How do I mix a song to compete with everything currently on the radio?

Question

Meeting the sound demands of today's top hits can be tough. I have a proven way to meet those demands, so that songwriting can be of the utmost importance.

Answer 1

Hey Ryan!

This is a large question that could be a very large answer, but I'll try to boil it down to the basics for you.

Mixing a pop or hit song is all about balance, simplicity with simultaneous complexity, and groove. And then specifically the mastering process that's added on the end can add quite a bit of that "professional sound too".

Let's break it down:

1. Balance - Think smooth. There are no elements in the mix that rub your ear like sandpaper. Instead, everything bobs and flows together like the waves in an ocean. In pop, the vocal takes mainstage, so be sure to have a fair amount of compression and high-boosted EQ. Some saturation can also make it shine.
2. Simplicity with Simultaneous complexity - Listen closely to hit songs and you'll notice that there are one or two memorable elements that shine, but behind the scenes much quieter in the background are a wide variety of stimulating noises, transition effects, and textures. This creates a ton of depth!
3. Groove - Mixing groove is all about EQ and not squashing the heck out of a luscious sound. This is a classic mistake for engineers who are just beginning. Imagine the human breath moving in an out to a tempo. This is how groove should feel. Make sure that each element of the track feels restrained by compression so it's smooth, but still dynamic enough to have musicality to it.

Finally, mastering is a large part of making a track sound professional. My mastering chain is basically a master bus compressor to glue everything together (I use CLA Mix-down), a Multi-Band compressor (to enhance balance, glue, and smoothness), some analogue emulation plugins (Abbey Road Vinyl, NLS Summing), and finally a mastering limiter (Ozone). :)

That's all!

Answer 2

Assuming you are talking strictly about mixing and not song writing some of the most important things to keep in mind are tasteful compression to glue everything together, some reverb room tone to make everything sound like it’s coming from the same space, and leveling is also very important, making sure all your sounds fit good with each other in terms of dynamics and loudness.

Answer 3

Mixing properly is both a science and art. Although not a firm rule, get to the vocal or hook within 10 - 20 seconds. Be brave and remove tracks that aren't contributing to the sonic quality or message of the song. Take me somewhere with your composition rather than an endless loop. Don't make the song too long unless you have a good reason for going over 3 minutes. Saturate every track. Use modest double compression on almost every track in the song. Think 3D... Reverb bring sound closer or farther away. Frequencies spreading across the spectrum, and movement of volume. Automation on everything... HPF, VCO, etc . Have tracks bussed to a Mix track in addition to Master track. Mix track and be adjusted for maximum volume before limiting on Master. Set target LUFS to at least -11 and EQ to balance full spectrum.

Hope this helps! Dave