If you’re recording and mixing your own material (or for a client) let me give you a piece of advice: pretend like the mixing phase doesn’t exist. Seriously folks, you need to change your entire mindset when in the studio. Push yourself to record your tracks in such a way that they need no mixing at all. That should be your goal every single time you hit the “record” button in your DAW.
Mixing Shouldn’t Be A Crutch
Too many home studio owners fall into the trap of using mixing as a crutch for their bad recordings. I know because I interact with thousands of you each year and also because I have done it myself. We fire open our DAW, arm some tracks, begin recording. If the result is something mediocre we simply shrug our shoulders and leave it for the mix.
Guess what? Mixing was never intended to be a cure-all for bad recordings, like an audio elixir of sorts. But if you record music with a mindset that views mixing as where the magic really happens then you’ll never capture really good sounding tracks.
Don’t Stop Recording Until It Sounds Great
Before you begin recording you need to think like a producer and know what sounds you want to create in the studio. Once you have that sonic landscape in mind, it’s time to make it happen with the tools at your disposal. If upon first listen back your track sounds lackluster, you know one thing and one thing only: you’re not done recording.
In fact, you should never sign off on your tracks for mixing until they sound great and you are really pleased. Notice I didn’t say they sound perfect. The mixing phase is a helpful and powerful one because it’s where you can finally pull all these great sounding tracks together in a compelling way, but the tracks should already sound really, really good at this point. If they don’t, you’re not ready for mixing.
You’re Only Making Mixing Harder
The truth is, if you’re recording average sounding tracks and hoping to magically make them sound pro in the mix, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. You’re backing yourself into a corner. You’re only making the mixing process that much harder.
In fact, one reason why so many new home studio owners are churning out bad sounding mixes is because they are starting with poorly recorded tracks. The better you get at recording, the easier mixing will be come. It’s a wonderful little miracle of sorts.
So why not take to heart all of this stuff I’m teaching during recording month? Why not slow down your recording sessions and take the time to really get the sounds you hear in your head, before it goes to mixing? You’ll only helping yourself.
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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. 
Great article. Sound advice!
An audio engineer saying “I’ll fix it in the mix” is like a doctor saying, “My patient is bleeding profusely through the carotid artery, but I’ll just put a band-aid on it and deal with it later.”
“I’ll just put a band-aid…”. Nah, not EVEN putting a band aid on it.
“Fixing it in the mix” is more like immediately signing a death sentence for the song. Just letting the song bleed out entirely. Wouldn’t you agree?
The only exception to that in my mind is when somebody nails a vocal take with the exception of a few notes. I’ve found that I’d rather fix those couple bad notes in the mix than make the singer re sing the part or re sing the whole thing and lose the vibe they had in that awesome take.
You’re right. That would be one exception, I fully agree!
Good point. The problem is we become overly anxious and too excited, and want to get the tracks done and out there and out of our system, and not realizing that recording takes time. It is a process. We all need to slow it down a bit. How many times have we said the next song will be different?
True… But after recording I often find out that I don’t really hear if its good or bad anymore – I notice it after a few days of listening sometimes…
This is often my problem. This happens when I record vocals sometimes. I want to keep the session moving so I may not hear everything the right way. I guess I need to slow things down and make sure I have what I need. I really do hate trying to fix these things in the mix so it makes sense to get things right the first time.
Best blog picture ever. Nice
I remember being that guy a years ago → “Can’t you just fix it in the mix”. Great post
The comic is priceless, Graham.
Ha ha, so true. That “you’ll fix in the mix, right?” is really painful. Plus artists thinking you’re a wisdom and your magic tools could fix everything thereafter…
Thanks a lot for that post 🙂
That picture made my day :).
Guilty as charged on occasion. I apply the ‘play it right at record’ principle to others, tend to slip for myself.. bad habit, have been trying to break it last few songs.
The funny part is nowadays, recording is cheap. No tape!
Would you recommend some occasional compression plugins during tracking, if you know the sound you’re going for?
If you are recording through them, yes!
I thought getting a great source sound was just assumed…I mean, why would you start with a deficit? Would you decide to run a marathon but figure; ‘well, once I hit that mile number 8, I’ll put my left running shoe on’.
I spend lots of time tinkering with sound beforehand. Sure, you don’t want to over-tinker and kill the idea itself but making sure that when I do hit record, that the sound I’m putting in works is just assumed.
I’ve always heard ‘fix it in the mix’ but that just meant to me that I’m supposed to work harder up front.
It’s not assumed, that’s the crazy thing.
Ha! A friend and I are collating right now- he’s doing songwriting, conceptualization and vocals and I’m producing the track. He doesn’t have much gear for recording, so he sings into his tablet, and the quality is fine… But he doesn’t know about mic placement and things, and so far he’s sent recording that sound like different rooms and different mic distances and angles. Hopefully this doesn’t become something to fix in the mix, because I don’t really know how to correct these things! Still learning
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