Brief Summary
In this article Grammy-winning mixer Dom Morley shares some advice about gear purchases, how they should serve the purpose for which they were bought, in the case of a mixer that is mixing, and however desirable something might be it should be seen in the context of your studio, your experience and your work.
Going Deeper
As 2023’s NAMM show has just wound up, and we are all lusting after the exciting new gear that has hit the market, I think it might be a good time to sit back for a moment and consider whether that new piece of gear will make your mixes actually sound better. The responsible person here says “no – it’s your ears that matter” but I think the answer is more like “maybe”.
The question to ask yourself is what you should be spending money on in order to get better mixes, and if you were to put a wish-list together then I would suggest that there’s a fairly solid order that your purchases should come in.
1 - The basics. You can’t mix by will alone – you do need some gear to make this happen, but it’s very little. A DAW on your computer, some kind of audio interface, and monitoring via speakers or headphones (ideally both). Then you’re ready to go. The plug-ins that come free with any DAW these days are great, and certainly enough to get you started. If you’re wondering where to focus your budget, it’s on the monitoring – the best quality headphones / speakers and interface that you can afford. How to decide what ‘best’ means to you is a whole other article, but this is your base level gear list.
2 - Next on your list is not more gear, but education. Mixing is more about experience than equipment, and the only short-cut to experience is to steal the experience of others, also known as ‘education’. You could opt for a formal college course if you have the time and money, or sign up to one of the subscription services like Pure Mix, or opt for a more pay-as-you-go format like The Mix Consultancy (full disclosure: this is one that I’m involved in). The fact is that when you’re starting out, your mixes aren’t sounding great not due to lack of great gear, but because you’ve not got the right knowledge and experience yet. As an excellent example, I was lucky enough to be an assistant engineer at Metropolis Studios near the beginning of my career. If you don’t know Metropolis, it is a world-class facility with a gear list to absolutely die for. Us assistants were allowed to use the studios when they were quiet at weekends, so I learnt my craft by using a lot of this ‘downtime’ recording and mixing friend’s bands. And my God, my mixes were bad. I was permanently surrounded by the greatest gear, but my education and experience were not up to the job, so the results were poor. Very poor. (I should probably say that this was 25 years ago, and I am thankfully much better now).
3 - Once you’ve got yourself on the road to being educated, your next investment should be upgrading your monitoring. I’m sure you got something in step one, but this upgrade is still the next step, because there is nothing more important in mixing than being able to properly hear what you are doing. I know the first thing that comes to mind in ‘monitoring’ is speakers, but also remember acoustic treatment for your room will make as much, if not more of a difference than speaker choice. Perhaps you also want to go down the road of getting some room balancing software for your DAW, or some better headphones. All of this is really important to getting better mixes. And like education, these might not be the most exciting of purchases in the way a new compressor or EQ might be, but if you’re serious about getting better at mixing then these need to be your first investments.
4 - Finally, we get to toys. Plugins, outboard – all that fun stuff. I’m not going to get too deep into specifics as everyone’s gear requirements are different depending on what they are trying to achieve, but I think there are two things that I’ve learnt over the years about buying studio gear. The first is that gear is more about speed than quality. Once you’ve got to a decent level of skill in mixing (see point #2 above), you can get something good out of pretty much any equipment that you’re presented with. A great mixer will get a great mix with a simple DAW and stock plug-ins. However, that great mixer will do that great mix a lot quicker if he or she is surrounded by the gear that he/she knows really well, that they can call on immediately to produce specific sounds that they are looking for. Being surrounded by great gear will speed up your process, but it won’t mix a track for you.
Secondly, limitations are good for creativity. I recently read an interview with the electronic artist Jon Hopkins, who was talking about his track ‘Insides’, which was an important breakthrough track in his career. He had been working a lot with Brian Eno prior to writing ‘Insides’ and so followed Eno’s ideas about putting arbitrary restrictions on your process to stimulate creativity. Hopkins decided on the number 9 (and multiples of it), “I wrote a 9-note riff, which cycled for 9 minutes and 18 seconds over a 36-step sequence” and so on. Restricting yourself to a few bits of gear may not satisfy your G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) but it may make you a more creative mixer, and that, more than anything else, will help you take big strides in your mixing career.
Obviously, I’m not saying you shouldn’t be buying any of the shiny new toys that have been on display at NAMM this year – I’ve got a lot of friends in the studio equipment manufacturing business, and I don’t want to do them out of your much-valued custom. All I’m saying is that you should approach studio investment with a plan, and if your list of what to spend your hard-earned cash on looks something like that list above, then you’re likely to be accelerating your mixing career rather than just hosing it down with cash and hoping for the best. Choose wisely, and that new bit of gear may actually help you become a better mixer.
More Recording Resources From Dom Morley
Dom is the founder of the Mix Consultancy, a zero risk (money back guarantee) way to get notes on your tracks to help improve the sound. Whether you're an artist who likes to mix all their own work, a composer putting together a pitch on a limited budget, or an engineer who wants a discreet second opinion before sending a mix off to a client - we're here to help.
“I just completed a mix with the help of Dom Morley & The Mix Consultancy. The mix we turned over was qualitatively better than the one I would have gone with on my own.
It's been said that "a mix is never done, it's just abandoned", but the truth is, you *really* do feel a sense of completion and closure having worked with Dom because you know in your heart that you did everything you possibly could to get the best result possible for the client.
The beauty behind the process is that not only do you get a better mix for your client, but Dom's advice contains all kinds of gold that you can borrow and deploy in future mixes.”
Geoff Manchester
From engineering tips to production advice, EQ and compression basics to mix specifics, we’ll give you the information and guidance that you need to take your mixes to the next level. Find out more here
In addition to the one-to-one advice Dom has produced some excellent online courses;
Everything You Need To Know About Recording Vocals
Preproduction, DAW set-up, preparing the studio, psychology, equipment. Literally everything you need to know.This is a short, free, mini-course on the four things that you really need to know in order to get great mixes, and the four things that you really don't!
Photos by Dylan Posso on Unsplash, Techivation on Unsplash