Instagram Mixing 'Hacks'

The internet is a great place to learn how to mix. There are lots of online resources which inform engineers of all levels of new techniques, processes, or approaches to mixing. I learned most of my foundational knowledge about audio from the internet! With the ever growing number of at home engineers, there is an increasing market for tips on how to achieve certain effects or sounds. However, it is important to keep in mind that at their best, a mix tip should only be a starting place, and at worst, it might lead you to one messy sounding mix.

I frequently get suggested posts on Instagram from an assortment of accounts that promote ‘educational’ material on how to get ‘fat bass’ or ‘thick vocals’. While these are just examples, I notice that posts like this target specific commonly held goals that are problem areas for many newer engineers. My main gripe is that the solutions proposed by these posts often will cause more problems than they solve if you take them at face value. The following issue, is that while you are still training your ear and learning how to mix, it might not be immediately apparent that this suggestion is causing you problems. Perhaps instead of ‘boosting 4db at 200hz and cutting at 1khz’ as might be suggested by a post, maybe you want a more subtle boost at 150hz, and no cut at 1khz. The issue with posts like this is that they ignore both the source material and context.

If you are looking at a post that claims its a ‘mix hack’ or ‘cheat code’, and follows up by suggesting very specific EQ/compression/effect suggestions for certain elements of your mix, you must understand that your song, the voice you are EQing, and the bass you are compressing, and the hihat you are de-essing are almost guaranteed different tonally and dynamically than the material that was used when the post creator was making their infographics. Therefore, you should only view this as a starting place. If you are new to mixing, use it as a way to further your understanding of what different EQs do. Try out their suggestion, compare it to what you would usually do, then maybe try something new! Eventually, your ear will gain an understanding of what different EQ curves will do to a bass track, and how a different reverb style will make a vocal feel, and you will be able to make new, custom, and better sounding result.

Even if you had the same source material, and the suggested track processing is effective, the best case scenario is that your track sounds unoriginal, and very 'same-y'. This will be a topic I will be writing about in the future, but 'different' is always what captures the ear. If your track doesn't stand out, sure– it will sound good on a playlist, but it will get forgotten as soon as its over.

Mixing is an art. Don't treat it like a paint by numbers.