How to Record At Home and Sound Pro: Tips and Tricks 1
How to Record At Home and Sound Pro: Tips and Tricks 1
Your Ears are the Most Important Hardware You Own:
That's right, your ears are the most important element in your professional sounding production and unfortunately they don't come programmed for the job. You must listen to mixes that share the same production sound you are after. The only way to really "program" your ears for the job is through repetition of these "reference" mixes. And most importantly, listen to them during those periods when you are actually mixing and finalizing the tracks.
Listen to the effects, the levels of each instrument and try to decipher the frequencies that pull each instrument up in the mix.
The Pillars of a Good Mix:
I'd have to say that e.q. is by far the most important thing to a mix, but a close second would be levels. Wildly varying levels is a song is distracting and obnoxious, and the best way to sooth the rough waters of a track with "rowdy" volumes is to compress them correctly. That will smooth the wrinkles and make it easier for the ear to listen to the production as a whole and not be distracted by unappealing spikes in volume.
Of course, the best way to have smooth levels in your final mix is to record the instruments with good levels. Because you will most likely be using your computer and recording digital audio, you can't push the level too hot. That would cause "clipping" of the audio. Clipping can't be fixed, only removed. So be sure not to clip the audio by recording at too loud an input level.
A great way to combat that is to compress the audio slightly on its way into the track. Be careful not to "squash" the sound, but tempering the spikes in volume with a subtle compression should help.