Okay, so you've had your moment of inspiration ; you've written the song, recorded all the parts, finished all the programming and added loads of fancy tricks to your production. There's only one thing left to do - the mix. It shouldn't take too long should it? After all, mixing should simply be a matter of balancing the different tracks until it sounds "right"? The difficult part is deciding what's "right" in the first place. There are guidelines, and some basic rules to ensure that your record doesn't end up being unlistenable, but generally speaking it comes down to taste.

This can make it very tricky to know when something is finished, and a good reason for employing a dedicated mix engineer to mix your material for you. Assuming they are working with a good recording to start with, a decent mix engineer will make your track come to life. They also have the benefit of being impartial, which means they can help you through the process of realising that the project is finished and it's time to move on, no matter how hard this may seem!

When I'm mixing, I often find a pattern in the process I go through in order to finish a track. I tend to know when things are starting to sound "right" and "finished", so I usually print a mix and have a break. Later on I'll have a listen to the mix and make notes about things that may be wrong, usually simple stuff like "guitar verse 2 too loud" or "kick drum gets lost in middle 8", that sort of thing. So I'll go back to the mix and make minor adjustments and then print it. Usually I'm happy with this mix, and in my experience I've found that the more your revisit your original decisions, the easier it is to move away from the original "vibe" of the track. It can quickly become a balancing act between paying attention to detail and "mixing the life out of it".

This is a problem that I often encounter with artists, (who can be very hard to satisfy) as the pursuit of perfection can be a very long and often disappointing journey! But equally it can lead to fantastic results, it's just a question of knowing how far to go. The truth is you probably got a lot of things right to start with, and trying to perfect your mix too much can end up in a track that sounds lifeless and undynamic (perfect?!) This is why people talk about trying to keep things "raw" and not too "polished". Music that has been "overmixed" is a sound that we associate with background music ; smooth, inoffensive and not requiring your attention. Not characteristics that most of us want to be applied to our music!

But knowing when to stop can be very difficult, because you can pretty much always find something wrong with your own work. It's important to remember that everyone else will hear your music differently to you. Assuming that the song and the recording is "good" to start with, and you're not deliberately trying to break the rules by panning everything hard left and having nothing in the right speaker, not many people will notice that the hi hat is maybe a little bit louder than you think it should be. They'll be listening to the melody, the words and the beat.

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