Advanced mixing tricks for a unique sonic identity

Follow along as we give a basic mix a unique twist in several inventive ways

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Here’s a head-nodding 124bpm Tech-House groove comprised of basic beats (a 4/4 kick, clap, shakers, and a hat loop) alongside a repetitive chord hook and grooving bass loop. The rough mix sounds pretty good, but let’s alter the track’s overall tone using a few basic mixing techniques. We group a few of the parts to group busses: namely the kick and clap; shakers and hats; and the bass and chords.

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First, we’ll address the shaker and hat group. Listen to the track from the previous step; the hi-hat parts are somewhat of a relentless ‘wash’, and therefore lack groove and movement. To remedy this, we’re using Xfer’s LFOTool to slowly fade up the group’s volume every ½ bar. To compensate for a slight drop in level, we then use Live’s Utility to push the volume back up by around 1dB.

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The kick and clap are decent, but they could do with character in the top-end. With this in mind, FabFilter’s Saturn multiband distortion plug-in is loaded on the kick/clap buss. We distort the upper-mid and treble of this signal to extremes, then dial back the Mix knob to just 10%, which adds a vibey sense of bite and presence. A slight low-pass filter after the distortion then reins in extreme treble.

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Now for the bass and chords group. Experimentation is key for a distinctive-sounding result. Eventide’s Omnipressor is used in expansion mode to heavily pull up the quieter sections and induce distortion over certain bass notes. We then use Live’s Audio Effect Rack feature to blend the processed signal in parallel alongside the dry signal.

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The chord line could do with more character and thickness in the mix. We use Soundtoys Crystallizer to mix in a subtle delay layer that’s pitched an octave above the chord’s root pitch. This addition is kept subtle in the mix, but we automate Crystallizer’s Dry/Wet Mix knob slightly up at the end of each fourbar section to give the effect motion and life, in line with the original part’s movement.

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To add a unique touch of thickness and width across the entire mix, we send our three main subgroups to a return track loaded with custom processors – saturation, EQ, reverb and characterful compression. We’ve exaggerated this return track’s level in the mix so you can hear its effect – in a real mix scenario, keep anything like this at a much lower level.