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Volume Balancing Cheat Sheet

The document discusses volume balancing as a key part of the mixing process. It recommends spending 30-60 minutes adjusting volume faders to balance the levels of different instruments and ensuring the most important elements are most prominent. It advises starting with the loudest section of the song and bringing the most important instrument to 0dB as an initial reference point before balancing other elements in order of importance relative to that. Volume automation is also recommended to account for variations in different sections of a song.

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Greg Sykes
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2K views4 pages

Volume Balancing Cheat Sheet

The document discusses volume balancing as a key part of the mixing process. It recommends spending 30-60 minutes adjusting volume faders to balance the levels of different instruments and ensuring the most important elements are most prominent. It advises starting with the loudest section of the song and bringing the most important instrument to 0dB as an initial reference point before balancing other elements in order of importance relative to that. Volume automation is also recommended to account for variations in different sections of a song.

Uploaded by

Greg Sykes
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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VOLUME BALANCING

CHEAT SHEET

www.musicianonamission.com
STRONG FOUNDATIONS
• The act of adjusting the volume faders and making sure every instrument
is at the appropriate volume.

• Volume balancing is where the bulk of the mix comes from.

• Spend plenty of time here, don't skip ahead too soon (30-60 minutes).

• Old school engineers relied on volume balancing alone, and used little to
no EQ or compression.

• People have forgotten this today, and get distracted by plugins and toys.

HEIGHT ORDER
• So, how do you approach it? Bring all faders up?

• I recommend starting with the most important element, then bringing in


elements one by one in order of importance

• Think of it as arranging the volume balance in 'height order'

• Usually, the key element is the vocal, or the drums

- If starting with drums, go one level deeper and think of 'height order’ of drums.
Start with kick, or snare? Once done, move onto other parts.

www.musicianonamission.com
OCCAM’S MIXING
• Occam's Razor (used in philosophy and science) is the stated principle that,
all things being equal, the simplest explanation is usually the correct one.

• We can apply this to mixing (and the entire production process).

- A slight adjustment of a volume fader can do a lot more than EQ, compression
etc.

- Often, people address problems that can be solved with the volume fader
using EQ, compression etc, HUGE MISTAKE. Always go for the simplest
solution, see if a slight volume adjustment will help

- For example, if the low end is overpowering in a mix, try lowering the volume
of the bass part instead of applying EQ.

VOLUME AUTOMATION
• Nearly impossible to get an even mix throughout the song.
Verses and choruses differ.

• For example, guitar part is too loud in verse, but gets buried in chorus.

• Solution? Volume automation.

- Not complicated, not advanced... you just draw it in.

- Check how to do it in your DAW.

• Start by automating whole sections WHEN NEEDED (not just for the sake of it).

- Later, if you need to bring smaller sections up or down, or even words, do it.

www.musicianonamission.com
VOLUME BALANCING IN 10 SIMPLE STEPS
q Organize the project.

w Check for any hot channels (i.e. gain staging).

e Loop the loudest section of the song (usually the final chorus).

r Bring all the faders down (to minus infinity dB).

t Decide on the most important channel and set to 0dB.

y Bring the in the 2nd most important channel in and balance the volume
to the first channel.

u Continue in this manner, bring channels up in order of importance.

i Once all the channels are up, spend at least 10 minutes adjusting the balance
and fine tuning the channel faders (using references will help).

o Now check other sections of the song, and listen through the whole song
while making adjustments to the faders.

a Only move on when you are 100% satisfied with the initial mix - it will probably
help to take a short break and then come back and check your balance.

WANT TO CREATE PROFESSIONAL,


RADIO-READY MIXES AT HOME?
CHECK OUT THE FREE TUTORIALS ON
THE MUSICIAN ON A MISSION YOUTUBE CHANNEL

www.musicianonamission.com

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