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• Be sure to take frequent breaks, since ears get tired from overuse. A few general rules of thumb
are to take a 10-minute break every hour (therapists do it, so why shouldn’t we?). Another option
is what is known as 90/20 rule: A 20 minute break every 90 minutes. Sometimes it’s important to
spend as much time not listening to the mix as it listening, that way your ears will be refreshed
when you start working again
• A mix is a series of logic riddles, similar to building a house of cards. In many cases, one action will
aect something else in your mix. Listen to subtle changes carefully to understand the eect they
have on other tracks.
• Remember, the solo button is your enemy! When listening to a track soloed, you have no point of
reference for how it sits in the mix. It’s ne to solo an instrument to nd out if there’s a trouble spot
in the performance or how you’ve processed it, but you should then immediately take it out of solo
and listen to it in the context of the full mix. A better option is to bring the fader for that particular
track up in your mix to hear what the issues are. It doesn’t give a perfect sense of context, but it’s a
lot better than just hearing it by itself.
• Listen to your mix on dierent speakers and in dierent environments, particularly environments
where you normally listen to music. If you have any questions about how a certain instrument may
be sitting in your mix, you’ll have better information if you know you’re speakers aren’t tricking
you. Also, your client is likely to perform the ‘car test’, or ‘ear-bud test’, listening to it in as many
environments that are as far removed from a treated, acoustically good mix room as possible!
• Have a list of songs to reference that you are familiar with. Create a playlist of numerous songs that
you know intimately. Listen to how the vocals sit in the mix, how the reverbs and delays sound in
context to the instruments, where the drums sit in relation to the bass and guitars, how tight or
how loose the low end is, and so on. Comparing your mix to familiar material can gives you a point
of reference for everything that you’re doing. Having the client suggest references mixes that they
admire can help in this regard.
• At some point, or multiple points during your mix, turn o the computer screen and just listen to
the mix. You’ll be surprised at what you can hear when you remove the visual component from
your work.
• If at all possible, when you nish your mix, put it away for the night and listen to it when you rst
get to the studio the next day. This will give you the freshest perspective you can possibly have
and will give you a psychological and physical rest before sending the mix o to the client.