The first time I ever mixed a full band (well, "band" is a strong word; it was a solo project of mine and I played all the instruments myself), I thought I did an amazing job. It sounded great in my studio.
Then I did the car test, and the low end was so overwhelming it was genuinely unlistenable. Naturally, my gut reaction was to blame the monitors in my studio, but deep down I knew the real problem, and it wasn't the only mistake I made.
If your mixes keep failing the car test, keep reading; learn how to avoid the mistakes that I made on my first mixes.
You'll hear a lot of people tell you to use reference tracks, but not many of them tell you how. There's a reason for that. The truth is, mix engineers use reference tracks for all sorts of tasks. Sometimes they use them to get an idea of what the song they're mixing should sound like. Some use them as palette cleansers during a break from a mix session. I use them to train my ears, over and over and over again. The big mistake I made in that first mix was not listening to reference tracks to get an idea of what a good mix should sound like on my fairly new monitors.
Since then, I've made it a point to listen to music on my monitors constantly. I have music playing when I'm writing these blog articles (I'm currently re-listening to Enemy of the World by Four Year Strong. Great record). And I make it a point to retrain my ears every time I begin a new mixing project, in a very specific way.
Here's what I do: every time I receive a demo from a band, I pick out all of the influences I hear. Then I spend time listening to those influences on my system to get an idea of how to approach my own mix. It's a simple process, but it works.
This was another key mistake I made in that first mix, mostly because mixing loud music at low volumes is the most counterintuitive activity ever. Loud music should be mixed loud, right?
Turns out, not really. Louder doesn't mean better; it just means louder. The truth is that if you can get a mix to sound balanced at low volumes, where you can hear every element clearly, it will translate well at any volume, on any system or device. The opposite can't be said for mixing at loud volumes. A mix that only sounds good at higher volumes is likely hiding problems behind the loudness.
Plus, you'll destroy your hearing, and that would suck.
This one catches a lot of new mixers off-guard. The instinct is to pan everything full LCR (left, center, right). At least it was for me. Guitar left was pushed all the way left. Guitar right was pushed all the way right. You get the idea. Full width, maximum impact.
Do you know how soul-crushing it is to fix the low end in the mix, only to find out that your mix sounds completely thinned out the next time around? This is the problem with full LCR panning. When the guitars, or toms, or whatever else are pushed way out to the edges of the mix, the center of the stereo field feels empty. The mix may sound wide, but lacks the energy and density that you need (especially in punk and all of its wonderful subgenres).
The solution is simple: don't pan full LCR. Pan the guitars at 70% - 80%, and leave some in the middle. The mix will still feel wide, but it will also feel full.
Playing a mix in the car is a time-honored tradition in music production, and for a good reason. Cars are a controlled listening environment, and they happen to be the place where people listen to music the most. If your mix sounds good in a car, that usually means you're good to go.
The inverse is also true. A lot of times a mix can fall apart during the car test (that's kind of what inspired this entire article, right?). The car is brutally honest when it comes to pointing out problems in your mix, and those problems will translate to other devices and systems if they're not fixed.
When doing the car test, just like when you're mixing, listen at low volumes. If you can hear every element of the song clearly when listening at a comfortable level, your mix is in good shape. If something disappears or gets buried, go back to the studio and fix it (or fix it on your laptop in the car. I've heard some mix engineers say they do that. Whatever works). If your mix fails the car test repeatedly, go back to the beginning and retrain your ears.
Mixes that translate well across systems and devices are the product of trained ears. Learn what a great mix sounds like on your system. Mix at low volumes. Keep your panning in check. Follow this advice and watch your mixes improve.
If you want a second set of trained ears on your mix before it goes out, Riot Anthem Studios is available for one-on-one coaching and consulting. If you want to hand off your mix for someone else to do, we're here for that too.