Chapter 14: Mixing Your Project in Logic Pro

It has often been said that mixing is as much an art as a science, and I agree. I will not teach you how to mix in this book. No other book will really teach you how to mix either, because it is about training your ears and your mind. What I can do is give you the things you need to consider, and the great tools Logic Pro provides you with to achieve good mixes.

We will discuss the following topics in this chapter:

• The goals of a mix
• Creating prominence and sonic space with volume and panning
• Dynamics plugins, EQ, modulation plugins, and delays and reverb
• Other considerations

The goals of a mix

When we do a mix, we should have two goals in mind, and they can seem like they are working at cross purposes, but once you understand why, you will head down the right path:

• Hear every sound in your arrangement.
• Make all the parts into a cohesive whole.

If you have worked hard on your arrangement to get it to a state where every part that exists in it serves a musical purpose, then of course you want to hear each one, but not at the expense of the mix not all sounding like a, well, mix.

With a lot of practice and skill, we can achieve both of these goals.

The methods we will be applying to this are as follows:

• Using volume and panning
• Effects (FX) plugins
• Sending to FX hosted on Auxiliary (aux) channel strips
• Other considerations

With Logic Pro 10.6, we got a very nice bonus, a Logic project with the song Ocean Eyes recorded by Billie Eilish, written and produced by her brother Finneas O'Connell, and it is...

Working with FX plugins

There are lots of great FX plugins on the marketplace that either emulate hardware or are unique to software. Logic Pro, however, comes with a really good suite of them, and Ocean Eyes is proof of this, in my opinion. So, before you reach for your credit card, spend time with Logic Pro's plugins.

Note

I own many third-party plugins, so the screenshots you see in this chapter will not be exactly what you see if you only have the Logic Pro-included FX plug-ins.

Plugin categories

The Dynamics processor plugins control level. Compressor, Limiter, and Noise Gate are three examples of these that we will discuss:

Figure 14.9 – Dynamics plugins

EQ plugins, short for Equalizers, adjust frequencies throughout the frequency range. They are primarily a problem-solving tool, meant to either boost or attenuate (lower) certain frequencies that either cause problems within the track or between tracks:

Figure...

Mixing as you go versus starting from scratch

Here is where we come to a very subjective topic. I will give you my views, but others will disagree, and they are not necessarily right or wrong.

I started at a time when the common practice was for an engineer to set levels for players while they were tracking their parts, and then when it came time to mix, the engineer would pull all the faders down and start from scratch, by balancing and panning the drums, or maybe the vocals.

People working with samples and software instruments mostly mix as they go, and I do too.

When time permits, however, I prefer to do the following:

• Create a new Project Alternative.
• Bounce and replace all my software instrument tracks so that now I am only dealing with audio.
• Pull down the faders and start from scratch.

Why do I prefer doing this? Well, because I am a composer who learned to mix, rather than an engineer who learned to compose, I think differently. This way, I...

Other considerations

Here are some final thoughts I will share with you about mixing. As promised, I did not teach you to mix because I can't. It takes a lot of practice.

A mix will always sound somewhat different on different playback systems, but the intention is to create one that sounds good on as many as is possible, which is often referred to as how a mix translates.

The following factors will affect your ability to create a mix that you know will sound good on other systems:

• Your room.
• Your studio monitors (speakers, not computer displays).
• Your other playback options.

If you do not have a room that has been acoustically treated, and most of us don't, bass frequencies can get trapped, so you don't get an accurate bass level for translation. There are a number of solutions:

• Buy some acoustic panels and set them up. There are a lot of tutorials on how to do this on the internet.
• Buy room correction software that is designed...

Summary

In this chapter, we covered the goals of a mix, and how to achieve them using volume, panning, and different kinds of FX plugins. I also gave you some advice on what to expect from your mixing environment, and how to listen to your finished mix to evaluate it.

In the next chapter, we will become familiar with how to use automation, both offline and with the project playing back, to bring liveliness and movement to your mixes.