4 BENEFITS OF GREAT MUSIC MIXING

It is such a gratifying experience when you have your music blasting out from the venue speakers and the audience is moving along with your performance. You’ve brought you’re A-game, you’re hitting it hard on the mic, and the crowd is feeling the vibe. Afterwards, fans greet you, other artists want to collaborate, and the venue was pleased with the outcome. What no one knows is what it took to get there. This includes finding/composing the music, writing the lyrics, recording, mixing and mastering. However, a lot of up-and-coming artists don’t really understand that having your music well produced makes all the difference in the world. Consequently, too many songs posted on Soundcloud, Facebook, or YouTube have bad-sounding audio everyday. And because of that, I want you to think about how the mix of a song affects your music, the impression it gives, and your overall success in your music career.

1. BALANCE AND CLARITY

The first and immediate benefit to accepting quality audio mixing is having balance and clarity in your sound. What exactly does this mean? Your mix should have balance in 4 domains: frequency, stereo-image, depth, and level. You want to have a mix that sounds good at low and high volumes. When you have a mix that sounds great at different levels, you have balance and you don’t lose perspective, either on large venue speakers or on headphones. Your listeners should be able to hear every word and instrument through out the entire song. There is definitely quite a bit to do here in order to achieve a great mix, especially if the source of the recording wasn’t a great as it could have been. If the source of the recording was subpar, then the mixer has a lot of work to do. For an artist that is not trained in the art mixing, it will be difficult to achieve a great mix, which is why these are considerable reasons you need to have an engineer onboard.

2. PROFESSIONALISM

You need to mind your business. Let remind you of who has the potential to listen to your music and make an impact on your career: record label execs, A&R reps, entertainment attorneys, bloggers, newspaper/magazine writers, producers (film, TV, video games, theater), DJs, radio hosts, music publishers, fellow artists, and most important, your audience (and potential fans). When professionals such as these see how professional you are, that could spark the right conversation that can potentially move your career forward. With the advent of technology and the Internet, you are now competing on a global scale, which means opportunity can come from anywhere around the world by proving that your music is worth the listen. The competition to having your music heard is fierce. You should start by putting your best foot forward & begin with a great sounding mix and maintain that high level of professionalism.

3. EXPANDING YOUR REACH

People talk about music… A lot! Word-of-mouth is an extremely powerful marketing tool. Think about it, if someone recommends a doctor, a plumber, or a mechanic, you’ll most likely, at the very least, check them out. When you have a movement and people start catching on, you’ll not only start to have a fan base, but what author Seth Godin calls a “tribe”. Tribes not only follow you, they’re believers, they’re dedicated, and they will spread the word. Think of Apple, Disney, Google, and Nike. They have tribes of people that live and breathe those brands. In music, who has a tribe? Some examples include the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Wu-Tang, or Bob Marley. And what do they have? They had what you have, which are the ability to create great music, lyrics, and access to production teams. When you have yourself buttoned up, that’s when you expand your reach because it says you have invested in polishing your sound and you’ve given your all to the music and the listener. And that’s worth talking about!

4. MAXIMIZING SALES

Lastly comes the ability to live off of your art. You’ve performed, you’ve had free singles and mix tapes for people to download, you’ve collaborated with different artists, your website and social media is on point, and your constantly networking. Now comes the time to make money. At some point, if this is your career path, you need to make dollars for this to make sense. And let me assure you, no one wants to pay $10 or $5 for a mix tape that sounds bad. For taking one shot, it’s a major deal-breaker when the vocals aren’t clear, the bass is overpowering, or you have to crank up the volume because the entire album was mixed so low. Again, it comes down to the mix. You aren’t releasing a minimum viable product. You’re releasing the best you’ve got. And making everything sound right is an art and a science that takes years to establish. But when you do find that engineer that makes your music sound right, your audience will have the assurance that you are an artist that always releases great sounding music and they will pull out their wallets and hand you their money. And that is an awesome benefit from having quality mixed and mastered music!

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If you are looking for an engineer to record, mix, and/or master your music:

Call me directly at 323-543-5356

You can also email me: agruv@agruv.com

For samples of my work, visit my website: http://agruvstudios.com/

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What’s up underground hip hop heads! My name is Alex, as an audio engineer I go by Agruv. UnderGroundHipHopBlog (UGHHB) has given me the opportunity to contribute weekly tips about the music industry. Although my background is in audio engineering, I did start out as a musician in high school and attended Musicians Institute (MI) in Hollywood. During my year at MI, I studied music business, which allowed me to see first hand how the industry works.

My weekly topics will mainly cover audio engineering, which will include recording, mixing, and mastering. I may occasionally cover topics such as networking, marketing, collaboration, and some philosophical ramblings from time to time.

Again, I’d like to thank UGHHB for this great opportunity. I hope I get to work with you guys on any recording, mixing, and mastering projects. But more importantly, I hope you gain some knowledge and understanding about the industry, make some dope music and take your career to the next level.

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