Hi Jon! Would love to get your insight on how you approach getting separation and less mud/masking in a mix (when the song calls for more separation of course). Starting with hearing the overlap and muddiness, how are you approaching it? For example, the billie eilish mixes you’ve worked on retain so much low mid energy, but somehow didnt feel “muddy” and felt nicely separated. Personally, I am mostly having an issue with overall low mid clarity in my mixes, but feel free to share any general thoughts also!
Andrew! This is my favorite area to mix honestly. Definitely can be the most challenging, but it’s so rewarding when you can create a harmonically rich mix in that area with clarity. It’s where all the mystery sits. I do some pretty big eq moves in the low mids, but I try to be very selective on which instruments to do this in. I use soothe2 a lot and now in combination with pro-q4 to dynamically clear things up in the low mids on groups. Really focusing on the attack and release of these tools to maintain, if not expand upon the feel of the groove. You can really maximize the movement of a sluggish feeling record by sorting this out musically. Going too hard will result in a scooped sounding mix, but finding that fine line is magic to me. Tony Maserati and Manny Marroquin has nailed this on so many mixes, and I’ve just listened to their work and practiced for 20 years now. That’s all it takes! Cheers!
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