# How to Mix Down a Song



## janealex (Apr 7, 2010)

Every musician goes through a different process when creating a mix but generally the process goes through three stages: creating the initial tracks, mixing down the song, and then mastering. Each one of these stages is usually done by a different person, each one a professional in their field. A musician will create the song, a producer will mix the track, and a mastering engineer will master the track to production quality.

With indie labels on the rise allot of these jobs are done by the same person, you. I highly recommend hiring a mastering engineer, if you can actually afford to do so. But like most musicians your struggling, so lets get on with a few tips to help you create a production worthy mix, on a musician style budget. In this article we are going to cover mixing down your track.

Mixing Levels

Two of the biggest problems with mixes today are the levels of instruments and muddying of frequencies in a mix. Lets go over a few basic guidelines when mixing a track. There is a difference to mixing levels on a software mixer as opposed to a 32,24 or 16 channel analogue mixer which can handle about +3 db without clipping, this will vary on the quality of mixer that you are using. When mixing with software the ceiling of your mix is 0db (no exceptions) anything louder than this will clip the audio signal and cause artifacts or bad distortion to your sound.


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