Simplify your mix

Andrew Stone, Production Manager and Audio Director at Church on the Move in Tulsa, OK., writes on his church blog:

… here’s the reality: sometimes, amidst all these worthless inputs and all this gear patched everywhere, the heart of the actual song gets lost. Simplify it! Ask yourself: Can one keyboard part suffice live even if it took 7 parts on the record? Can a lead guitar line mixed over a good rhythm guitar rock for a live mix or are you just duplicating what you saw some band do in a controlled studio environment because it looked cool?

The human ear can only handle so much crap before it begins to internally dampen the barrage. Simplify your mix and make every single element count. Ever wonder why some of the most singable songs were created by 3 and 4-piece bands? No matter what you think of bands like Coldplay, U2, Keane, or even AC/DC, none of them have very complex input arrangements when it comes to their live mixes. And the crazy thing is that their basic combination of inputs usually results in an extremely simple and effective mix where every element can be heard cleanly and distinctly. DEFINITELY something I’d rather listen to.

There is a growing tendency I’ve seen to be sure that every part and every line in the studio recording is covered live*. While this commitment to serving the material is admirable, and comes from a heart of due diligence, I also think it can miss the forest for the trees. The forest in this analogy, is the overall sound and impact of the band and it’s relationship to the vocals and connection to the congregation.

One of my most profound realizations of late is that good mixing begins with a good arrangement. You want to make your hour engineer sound like a champ? Feed them a great arrangement, which means not everybody is playing the same part and same sound all the time. Feed your engineer a dozen lines of sound droning on, and you’ve failed to do you job as a band, and delegated the job of arranging (assuming it gets done) to your engineer, who must now mute parts and push and pull faders if the song is to have any life to it.

When we hear a sound engineer suggest that we “simplify and make every element count”, we really need to ask ourselves about how each element serve the song**. Each element should be saying something, or we should seriously consider cutting it or not adding it in the first place. Sound doesn’t need to be “filled out”, sonic elements need to be essential.

 

 

 

* Multi-tracks has undoubtedly played a role in our growing awareness of all these tracks, and arguably enabled it. I’m trying to keep an open mind about Multi-tracks, and I understand where they can have utility early in the development of a band and team, but primarily see their contribution as a training tool for how simple parts can be as opposed to the message that you need a lot of tracks for something to sound good (the “wall of sound”).

** Filler sounds and ambient drone pads, I’m looking at you.