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Mixing with Mastering in

Mind: Tone
By Rob Schlette on 06/6/2013 · Mastering / Mixing

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There are a lot of different ways to conceptualize ‘tone’
when we begin to think about a contemporary recording
project. Some of them are powerful, and some of them are
VIDEOS pointless. This article points out a few useful techniques for
addressing tone during mixing, with mastering in mind.

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1. Tone as an Organizational Tool

Search ... There are a lot of great articles on this site and others that 
point out how important it is to organize a mix. Most of
these writers point out that it’s musically productive to think
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in terms of groups of tracks and instruments. Myopic track-
level tweaking only finds focus in the creation of these
groups.

Figure 1 is an example of a very typical multi-track recording

in many rock, pop, and country genres. Thinking about
simple musical function, it’s easy to begin to organize this
recording into three basic groups: lead or focal content, the
elements that support the song rhythmically, and the
elements that support the song harmonically.

As pictured in Figures 2 and 3, there are different ways to

approach this type of organization, but the goal is always
the same. If we can create consistent, meaningful contrasts
between these basic instrumental groups, then the tonal
character of the mix (and perhaps the whole record) quickly
begins to take shape.

As a simple example, take the question, “what is the

brightest, most articulate element of the mix?” Consider the
different musical results of allowing the rhythmic
instruments (pictured in red) to be more or less bright than
the harmonic instruments (pictured in blue). Let one of
these groups predominate harmonic content above 8kHz or
so while the other begins to roll off subtlety in the 5kHz-
8kHz range. Perhaps the brightest of the two groups needs
a little attenuation in the midrange, around 800 or 900Hz.

Similar coarse tonal contrasts in the low frequencies will

help organize a mix with musically meaningful and easily
repeatable sonic character. This is a really powerful thing if
you’re trying to execute a group of mixes with consistency.

2. The Tools of Tone

EQ is an obvious tool of tone, because it gives us direct
control over the harmonic content of our signal. As
powerful as EQ is, though, it isn’t always the right choice.
Other tools like dynamics processors also change (distort)
harmonic content. The key is choosing the right tool, and
understanding how to use it toward your tonal goal.

We’ve seen the ‘EQ versus compressor’ question before in

the case of sibilant vocal tracks. If we use an EQ to
attenuate the offending frequency content, we loose the
clarity of the vocal during all of the non-sibilant passages. If
there is a time condition in addition to the tonal goal,
frequency-focused compression (like de-essing) is probably
your smartest tool.

In other cases, you might try thinking in more abstract

terms about tone. Engineers like Tchad Blake are expert at
creating interest and contrast within a mix by using
distortion as a tool of tone. The key is to remember that
tools like saturation effects are most effective in terms of
how they contrast with the clean, unaffected elements of
the mix.

Open up the last mix you did where you thought you had
treated the mix buss somewhat aggressively. Instead of
processing the whole mix, try applying that treatment to
just the rhythmic content (drums and bass buss), or just a
subgroup of the vocal content. You’ll probably find that with
a little re-balancing the mix is much more interesting and
engaging. A distorted mix is just a punch line without a
setup.

3. Have a (Simple) Plan

In the same way that organizing your mix is important,
organizing a simple plan for how you’re going to execute a
group of mixes is also important. This is especially
important if you or your client plans to spend money on
specialized mastering services. Mastering can go a long way
toward pulling a bunch of individual mixes together into a
coherent project, but it’s best when the mixes are already
vaguely associated.

Some good tonal benchmarks would include:

What are the basic instrumental groups,

and should those vary among the
different types of songs included in the
project?

Which elements will predominate below

200Hz, and how much of that content will
be presented in the mixes.

Which elements will be the brightest, most

articulate element of the mixes, and do
those vary among the different types of
songs included in the project.

If all of this strikes you as profoundly simple, then you’re

getting the point.

Say what you will about the tenuous status or fate of album
projects – they keep rolling into mastering studios all over
the world. The records that end up presenting music in
compelling, engaging ways tend to include smart choices
about how to use tone to organize the arrangements.

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You might also like:

1. Mixing with Mastering in Mind: Dynamics
2. Mixing and Mastering for Vinyl
3. 50 Mixing Tips From Steven Slate
4. 5 Dynamic Ways to Think About Masking
5. 6 Mix Nuances You Feel, Not Hear

ROB SCHLETTE

Rob Schlette is chief mastering engineer and owner of

Anthem Mastering, in St. Louis, MO. Anthem Mastering
provides trusted specialized mastering services to music
clients all over the world.
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Irene Greene • 3 years ago

Well, not really that simple but I can pull this one off because
of this post. Thanks a lot! http://www.distrophonix.com/
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