Why You Should Mix at Low Volumes

Today's topic might sound a bit boring to some of you, but it's very powerful and can improve your mixes (and your mixing skills) dramatically.

I know, mixing in loud volumes is so much fun.

The monitors are blasting your mix, you are full of excitement, and everything's going great! So, what's the problem?

Mixing in loud volumes is simply fooling yourself

I'll explain, if you mix in a loud volume you'll never hear the true sound of your mix. And if you can't hear how your mix really sounds, you will make poor mixing decisions.

Louder is better, right? Not when mixing

Louder sounds better, there's no way around it, that's just how our ears work. Take two identical mixes with a difference only in volume, the louder one will sound better, sometimes even without realizing that the volume is the reason.

But loudness isn't transparent, it comes with side effects which can be harmful for mixing.

• The louder we hear something, the more low end and high end frequencies we hear. No, it's not your gear, that's just how our ears perceive loudness (It's called the Fletcher-Munson Curves).

• Everything sounds punchy and exciting when played loud. That's why we love listening to music in loud volumes. But that's the exact opposite of what we need when we're mixing.

• More volume equals more room tone. The louder the volume is, you hear more of the sound reflecting and reverberating in your room. And if you're in a home studio like me, it's probably not an amazing sounding room.

• Your judgement of volume balance is mislead, you can't really hear what's too loud and what's too quiet. Simply because everything is loud.

• Your ears will get fatigued much faster, affecting your mixing decisions (and not for the better).

Everything sounds hyped

Everything sounds hyped

Did you get all of that? Let me break it down for you. Your mix has plenty of low end and high end, it's super punchy and exciting, and you can hear every track with ease. No wonder we love mixing loud! It makes us feel great!

But this is not how your mix REALLY sounds

All of these things are happening when you're mixing, just because your volume knob is set too high.

It's time to turn it down

OK, so mixing loudly has negative effects on our mixing decisions, but what's so good about mixing in quiet (or rather conservative) volume levels?

• It forces you to focus, concentrate and listen carefully to your mix. You hear how your mix really sounds, and you can also hear the midrange better. This makes you do the right EQ moves. If you want a hyped sound you'll have to work on that mix to get it.

• You hear the REAL dynamics of your mix. Your mix won't sound punchy and exciting, unless you work on it and make it sound like it, without "faking it" by cranking the volume. If you can get you drums to sound punchy on lower volumes, you won't believe how HUGE they will sound when you (or a listener) turn the volume up.

• You hear the PROBLEMS of you mix. Frequency masking? Phase issues? If you can hear them, you can fix them.

• You get a true representation of the volume balance of your tracks. If a track is too loud, it will "jump out" immediately, if it's too quiet, you'll notice you can barely hear it.

• You hear less of the reflections in your room. This means you'll hear less of the problems of your room, resulting in a more natural mix that "translate" better to other listening systems (i.e outside your studio).

• Your ears won't get fatigued. You'll be able to mix for longer periods of time, while still staying sharp.

That's huge! You'll hear how your mix REALLY sounds like, and you'll have to WORK on your mix to get it to sound truly great!

Your mix will sound exciting at any volume level

That's great, but there is one question remaining.

How low should you go?

Throughout this entire post I've talked about loud and quiet volume levels. But what's considered loud? What considered quiet?

Here's my take on it: Let's say you're sitting down with a friend in your studio, listening to one of your mixes, and you want to tell him "Check out this guitar solo". If you have to yell to be heard over the music, the volume is too loud.

What volume level do you mix in?

Let us know in the comments!

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