Mixing Tips: Toggle the FX to Check It’s actually Helping

One downside to FX processes are that they really can remove life from a recording. Always strive for the sound you want before recording, if you need to add effects to the sound later so be it, but it’s much less lazy and way more efficient overall to get the right sound first.

This is the second post in the micro series of mixing tips, if you want to check out the first post, click here. Now, back to the article:

If you want a really clean mix, you don’t want any unnecessary FX. Toggle the FX on and off every so often to see if it really is helping the mix. Randomly turn off a compressor or a chorus and see what happens.

There are many times where you add an effect to make a channel juicy but once you move on to other channels, you’ve created enough room for the dry signal to work just fine.

Re-visit tracks and look for this. Turn off any effects that aren’t adding to the sound. Especially look at the first effects you applied as these are the ones which were likely pushed to fit over the mess of the rest of the un-mixed track.