The Best Way to Record and Mix Drums and Base in to a Song

Many professional will tell you many different ways to go about this. There tips and tricks of all kinds when it comes to what kind of music you are mixing. But through the years I found my self reverting back to one process that I have enjoyed and think that it helps me get the best results in the least amount of time.

First I mix all of my highs or non- base and drum tracks together. Then I mute those and I mix all of the drum tracks, once I am happy with the way the drums are mixed I then bring the rest of the tracks in except for the base and I mix them according to volume and do what ever small frequency changes that are needed. Next I turn off all tracks except the base and drums and mix accordingly.


The last step is to mix them all together. I find at this point, with all of my previous mixing there is not much mixing that has to be done. You should be pretty close to the sound you are looking for without the need to do to much more frequencies changes and what not.

I think this works the best because it's usually the baseline that needs the least amount of work in terms of eq and effects. In-fact, most of the time the only thing I make changes for is the clash between the kick and the base. As long as the volume is where it's supposed to be, I find that the base needs very little work, thus making it easier to work with all of the other tracks first and then smooth in the base.

Guitar Tip: Record Different Microphones From Difference Distances

While attending school at the Recording Institute of Detroit, I found that one of the major focuses was microphone placement. And since getting the perfect sound from a guitar can sometimes be so difficult, instructors often emphasized guitar microphone placement more than other sections of recording.



One of the things we always talked about and practiced was the process of using multiple microphones efficiently at and around the sound source to improve your chances of achieving the perfect sound.

The rule of thumb we were taught was: Why put all your eggs in one basket, meaning why just use one microphone?


If you can take three or more different microphones and set them in different places such as: two up nice-and-close, about 1-5 inches away picking up sound from both sides of the source, another one about 3 to 5 feet away, one in the distance, maybe ten feet maybe further and others placed about the room depending on preference -- you will have a broad line of guitar tracks that can be useful during mix-down.


With this process, when your done recording, you should have enough sound sources that even if a couple of them did not turn out the way you wanted them to, you should still be able to find something that fits your needs. Weather it's just one track you decide on using or you decide to use more than one together with each other, you should be able to avoid the need to go back in the recording room and re-record the track.


This process may also allow you to cut back on plug-ins such as reverb or delay. You can try to mix in some of the room mics to emulate those plug-ins, and lets face it, the less you use your plug-ins the more natural the sound source sounds.


Important Tip: Make sure that each separate track sounds perfect while playing by itself, worry about how they sound playing together later during mix down.

From course-to-verse from song-to-song, the options of having a different texture of sound from the same guitar without the need of leaving the control room to change things around can be extremely convenient for a recording engineer and producer.

Although this tip is pretty amateur, it can still be often forgotten when going through the motions of setting up for a recording. But if you have a guitarist and or a band that's not sure exactly how they want the guitar to sound throughout a track or an album, than this is a great way to give them a couple of track options with one recording section.

Is Mastering Your Music Project Really That Important?

This question comes up a lot, mostly by rookies because it cost extra money and it’s a process that can be quite complicating for the inexperience. 

Should I master my music after mixing? The answer is simple, YES. 

This is just one part of the recording process, but possibly one of the most important. What you hear coming from your DAW into your monitor speakers or headphones will not be the same once it’s played in MP3 or CD format. Also let’s say you burn your music to CD, listen to it and you like what you hear, since all music devices are different they will play them differently. 

Essentially, what mastering does for your music is it gives it all round correct accuracy and clarity when played at any level on any device. 

Now, as a rookie, should you attempt this process by yourself? You can, but doing it successfully is up to you and how serious you take it. If you go at this process with no idea of what you’re doing, then you may as well just leave it as is. 

But, if you’re willing to take some time and learn by (tutorials, videos, books, websites and hands on experience with a professional) you may get the knowledge you need to tackle this process and be successful at it. 

If you do decide to take it seriously and try to master by yourself, you will need to invest in an outboard software mastering program such as IZOTOPE. This is an industry standard program that I found to be the best as far as user friendless, it was also what we were required to use while I attended school for engineering.

Tip:  These are your three different major mastering procedures you should look-up and study.

1. Multi-Band Compression

2. Parallel Compression

3. General Compression and Brick Wall.

Audio Recording: Resting Your Ears is a Must

In my opinion and by most accounts no one should do the whole record, mix, master processes all in the same day. But if it is something that has to be done then lengthy breaks are required for your ears to achieve optimal performance level.

Not only will you yourself, experience exhaustion, but both your ears and your brain will get tired as well. When your brain and ears get tired they do not process the sound the same way. Your ears actually have moving hairs inside of them that move back and fourth when they encounter sound. When you listen to something at a loud volume for-to-long, the hairs get tired and instead of standing up right to catch the sound and transmit it to the brain properly, they lay down and cause your ears not to hear certain frequencies . This is why it is a must to give your ears a break if you want to hear everything correctly.