How to Get Balance in Music Mixing: Build from the Anchor

The Foundation of Every Mix

Getting a balance in mixing is quite literally getting a balance.

Think of those stones you see stacked in rivers – each one placed carefully until the whole structure holds steady. A great electronic mix feels the same: stable, connected, and alive.

Start with the Anchor

In most electronic music, rhythm and low-end are the foundation. The kick is often the anchor – solid, centred, and setting the energy level. From there, the bass, percussion, and groove elements form the structure that everything else can sit on.

For newcomers, the “anchor” isn’t a rule – it depends on the genre and intent. In techno or house, it’s usually the kick. In ambient or cinematic work, it might be a pad or drone. In vocal tracks, the voice can take the lead. The point is to find what everything else orbits around.

The True Meaning of Balance

In mixing, balance isn’t just about levels or compression – it’s how every element interacts. Move one sound, and the whole structure changes.

Engineers like Andrew Scheps talk about finding a “centre of gravity” in a mix – that one element the rest can balance around. Chris Lord-Alge calls it “building the mix around the vocal,” but in electronic music, it could just as easily be the kick-bass relationship or the groove. Whatever the focus, every part needs its own space while still supporting the whole.

Static balance – the first stage of mixing – is often done quickly with just faders and pans. It’s where you find where every sound naturally wants to live before diving into EQ, compression, or automation. Scheps and others often say this stage reveals 80% of the final mix.

Tools That Serve the Balance

Compression, EQ, stereo placement, and saturation are all tools that help shape that balance, but they’re not the balance itself. The real goal is that moment when the mix feels suspended – where the groove breathes, the bass locks in with the kick, and the atmosphere fills the space without smothering it.

When I’m compressing, I’m listening for that sweet spot – the moment where the sound feels contained but alive. It’s the point where the energy moves through the track rather than being held back.

Before calling a mix finished, it’s worth checking balance in mono or on small speakers. It shows whether the core relationships – especially between kick, bass, and percussion – still hold up. If it feels good there, it’ll connect almost anywhere.

The Moment It All Connects

That’s the real balance – not perfection, but connection. When every layer, transient, and texture feels part of the same pulse, the mix finds its calm point – like those river stones, perfectly still yet alive with motion beneath the surface.