Is late at night the only time you have to mix? Trying to get great sounding tracks without waking the family or neighbors? Read on.
In part 1 of this little series we touched on why having to be quiet while you mix is actually a blessing in disguise. We also addressed the “non” issue of lack of time. Today I want to give you the final two steps to creating great mixes late at night.
Via Sean Reay Flickr
Step 3 – Tweak In Headphones
If you have a choice, always choose to do the bulk of your mixing on speakers (studio monitors). Why? Because headphones can trick you, both with exaggerated stereo image and separation and EQ hype.
If you read Part 1 of this series then you know you can and should totally mix quietly on speakers. But you shouldn’t ONLY mix on your monitors. You’ll need to do some tweaking with a simple pair of studio headphones.
The two things you’re listening for on headphones at this stage are noises or other sonic problems you may have missed when mixing on speakers with the volume low, plus details in the reverb and delay tails. This “microscopic” view of your mix will help you tighten up any trouble spots (like pops, clicks, lip smacks, bad edits, etc) and dial back the verb or delay as needed.
The “hidden hack” of switching to your headphones at this point is that it forces your ears to reset and “wake up”. Remember our ears get used to whatever they are hearing so we lose perspective quickly.
Step 4 – Reference Mixes On Your Monitors
After making any necessary tweaks while listening in headphones, it’s time to go back to your monitors for the home stretch.
At this point you should have a balanced mix, with proper EQ and compression, tasteful reverb or delay effects, and you should know if there are any trouble spots or noises. The final task is to make sure your mix will translate out in the real world and hang with other pro mixes.
One of the most underused mixing hacks around is to reference a pro mix right inside of your DAW. The beauty of this technique for the late night mixer is that you need some point of reference when mixing so quietly and what better reference than a pro mix you love?!
Pull it in, drop the volume so it’s level matched with your mix, and go back and forth between the two. What do you notice? How does your top end sound like compared to the reference? What about the bass? How do the vocals sit in your mix verses the reference? And so on.
Make any slight tweaks you need on your mix in order to bring it closer in line with the reference. Your mix will never sound JUST LIKE the reference, merely closer to it. And that is the goal. To be in the ballpark of a pro mix, tone and balance wise.
Final Step – Walk Away
OK, so there is one bonus step: and that is to render out your MIX 1 of the song and walk away. You’ve done all you can tonight. It’s time to come back during the day and listen to what you’ve done (maybe in the car on your way to work).
You need to hear it with fresh ears out in the real world and take note of any changes you’d like to make.
An important note here: you should expect to notice things you want to change. This is normal and healthy. Think of this process as your first impressions after mixing. They are generally spot on and worth paying attention to.
Make the tweaks you need to later that night, and then rinse and repeat the process until you feel you are ready to call the mix done and move on.
No Excuses
If you really want to make great mixes, and late at night (or early in the morning) is the only time available, then just do it. Most of us are in the same boat as you, pressed for time. Most of us don’t get to do this for a living. Even I have other commitments with family, business, or church that don’t allow me to mix when I’m at my “freshest.”
We all have to fight for the time we want and just get after it. There are no excuses any more. You have the gear. You have the ideas. You can MAKE the time.
I want to hear from you: what is your new late night mixing schedule going to look like from now on? What time(s) will you be mixing and how much will you get done in a given week?
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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 post as always! I’m going to try this mixing at night technique. I’m planning to record an electro-acoustic this Autumn and I want it to be mixed at night. Fingers crossed 🙂
I love to mix at night. Seems that I’m more focused then.
Graham,
I not only mix late at night, but also record and master (with my kids sleeping directly upstairs). I use drum sampler, so no dealing with acoustic drums (which would be absolutely forbidden at my house after 9PM). Then I go ahead and record my guitar and vocal tracks (vocals inside a walk-in closet).
From now on, I will schedule my studio time between 10:00-11:30 (midnight max), and will draw a specific plan before I even start a song, for example: which tracks I will complete today and tomorrow, what date I will start mixing, etc.
Way to have a plan!
Graham, I’ve started using the Samplemagic “Magic AB” plugin, as a method of referencing my mix to commercial records. It costs about $40… I agree with the SOS magazine reviewer… once you try this plugin, you will never go back! I am just starting out at mixing and have found this plugin incredible.
You put the plugin on the last slot of your Master Buss, and can instantly play one of 9 different songs (that you have chosen) that are saved anywhere on your hard drive. You can press a big “A/B” button which instantly swaps between your mix (“A”), and the commercial mix (“B”). A and B both play through your DAW’s output. You no longer have to import the commercial tracks into your mix session.
Honestly, Graham, check it out. I think this plugin would be a great “Quick Tip” for people, and have a huge impact on our mixes.
thot i was the only one who bundles into the closet!!!
Great techniques! How about mixing according to the same rules but early in the morning? Wake up at 5am for a nice 2-hour mixing session, and get on with the rest of the day from 7am on. It gives you energy for the entire day!
I’ve tried that many times and failed. Couldn’t drag myself out of bed – I guess I’m more of a night owl.
Yes, many people have more success (and energy) first thing in the morning. You are at least mentally more fresh.
But then again, you DO have to get up early 🙂
I’ve found that when I use the mix hack of dragging the reference right into the DAW it works even better (for me anyway) if the reference track is in the same key as the track you are working on.
Love this idea…going to try next time I use a reference mix.
Another idea: if you are getting ready to write a song, then write it in the same key as your reference title.
…. or better yet, transpose your reference title inside your DAW, that’s very easy to do, in Cubase anyway.
I work as a chef from 10 am to 11 pm and from 1 am to 6 am I work in my studio all can say
it take at least one year to change the way you sleep and the way you do things
if you are looking to do mix beats mastering at night try to look for a partner all the time it’s the best way to get
things do faster
I get to my mixing between 8:30-9:30 and try to get a n hour or more in before shutting it down. In terms of reference tracks, as I find my ear is not as developed as I’d like it to be, I rely on the comparison EQ function of Ozone 5. It will analyze the reference track and my current track mix and develop an EQ which helps the Current mix sound more like the Reference track. I don’t actually use the Ozone EQ…I just use it to tell me what frequencies need work and how broad or narrow they need to be. I then take this knowledge and apply these EQ tweaks to individual instruments and, if neccessary, individual Aux mixes or master bus. Cheating I know but it’s helping me to make a correlation between what I’m hearing and what my EQ move will sound like.
The other issue I have is Mixing on Headphones. I’m not sure why so many people are down on the practice. My headphones are extremely Flat and accurate. When I mix on them…..It is as Graham has said….like listening to sound under a microscope. But it also removes the Room effects from the monitors. As My room is in the process of being treated with acoustic panels…it is still less than optimal in terms of accuracy of sound. By using the headphones and removing the room response…it seems that what I’m hearing is more of a “pure” and accurate representation of the mix.
I know exactly what you mean but your point is actually why you don’t want to mix EXCLUSIVELY on headphones. Most people won’t be hearing it in that “perfect” environment so it’s actually misleading. Not saying there is a right or wrong way to do any of this but it helps to switch it up and reference things in other less-perfect environments.
On your comment: “The other issue I have is Mixing on Headphones”, I agree. Headphones can be more accurate than monitors but the stereo placement can be misleading. I sometimes use Flux Ircam HEar v3 software which claims to give you an accurate stereo field like monitors within your headphones. I use both headphones and monitors but mainly use the phones in “mono” only for extreme detail analysis. I can pick out more detail this way with the phones. Then I listen on monitors for a second opinion (both in mono and stereo).
i’ve had the experience of a mix sounding poorer once i changed the set of headphones to another. when i mixed and changed back to the other ones, it all sounded good, hence the need to use many references, and the reference track is sooo magical. do bear in mind though that the mix may not match the ref track in terms of volume as there is mastering to consider, (which also uses a ref track which you can refer to the engineer!)
Hi graham, i am such an admirer of you and all of your posts! I have learned so much and also confirmed many theories that i had thanks to you. I am mostly a producer singer/songwriter, i have done some mixing but i feel that i still need to learn so much, and your tips are always helpful, you have a talent for explaining things in an easy way. By the way great singing voice man! Any way i will keep watching your videos and reading your posts and hope help me understand a little more the incredibly complex art of mixing.
Thanks a lot!
Eddie
Thanks a lot Eddie!
I have found that my headphones give me a better result than my monitors. I’m sure it’s because of my monitors are cheap m-audio monitors.
Anyway, when referencing a pro mix, I am assuming you would turn off your mix buss effects? That way your reference track is not going through more compression, eq, etc..
Most DAW will let you route an audio track straight to your hardware outputs and skip your master buss altogether
Yep.
Oh wow! great tip
I use AKG K712 Pro – Open, Over-Ear Mastering/Reference Headphones thru a SPL Auditor headphone amp for microscopic analysis of EQ, noise reduction, etc. However, I use them with the “mono” switch on only so I’m not fooled by the stereo width. I always mix and master with high end monitors (Focals). Late night mixing always proves to be less effective than early morning mixing. However, late night “listening” helps me to “identify” problems in my mixes. But I know better than to try to fix them late at night. I’ll wait until the next morning. Just my way, but anyway that produces results is fine in the end. Thanks for all your suggestions.
Since most people are sleeping at night, there seems to be less intellectual or non-intellectual static around and focusing is easier. It’s always fun listening to the mix the next day with fresh ears as you have described, Graham.
i only mix at night because i have a full-time day job and a family, but am a part-time musician with my own record currently in the mixing phase. one small thing that i’ve found useful when mixing at night (and when mixing your own project), is to not over-saturate your mind and ears during the day with the same tracks that you’ll be mixing at night. i have my own office area at work and often times i’m tempted to put the earbuds in, start up itunes, and play the previous night’s mixdowns or recorded sessions over and over anD OVER, AND OVER again through out the day. i’ve found that when i do that i’m not able to approach the evening’s mixing session with fresh ears and perspective. so instead i’ll just take a “focused” listen or two during the day, write down a few quick notes to “chart the course”, and wait until the evening to grind it again. to boot, to help me with my evening mix sessions, i’ll sometimes create a playlist of professionally recorded tunes that are similar to the song i’ll be mixing later and fire up the playlist during down time throughout the day.
at the same rate, at night i try not to spend too much time working on the same track (as in an individual instrument track) lest my focus gets hi-jacked. but it’s definitely a lifesaver to bring in reference tracks into your daw or else you’ll lose your path quickly.
during my evening mixing sessions i will actually switch between the nearfields and headphones. with my nearfields i’ll occasionally walk around my room to get a different aural perspective than constantly sitting in front of them – taking full advantage of a quiet house with my wife and kids asleep. through trial and error (mostly error), i’ve found it best not to eq with headphones but instead rely on the headphones to verify reverb trails, verify and basic overall balance (in mono and stereo), and verify that the song’s mix has “life” to it. i do rely heavily on headphones during editing though and then toward the final mixing of a song will check eq’s with various headphones and ear buds to make only fine adjustments.
thanks graham for your wisdom and mission. i probably owe you a copy of my finished record (and credits therein lol) since your website, emails, and videos have helped me get the mixes that people are complementing me about.
-vic
I can relate myself with this article. Being busy everyday in the office is mentally exhaustive, making it almost impossible to capture a fresh mood to perform recording and mixing. But as you’ve nailed it, no more excuses. Time is formidably unforgiving. Unless that we really insist in ourselves to finish something despite the mood swing, nothing will be achieved. I really push my second wind after office hours until almost midnight. And it really works! At least I know something is happening. Action really beats inaction !
Thanks for this Graham. You are very helpful. Night time and tiredness, always go hand in hand. I know stuff sounds aweful at some point, yet the same will sound good some other time. I will keep all these tips permanently pinned to my wall.
I agree about sampling different speakers/headphones. Once, I finished a mix in the studio and took a CD out, into the LR and listened on a PA set-up I use for karaoke parties. It includes a JBL 18-inch sub woofer. When the music started, I had to rush to the EQ, to turn down the Bass, which sounded so strong as to be horrible.
After this, I bought a ten-inch sub woofer for the studio, so I can detect the presence of bass at lower frequencies. This prevents my over-driving those frequencies.
For those who’ve not seen it, the movie, Once, is worth a look since it includes some pretty good points about studio-ops, notably the test-listening of the mix in the engineer’s Volvo station wagon prior to finalizing the session.
jjrem’s comment should be on all of our walls, “Action really beats inaction !” Thanks.
My studio is pretty close to the kids’ rooms, so even low volume on monitors is difficult. I have to do a bulk of mixing on headphones, frequently using reference tracks, then reference in car next morning on commute and make voice memo notes. I’ll take a short amount of time right after getting home from work (while I can make noise) to address my notes using monitors, then rinse/repeat!
As far as schedule goes, I get home from day-job, eat dinner and hang with family, get kids to bed, then hit it in the studio from about 10pm to 1 or 2am… 😛
I am an early morning mixer,I wake between 4 and 5 am and after a sufficient amount of coffee I head out to my detached garage studio. After the day job most nights I’m depleted so I work in the wee hours. Yesterday I was truly on to a cool song and a good mix then the computer crashed before I had saved the project! I remembered someone saying “Keep in mind that everything you do is an experiment” so I decided that the first mix was an experiment and I am now in the process of rebuilding it even better! well that’s the plan anyway, that and saving everything!
I’ve started using the Sample Magic “Magic AB” plugin, as a method of referencing my mix to commercial records. It costs about $40… I agree with the SOS magazine reviewer… once you try this plugin, you will never go back! I am just starting out at mixing and have found this plugin incredible. In fact, I would almost say that if you were going to spend $40 on ANYTHING to help your mixing…. I would recommend to spend it on this plugin.
You put the plugin on the last slot of your Master Buss, and can instantly play one of 9 different songs (that you have chosen) that are saved anywhere on your hard drive. You can press a big “A/B” button which instantly swaps between your mix (“A”), and the commercial mix (“B”). A and B both play through your DAW’s output. You no longer have to import the commercial tracks into your mix session.
Honestly, Graham, check it out. I think this plugin would be a great “Quick Tip” for people, and have a huge impact on our mixes.
Seen Pensado use this. For many situations it seems to be a great idea!
Totally agree with you David – it’s such a simple, cheap plug-in with some really great benefits!