Never mind how to fix your mix, the difficult bit is identifying exactly what needs fixing. If you understand the problem you’re most of the way there. Dom Morley offers advice on critical listening.

There are no ‘secrets’ to mixing. You can gather all the technical knowledge that you need relatively easily and quickly these days - whether that be through formal education or a long (and slightly painful) process of separating the knowledge from the nonsense on YouTube. The difficult thing about mixing, though, is knowing what to do in a mix. You can have all the techniques for punchy bass, clear vocals, slamming drums, but if you can’t hear the actual problems in your mix then you’re not going to apply the right solutions. And this is where the skill of critical listening comes in - being able to hear where your mix is having problems is, if anything, the ‘secret’ to mixing. 

How Do You Get Good At Critical Listening?

Well, trial and error is a big part of it (as with learning anything) but I once had a two day crash course in it, so I think that might be a lesson in how to get better at critical listening quickly. Back when I was an assistant engineer in a big studio, I was working on a session that involved digitising the back catalogue of a Big Rock Band (can’t say who, but that’s not important to the story). There were three studios running with a mix engineer and an assistant in each one, and a rough mix was done of each track as we loaded the songs off 2” tape and into Pro Tools. I was a fairly experienced assistant at the time and doing a lot of engineering on sessions myself, so when the guy I was assisting was off ill for a couple of days I was asked to fill in for him (dream job!). The producer of the project was also a mix engineer, so he suggested that I set up the mix for each track, and then he would come in and finish each one off before I printed it. What this meant, of course, was my mix was being checked and improved upon by someone with 20+ years more experience and many more hit records than me (dream opportunity!). Naturally, I was glued to him while he did this - trying to work out what he could hear that I couldn’t, and what changes he made to my mix that made it better. In those two days I learnt more about mixing than I had in months of trial and error - and that lesson stuck with me. From then on, if I had a good relationship with a much more experienced mix engineer, I would ask if I could play them a minute of a mix that I was working on so that they could tell me three things that they would change about it. Every time I did this my critical listening skills improved as someone more experienced than me was pointing out issues that I couldn’t hear.

Education And Advice

I realise how lucky I was to be in this situation, but the question is, how can we all access something similar to develop our critical listening? The obvious answer is education. If you enrol in a good course then your tutors, lecturers etc will all be able to help you push your mixing skills on by showing where you can improve. That’s literally their job. 

We don’t all have the time and money for full-time education though, so what else is available? Outside of formal education things get tricky for two reasons - (1) finding actual experts and (2) persuading them to put the time into your work. There are a few forums and Facebook groups where people are happy to offer feedback on mixes. That’s the second issue covered, although how many of them could be called ‘experts’ I’m not sure. I’ve seen a variety of feedback given on these sites that has ranged from very useful to absolute nonsense. It’s tricky to know which is which if you’re the one asking questions. 

There is also software out there specifically designed for critical listening - SoundGym comes to mind here. I’ve not gone deep on it myself, but I wish it had been around when I was getting started! It’s a really useful website that you can sign up to and there are tons of games that help to train your ears to hear details of EQ, compression, distortion etc. Although this is certainly something I’d recommend you try, it doesn’t actually listen to your mix and tell you where you’ve got issues! 

Another option is a professional feedback service (shameless plug coming - brace yourselves). I set up one myself (The Mix Consultancy) a few years ago to try to offer people who aren’t as lucky as I know I had been the chance to get the same experience as I had on that session with the Big Rock Band. Anyone can upload their mixes and get detailed feedback from a Grammy-winner (did I mention I would be shameless?) on how to improve the mix in question as well as future work. I should make it clear that I’m not the only person doing this, so take a look around if this sounds like something that would work for you and give one of us a try. 

The ‘secret’ to great mixes isn’t something you can learn from a fifteen-minute YouTube video. It’s about experience and effort in perfecting your craft and training your ears. If there’s any shortcut that I’ve seen though, it’s a method that’s as old as the hills - find someone who knows more than you do, and ask them for help.

More Recording Resources From Dom Morley

Dom is the founder of the Mix Consultancy, a zero risk (money back guarantee) way to get notes on your tracks to help improve the sound. Whether you're an artist who likes to mix all their own work, a composer putting together a pitch on a limited budget, or an engineer who wants a discreet second opinion before sending a mix off to a client - we're here to help.

“I just completed a mix with the help of Dom Morley & The Mix Consultancy. The mix we turned over was qualitatively better than the one I would have gone with on my own.

It's been said that "a mix is never done, it's just abandoned", but the truth is, you *really* do feel a sense of completion and closure having worked with Dom because you know in your heart that you did everything you possibly could to get the best result possible for the client.

The beauty behind the process is that not only do you get a better mix for your client, but Dom's advice contains all kinds of gold that you can borrow and deploy in future mixes.”

Geoff Manchester

From engineering tips to production advice, EQ and compression basics to mix specifics, we’ll give you the information and guidance that you need to take your mixes to the next level. Find out more here

In addition to the one-to-one advice Dom has produced some excellent online courses;

• Everything You Need To Know About Recording Vocals
  Preproduction, DAW set-up, preparing the studio, psychology, equipment. Literally everything you need to know.

• Mixing 101

  This is a short, free, mini-course on the four things that you really need to know in order to get great mixes, and the four things that you really don't!