The Secret to a Great Sounding Track: How Far Do You Really Need to Go?

Before I knew what I was doing, I was making records that worked.

I had a 32-track desk.

A rack of outboard gear.

And very little understanding of mixing.

I didn't know about saturation.

Harmonics.

Separation.

Glue.

I just knew when a record felt right.

And the strange thing is:

Some of those records sounded great.

I Wasn't Starting With Clean Sounds

A lot of the drums I was using were sampled from records.

They'd already been recorded.

EQ'd.

Compressed.

Run through a desk.

Maybe tape.

Then pressed to vinyl.

And I sampled them.

I didn't understand any of that at the time.

I just knew the kick sounded good.

The snare sounded good.

So I used it.

The same with hardware.

Sounds were coming out of samplers.

Drum machines.

Synths.

Through a desk.

Through outboard.

Things were happening to the sound before I'd even thought about mixing.

I was making decisions by feel.

Not because I understood the process.

Because I liked what I heard.

Then I Started Learning What I Was Hearing

Years later, I started learning mixing properly.

Compression.

Saturation.

Harmonics.

Separation.

There was so much to learn.

And for a while, it was information overload.

I'd learn what a certain compressor did.

Then try to hear it.

Learn about saturation.

Then start recognising the sound of it.

Bit by bit, I started connecting the processes to the sound and feel they created.

And the more I understood, the closer I could get to the sound in my head.

So I kept going.

Another compressor.

Another saturator.

Another EQ move.

Sometimes it got me closer.

Sometimes the detail really did make the record better.

But there comes a point where you have to ask yourself:

How far do you actually need to go?

Knowing What the Track Needs

The more I learnt, the more control I had.

I wasn't guessing anymore.

If the drums needed more density, I knew what to do.

If a sound felt too clean, I understood saturation.

If the mix wasn't holding together, I knew where to look.

The tools stopped being things I was trying.

They became ways of getting somewhere.

And that's where the question changed.

It wasn't:

What else can I do?

It was:

What does the track actually need?

What I Listen for Now

These days, I know what all those tools are doing.

But I'm still listening for the same thing.

Does the kick feel right?

Does the bass hold the track?

Do the drums feel solid?

Does everything feel like it belongs together?

If it does, I don't care how I got there.

One compressor.

Ten plugins.

A sampled kick that's already been processed to death.

The process isn't the goal.

The record is.

How Far Do You Need to Go?

As far as the track needs.

That's the answer.

Some mixes need work.

Some don't.

The difficult part is knowing the difference.

Learning to mix gave me more control.

More ways to get there.

More ways to shape a sound.

But the goal hasn't really changed.

I still want the same thing I wanted before I knew what saturation was.

For the record to feel right.

The difference is, now I understand the tools well enough to get it there.

That's how far you need to go.