What is a Mix Engineer? Here is a definition from wikipedia…
“A mix engineer, also referred to as “mixer”, is a person who, once all instruments, voices, etc, have been recorded, creates what’s called the “final mix” or “mixdown” of a song. Hence the term “mix engineer”. He or she takes all the elements that have been recorded, and ‘blends’ or ‘mixes’ them together, with the aim of achieving a good balance of the instruments and vocal volumes, as A more technical definition: an audio engineer in sound recording, audio editing and sound systems who balances the relative volume and frequency content of a number of sound sources. Typically, these sound sources are the different musical instruments in a band or vocalists, the sections of an orchestra and so on.”
My mixing technique is to keep it all in-the-box – I don’t use any hardware outboard equipment. All processing happens through software plug-ins. I do this for three main reasons.
- The plug-ins on the market today sound fantastic!
- I have very limited space in which to work.
- They make for the most accurate recalls.
The software “equipment” I use varies depending on the the sound I’m going for, but my application of choice is Apple’s Logic Studio.
My core set of processor plug-ins range from IK Multimedia to Metric Halo to TC Electronics to Apple. My favorite new addition is IK’s T-Racks 3 Deluxe. It’s mostly a set of mastering tools, but individually the Classic processors, the Fairchild 670, and the Pultec EQP-1A work very well when mixing – either on a channel strip or across the output bus. The plug-ins within this suite sound really, really good. For monitors I prefer the Event Audio SP 6’s with a KRK Sub.
