Just a thought....

You all have probably heard the saying a bad mix is a result of "everything trying to be louder than everything else".
 
But in reality is that not what a "balanced" mix is pretty much all about?

Every time I listen to a new record by an old band and go back to one of their early efforts, I'm struck by how true this is.
 
Not just how loud but how big frequency wise. There's no room left for anything. Just like there's a lot to say in favour of that silence between notes, there is much to say about empty spaces in a mix. That's where the ambience is, that's the room in which you create the vibe.
 
Modern mixes are the audio equivalent of a facehugger. Personally I find no pleasure as a listener having music shoved against my face and leaving me no room to breathe. Not something I'm comfortable with.
 
Which is why I like mid/late 70's music a lot. At that point, they didn't have to degrade audio as much by bouncing stuff constantly, so everything remained clear. But they still had some limitations in terms of headroom, yet, they hadn't started trading mids for lows and hyped high frequencies.
 
 

I'm a big fan of space in a mix too. When the soundstage is crowded it just seems to fold everything into 2 dimensions. And I love contrast in a mix too. Anything that creates a sense of 3 dimensional space. A mixture of bright, high fidelity sounds and gritty lo-fi (or "lower"-fi) sounds with all the highs rolled off seems to do the trick. When everything pops, nothing pops.

I was listening to a track on Spotify last night, can't remember what it was, but in the midst of all these (intentionally) dark and muddy lo-mid sounds, there was a bright finger snap which had a very good quality room response on it, and it just leaped right out of the speakers and slapped me in the face. I love stuff like that.

I'm sure musicman2014X3 will have a problem with my last post, so I add this, to get it out of the way: