Mixing Tip: Get the Mix Right before Adding Effects or Signal Processing

When you start mixing, if you have an idea for a specific track, it’s tempting to go ahead and start processing that track. But many times you’re better off waiting, and trying to get the entire mix sounding as close to perfect as possible before you start adding effects. That way, everything is already sounding “pretty close” and you have a better sense of what you’ll need to do to each track to make it sound the way you hear it in your head. If you start processing individual tracks before that point, you run the risk — the likelihood, even — that once you get your other tracks up, you’ll have to change what you did. What sounds great on one track in isolation may sound less great in the context of the mix — so get the context right first and you’ll have a far easier time processing individual tracks later.