easily go overboard when it comes to percussive elements. I believe that less can be more because a smaller track count allows me to focus on getting the best from each track rather than hastily breezing through them.
Hi Graham,
you have mentioned one of the most important points: the lack of a producer.
I have been working in my home studio for paying clients for 15 years.
My mixes…not the best, not the worst. I’m now finishing my band second EP. My guitarist (not a sound engineer)recorded a lot of guitar tracks. He then joined me in the mix sessions. He muted the most. I did my “technical” part as I’m more in surgical EQ etc.. than him. He has a more “artistic” approach, no “dos and don’ts” and the clear idea of Guitar arrangement for the songs. It has been liberating working in that way. Sometimes I trusted him even against my taste. This is the role of a producer, I think.
We ended with a maximum of 2 / 3 guitar tracks (we have 2 guitarists) plus voice, drums (6 tracks) and bass.
…and guess…it is the best EP I brewed.
P.S. Sorry for my English
Hi Graham, for years I used an 8 track tascam cassette multitrack (remember them?), a brilliant machine that took me from recording on to a stereo cassette deck to a whole new world.
I had more possibilties, more tracks, more awesomeness
graham i cant describe how much you helped me through the years, i hope i will send you my avid artist mix series as a gift very soon when i will buy icob d-command. i will contact you then
i can vouch for this. I have a million little half songs in logic pro x and i regularly listen through all of them just to see which one id like to add to (keep in mind most of them are not mixed at all just raw sounds except for guitar amp sims and maybe some delay or rev for effects but 0 panning and 0 eq or compression) By far, if i have someone over or am just listening, the one my friends like the best is a guitar, bass, and drum machine loop i made. and entire 3 tracks. the drums aren’t even separated by midi channels yet but will be. and its the punchiest thing i have because i think everything just has space in the spectrum. 3 whole track! where some of mine have double tracked guitar parts and an upwards of 12 to 15 tracks.
I average about ten to twelve tracks a song. I do not overdub guitars or vocals to fatten them. Instead I use a bit of distortion from various plug ins. I use aux sends for reverb, delay and sat.
If I want the vocal to be more interesting I add a harmony vocal or two where it is needed. I try to weave the instruments in and out of the song never having everything going all through the song.
I also include stops or pauses on the drum or bass tracks which instill consideration for soft passages.
I forgot to mention. The best thing I do which I picked up by reading books on mixing is to learn and identify the soundstage. Without that one can never do any true arranging.
Learn where your instruments need to be and place them in their space.
Examples.
Bass – Center, low EQ, and close to the front.
Rhythm Guitar- Center, mid EQ, back a bit.
Lead Guitar – Left or right, mid EQ, front,
Lead Vocal – Center, mid EQ, Front.
Vocal Harmony- Left or right, low, mid, high EQ, back a bit.
The easiest way is to give each instrument space within the sound field and spectrum, and to EQ and pan accordingly. If a spectrum is lacking then an instrument may need to be put in there. If there are too many instruments in that space then remove one. In arranging one needs to learn the concepts of harmony and melody. It is the same for op as it is for orchestral music where more than one instrument is playing the same melody or is harmonizing with another.
Knowing this can help one cull what is not and what is needed to obtain a musical balance.
I easily have between 20 and 30 tracks all screaming for definition. It’s a nightmare. One day I am going to change, ‘cos somehow I know 20 tracks is not about musical integrity and ambition, it’s lack of discipline 😀
A song (and artist) that follows the contour of your idea is Tim Finn and his song going going gone. The engineer on that song really captured a true quietude. There certainly isn’t an excess track anywhere here.
A truly amazing song which has lots of stuff in it, which never collide is Mandy Moore’s I want to be with you. I would have really loved to see how they went about making all of those lines fit in seamlessly.
Some music just has to have a lot of tracks because there are just that many key lines.
Bach’s B minor mass has many places loaded with “tracks” . Can you imagine Mahlers 8th? (the symphony of a thousand) Mixing always creates problems! I agree with you, when you can pare down tracks its a luxury that must be enjoyed.
Good luck.
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this is especially true for young producers making EDM or beats for rappers. they tend to layer and layer and layer and then wonder why they have such a muddy mix. i saw a video that said make a whole bunch of melodies and progressions to a simple beat and then arrange it. i have a friend who does this very thing and comes up with hundreds of different progressions, but when he arranges it he uses everything instead scrapping some things and picking the ones that fit together perfectly, then when it comes to mixing he those some minor tweaks that he always does here and there and wonders why his beat sounds so muddy, and why his vocals don’t fit. from what i can tell usually the vocals sound nice and crisp but in the mix there is too much contrast for it to sit in it, and it tends to either jump out too much or get buried in the mix once the volume is lowered to keep it from cutting to much.
i have been recording 16 to 18 tracks max recently (any thing else is retakes and harmonies) and i feel like i can actually do things to mix it. instead of spending hours with practically nothing but tonal changes on instruments. (opposed to small changes that keep tone but affects the mix for the better)
Great stuff Graham!
I usually have 24-32 tracks when I record my band, but we’re a 7-piece with 5 vocals. I’m the drummer and probably go over board micing my drums with 12-14 mics on my kit — 3 kick (1 in, 1 out, and 1 home made subkick), 2 main snare, 1 side snare, 4 toms, and between 2 and 4 overheads depending on my cymbal setup. Everything else is typically one mic per source –2 elect guitars, acoustic, mando, piano, organ, and many layered vocals/harmonies.
I find the key to mixing this many tracks is in the arrangement of the song and each player understanding their role and not overplaying.
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Hey Graham! Lately I’ve been doing more complex songs with a wide array of vocals and instruments I started off only keeping my songs to 1 mono guitar, and 1 mono vocal, but I’ve been trying to get a fuller wider sound, currently I am doing so with 17 tracks (if you count the buses). In the article you explained that many people get stuck on too many tracks but I was actually using too little tracks so everything sounded flat with no dynamic. But it’s all fixed now!
I find that I can say what’s worth saying in 8 tracks or less. If I exceed that, it’s generally because of vocal harmonies, individual horns, or a couple of very small parts (a few measures) of something special that I want to throw in just as a highlight.
This is why I’m thinking going back to my tascam 32 tracks. When I used to mix on that everything used to be so easy and faster. Now with a mac ,plugins and infinite tracks is endless mixes. If I needed to process something in special way …dump it to the mac (both devices synchronized for real time listening) processes it when it sounds the way I like…dump it back to tascam . It’s more work but at least I focus more on the arrangement less than a pristine sound.
I think this oversimplifies the process – track count varies between genres. An edm/hiphop record will have more tracks than a folk song. The better your craft gets the more you understand what you are doing
Given the abovementioned advice, what would one like to comment upon the mixing of certain tracks having many instruments?
Some examples being –
Acid Killer by Infected Mushroom
Gamemaster by Lost Tribe (especially the part after the second breakdown)
Synchronism (Original Mix) by Cygnus X
Transtar by Transa
PS – When it comes to the music I envision myself to produce, I usually prefer having it journey-like, with layered, complex auditory textures…