Rough Mix

A preliminary mix of the existing tracks and elements recorded for a song. A rough mix is usually the first opportunity for the artist and producer to hear what they have recorded in the context of a complete or nearly complete production. The rough mix is often when various ideas for what instruments should be the focus at various points of the song, what effects and processing to add, and so on start to emerge. A rough mix is often used for tracking solos, lead vocals, and other “featured” tracks as well. Very few final productions are ever done without a rough mix being produced first. In many cases, if a different engineer will be mixing the project from the one who did the tracking, a rough mix will be supplied by the tracking engineer as a guide for the mix engineer (who may or may not use it as the basis for the final mix).