There is a fine dividing line between dull and lifeless, and harsh and over-bright. Discovering that dividing line is an important part of the production process. Let me explain. The process starts with the recording of individual tracks. Let’s say you are recording an electric guitar. Does the sound from the amplifier, as heard by your ears rather than microphones, sound dull and lifeless? At this point you should make every effort to get the best possible sound right from amp. The same applies to your vocalist. There are many people who can ‘nearly’ sing. But compared to a top notch singer they do indeed sound dull and lifeless. Next, is the microphone. You should select and place the microphone to get as close to the sound that you want, without any processing. If you fail to do this you will end up trying to make a silk purse out of the proverbial sow’s ear. At this point, it really shouldn’t be necessary to EQ or compress. But if you know for sure that you have certain EQ and compression preferences for certain sounds, it won’t hurt to add a little, to get things sounding as they should. Dullness and lifelessness in the mix can result from too many tracks all competing for the same place in the frequency spectrum. You need to ’shape’ each sound so that it is strong in the frequency range that is important for it to cut through, but not too much that your tracks become brittle and harsh in tone. One problem that could occur is too much high frequency equalization on the vocals will make them harsher or silibant and this is a major problem to fix at the mastering stage for CD or vinyl. Do all of the above and you will have a clean mix full of great sounds. In fact, you’ll find mixing easy because of all the preparation you have done. Further fine tuning of the sparkle of the mix can be done through EQ of the mix as a whole. At this point you are ready for mastering and the group or artist would hand over the final mix for me to master. No more dull, lifeless recordings! (more…)