A static mix is a track made with no automation. Automation is the changes that are made in the volume or the panning, which is drawn on to the channel. However, in a static mix, the track has its volume changed through the use of compression, EQ or by the changing of the levels within the mixer. I think static mixes are better, because they allow you to make better compression and EQ decisions. All of the tracks that I have made are static mixes. I will use my first recording as an example. As you can see in this screengrab, no automation has been used to alter the individual channels, however I have changed the volume levels in the mixer, this is because the levels were clipping and I wanted to give the track some headroom. The headroom was taken into consideration during the recording process. Before we hit record, we had a few practice run throughs so that the band could be prepared and so that we could check that the microphones were all recording and plugged into the right inputs and that we had the right inputs in logic according to the stage box. During the practice runs, we were then able to adjust the levels in the mixer, which of course could be changed later on but we roughly altered the faders for the purpose of recording.

As you can see from this screengrab, you are able to pan channels without the use of automation. When recording, we used overhead microphones so that we could get an overall sound of the live room which gave our recording more of a live performance feel, however we could of chose not to use it if it wasn’t the sound we were going for, although we decided to keep them in. Also because they were specified left and right overhead microphones we had to pan them left and right according to their positioning to the drum kit. However, in a static mix, you don’t have much precision when panning. For example some producers like to quickly pan their track between left and right to create their unique sound, if I wanted to make my track sound like this, I would have to add automation.

Signal to noise ratio is a measurement that describes how much noise is in the output of a device, as opposed to the signal level. For example, when recording the guitars in our tracks we recorded it through an amp, however we pointed the microphone towards the cone so that we got a good quality sound, but not too much that the sound was distorted, but not too far away that I would have a bad signal to noise ratio, which means I would get more background noise. If I were to do the recordings again, I would place the microphone a little further away on the guitar in the second track, from the amp so that it isn't as distorted as how we have recorded it.

Dynamic range is the term used when referring to a waveform. More specifically, the portion between the quietest and loudest part of the recording/ audio file. The dynamic range can be changed by the use of compression on the mix. The dynamic range can be altered through the use of compression. During the process of compression, most typically you are likely to boost the quieter portion and reduce the louder signals, it is about controlling the troughs and peaks in the mix.

You will further understand how you can manipulate the dynamic range as I go into further detail on using compression. Compression threshold is how loud the signal must be, before the compression has been applied. Compression ratio is the amount of compression being applied to the channel, for example in my kick drum for the first recording, my ratio that I used was 3:5:1, this means that the input signal has to cross the threshold by 5dB, only then can the output level increase by 1dB.

Compression attack is simply how quick the compressor starts to work on the channel. The attack is measured in ms (milliseconds), this means if you have a quicker attack time, it would make the track sound more punchy. Having explained the attack, compression release is essentially the aftermath, (also measured in ms), it is how quick after the signal dips below the threshold that the compressor stops working. Compression make-up gain/ output, is a feature that allows you to boost or reduce the compressed signal, it is more typically used to boost, as it is common that when using compression, your signal tends to naturally reduce; this is why the gain is a very useful tool.

Another important thing to consider when mixing a track is your levels and leaving headroom in your mix. When some channels in your mix are too loud, the levels start clipping, this is shown when the output level turns red. I suggest leaving a few dBs before the clipping level, these dBs you leave are your headroom. If your levels are clipping, it can be solved by turning down the faders, for example if your music is playing at –3dB, then your headroom is 3dB, I would suggest having a headroom of 6dB. Digital distortion is something that occurs when your levels are clipping. In a good mix, the levels should be green, when it becomes to loud, it turns yellow, then red. If a lot of your channels are clipping then the overall output would be very digitally distorted, and your track would most likely sound poor quality if everything is at different volumes, this may cause some instruments to battle against each other, where they're more likely to get drowned out.

The frequencies in the track can be manipulated by using the EQ. For example if there are unwanted high frequencies piercing through in your mix, you can turn them down this way. For my choice of EQing for the kick drum in the first recording, I turned down the high frequencies because there were unneeded signals that I wanted to take out of my kick. The kick drum is where I started when mixing, because I use it as the bass of my track.

This is my EQ decisions for the guitar in the third track. I took some of the low frequencies out to get rid of unwanted bass sounds, and I also removed a lot of the high frequency signals because when you record a guitar, you can get the odd piercing signal that makes the mixing process more difficult. When it came to mixing the guitar in the first track, we struggled a lot, however after mixing the rest of the track, we ended up liking the gritty sound, so we kept it, which made the track sound like more of a live recording, which we didn’t mind.

I used platinum reverb on the Africa track because we used vocals in it. I use reverb almost all the time when it comes to vocals because it softens the tone of the voice. I have only a small percentage of the dry output used, adding dry to the reverb is like adding a small percentage of the original vocals (without reverb) back into the channel, whereas the wet feature is doing the opposite and adding more of the reverb version of your vocals in. High cut and low cut are where the reverb is on the spectrum, so by turning up the low cut level, you are removing the low frequencies from the reverb and vice versa.

In this screengrab you can see what EQ decisions I made on the kick drum (in the Africa mix). I removed a lot of the low frequencies to make the kick quite punchy. I also reduced the amount of high signals and boosted some mid frequencies to make some quiet signals louder and stand out more in the mix. If I were to have to done the Africa track again, I would side chain the bass so that the kick drum would stand out better. Side chaining is where you cut off the bass sound quickly so that when the kick hits, it doesn’t have to fight with the bass signals. DBFS means decibels relative to full scale. 0dbfs is the maximum volume your mix can go before distortion, so anything above that would sound very poor quality.