Once you reach what you think is a decent result, the work isn't over. You also need to take the time to listen on all types of speakers, to make sure it sounds good everywhere.
Why? Because not all playback devices reproduce sound the same way, and the more devices you have on hand, the more you can deduce a kind of "average rendering" to fine-tune your mix. If the cymbals on a song are too prominent and hurt your ears regardless of the playback medium, then there's really a problem to fix. On the other hand, if they appear sometimes forward, sometimes recessed, but still sound good on your monitoring speakers, then the wisest thing is not to touch them and hope that your listeners will have a playback system as neutral as possible.
Here are various playback systems you can use:
- Monitoring speakers
- Headphones (open-back, semi-open, closed-back, simple earphones, in-ear monitors...)
- Stereo system speakers (hi-fi, mini-system, radio/CD player...)
- Computer multimedia speakers
- Television
- Car stereo (many people listen to music in the car)
It's also useful to listen:
- From another room: you often pick up things from a distance that aren't necessarily noticeable when you're sitting right in front of the speakers, smack in the middle of the stereo field. And this can open up avenues for corrections or improvements.
- At different volumes: it has been shown that bass frequencies are perceived differently depending on listening volume. To avoid ear fatigue (in other words, to avoid wrecking your ears), it's recommended to mix at a reasonable volume — definitely not too loud. But at fairly low volumes, bass frequencies stand out less, so you might be tempted to add more of them. As a result, when you listen to the final result at high volume (because music is also great when you crank up the decibels!), you might end up with way too much bass! Worth checking, then.
CHANGING YOUR PERSPECTIVE
Every time you listen to your song on a different system, certain things will stand out more than others. On a good hi-fi system, everything should sound harmonious and balanced; in a car, the bass is usually not very present; and if you listen to the music from another room, you'll also hear it differently. All of this helps you find a good balance between the instruments, and it would be a mistake to settle for listening on a single system, even a good one.
TAKING BREAKS
You need to listen, but you also need to take breaks, it's essential. Your ears get tired quickly and adapt to what they hear. If you listen for three hours straight to a passage with flaws, you'll end up no longer hearing them and therefore... not fixing them. Or your judgment of a problem will shift over time, and you'll correct things you shouldn't have (or wouldn't have wanted to) modify, at least not in that way.
When you've spent a few hours mixing a song, never hesitate to set it aside for two days, listen to other things, forget about it completely. Then come back to it with fresh ears... its flaws (and its strengths) will jump out at you! After two days, you'll have regained the objectivity you need to make a good mix, but as you know, the ear adapts very quickly to what it's hearing, and very soon, what may have struck you negatively on a first relisten will seem normal again. To prevent this, immediately write down what bothered you in clear terms: the left guitar is a bit too loud, the right one is too bright, the snare sounds too dry, there's too much reverb on the vocals, and so on.
Write things down and fix them, then start the process over... Let some time go by, listen again with fresh ears, and so on, until you're finally satisfied with the result. It obviously takes time, but it's worth it. We all want to reach the final result, sit down with the finished song, listen to it, share it with our friends and family. But isn't it even more satisfying to share a result you're truly proud of, rather than a song you know has flaws you couldn't be bothered to fix?
OTHER PEOPLE'S OPINIONS
Your ears won't necessarily be the best judges. How can you be sure that what you're hearing is really good? And how do you stay objective about your own creation? Even if you're your own first audience (and rightly so!), even if your song should first and foremost please you, there's still one hurdle to overcome: playing your work to someone else...
But before that, stack the deck in your favor, because the opinion you're going to get may not necessarily please you. So only share your work when you're already at a sufficiently advanced stage. You'll waste your time and your listener's time by playing them a "thing" that's still under construction and only half intelligible. If you yourself are aware that it's not the right moment, why rush things?
When you ask someone for their opinion, tell them what you expect from them. As long as you don't consider your work finished, ask for an objective opinion. Is the sound good, not too bright, not too dull, can the lyrics be understood, do the drums punch the way they should, does this or that passage trigger the emotion you were hoping for (a build-up, the calm before the storm...)? Later on, when you consider your song to be finished, you can ask the killer question: "Do you like it?"
Be very aware of one thing: everyone feels things differently, and just because you're listening to the same song doesn't mean you're hearing the same thing. If you ask 10 different people for their opinion, you'll get 10 different answers, often contradictory. So-and-so loves the guitar sound, but Whatshername hates it, she finds it too aggressive. On the other hand, they agree that the vocals are great, while What's-his-name finds them too limp — unlike So-and-so-else, who thinks it'd be better to tone them down right before the solo...
In the end, you're the one who decides, but other people's opinions will inevitably influence you a little. Because the goal of music is, of course, to have fun, but it's also to share that fun. So if you're the only one who likes what you do, that's fine, but it's a little frustrating. And you'll surely appreciate it when your friends, family, and coworkers tell you they think your song is great.
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