Hi all, and welcome to the new Mix Review forum. The aim is to promote critical listening, analysis of and debate about commercial mixes. Each month, we'll be updating this forum with the content of the new regular Mix Review article from the pages of the SOS magazine.

To help keep things orderly, only SOS mods can start new threads — but anyone can respond.

If you have a burning desire to attempt a critique or two of your own to go on this forum, then do feel free to email me at matt *at* soundonsound.com and if your skills are up to the job I'll kick off a new thread.

Let the flame wars commence!

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SOS Reviews Editor

Hey Mike, just wanted to say I love the new mix review. Hearing your and others analysis of various tracks is great for developing my listening skills and I'm grateful.

Kev

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Tryin to keep open that mind

yep, me too - really fascinating insights and well made analysis. a great read - thanks guys

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I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill and think things over
Twitter

Hi guys, newbie here. Just read the thread and find it interesting. Great insight and analysis. I love reading it. Very informative indeed. Learning more. More review please. Thanks!

Excellent new feature, very very useful.

I haven't seen anywhere to put suggestions, so I gather you're not looking for any... but I'm going to be rude and suggest that a track of Ethan Johns' splendid work on Ryan Adams' 'Heartbreaker' would be a great candidate! Especially as it seems that Ethan Johns does not seem too keen on doing interviews, it would be nice to have some focus on his incredible work.

Aled

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Bill Withers while Tom Waits, and Stan Getz

Excellent forum!

The mix reviews so far have provided an interesting technical insight to be music which although many seems to make a reasonable commercial impact for many music fans (Wire readers perhaps? ) would find the music/tracks reviewed themselves a little uninspiring.

Which in a slightly convoluted manner is to request a leftfield choice perhaps? An artist who would be more at home on the cover of Wire magazine or heard on BBC's programme 'The Freak Zone' opposed to music which is more at home NME, MTV or BBC Radio 1 etc etc...

I am sure aside from my own interests there are others who buy the magazine and frequent the forum who's interests lie in less conventional musical realms and would appreciate bodies such as Sound to Sound to provide a technical insight into such realms....

This is really great!

One thing I notice - a lot of the comments and insights refer to the arrangement as much as to the mix. Maybe there's room for an "arrangement forum", or perhaps this forum could be extended to a "mix and arrangement forum"?

Best regards,
Knut from Norway

Quote Knut Skaarberg:

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One thing I notice - a lot of the comments and insights refer to the arrangement as much as to the mix.

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Well, the Mix Review column (which is the basis of this forum) is designed to deal with all of that, and any other general production issues too. It's mainly about just trying to learn something by listening to finished commercial mixes without necessarily knowing anything concrete about how they were put together.

Of course, if you'd like to add some observations on aspects of the mixing of these tracks, then please do! The whole point of putting this article into 'forum format' is to get a discussion going so that we can all come out of it wiser.

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Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio
A complete mixing method based around the techniques of the world's most famous producers.

i think mixing and arrangement are two sides of the same coin. if a particular element or layer doesn't work you can dial it down in the mix; likewise, something that was previously background can be made more prominent. creative use of effects can make new parts where there were gaps before, or tame things that were out of control.

a "song" is melody, rhythm, and harmony. the arrangement is the elements that give you those things, and the mix is how those elements are put together.

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hourglass | random thoughts | doubledotdash!? collective

Quote Knut Skaarberg:

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This is really great!

One thing I notice - a lot of the comments and insights refer to the arrangement as much as to the mix. Maybe there's room for an "arrangement forum", or perhaps this forum could be extended to a "mix and arrangement forum"?

Best regards,
Knut from Norway

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I Agree. I'm new to this forum, so I don't have a lot of experience in posting, but I would defenitally use it.

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Recording Studio
Online track mastering

Quote caveman82:

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Which in a slightly convoluted manner is to request a leftfield choice perhaps? An artist who would be more at home on the cover of Wire magazine or heard on BBC's programme 'The Freak Zone' opposed to music which is more at home NME, MTV or BBC Radio 1 etc etc...

I am sure aside from my own interests there are others who buy the magazine and frequent the forum who's interests lie in less conventional musical realms and would appreciate bodies such as Sound to Sound to provide a technical insight into such realms....

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Whilst I agree, I think that much of the mix advice/critiques/etc offered here in the "conventional music" analysis can still apply to many other areas of music. I keep finding that although a mixer might specialise in a certain area, a good mixer still seems to be a good mixer regardless, as a lot of the technique in mixing isn't, and can't be, genre specific. Then factor in that some of the commercial mixers analysed right here are arguably some of the most talented and inventive in the world right now then the commercial mix reviews offered by Mike really can transcend nicely into left field music, or whatever genre to be honest!

So, I'm more than happy with the commercial slant Keep up the fantastic work!