why mixing professionally is important

 

twenty years ago, an experienced audio engineer told me „you can’t be a good engineer if you haven’t had at least 10 years of experience“, and i thought to myself „well maybe that goes for you, it doesn’t have to be the case with me“. 10 years later i did have to admit, experience taught me how to improve in all areas.

why is the voice pressed away by the music or sounds indirect and incomprehensible? why is the bass throbbing or why does it sound thin? and, when it sounds good, the bass drum is too silent or too obnoxious. the voice interferes with the horn section or the drums are pushed too much to the background – what can i do to avoid that? as soon as the voice is clear, other noises suddenly clearly appear. i finally singled out the hi-hat but all of a sudden all other instruments sound muffled.
 
mixing is not solely a technical process that is about levels, panning and resonance. a good mix can do a song right, it emphasizes the drama of a song or creates dynamic, it can support emotions or make the composition comprehensible. it takes a lot of experience to combine and melt together the elements and energy, instead of just arranging the levels. sometimes we really need to look into an arrangement, to fully understand it – because a good arrangement is already half the mix.
looking into the production with a set of fresh eyes, also is a very important aspect. we are able to see which elements are most important, set priorities, we can add new facets or leave some out. 
since many years echochamber mixes a variety of albums, film-music and tv-productions. the following titles are a brief selection of that: 
 

xavas, müslüm, remady & manu-l,  bligg, nyna, terry lynn, blusbueb, musicstars (diverse), sterneföifi, greis, dee day dub, baze, telaphones, tre cani,  wurzel5, division kent, king kora, blehmuzik, gran purismo, bonkaponx, peer seemann, mandingda, luut&düütli, namusoke, brothertunes, allschwil pose, the droogs, gimma, crush, tempo al tempo, tre cani, meng tian, levin deger, sunebuebe, ganglords, catchpole