Here are two versions of the same funk song that I mixed as practice to get used to how to properly mix tracks. The first is just the raw audio files before I touched them, the second is after i’d mixed the track. I started the mixing process for this song by adjusting all the gain levels to get them all sounding comfortable with each other. I then began to pan the different instruments. I had the kick and snare straight down the middle, then panned the two overheads hard left and right. This gave me the sound that I was after which was that the drums would sit comfortably in the mix and surround the other instruments. I also decided to keep the bass right in the middle, this is because I wanted it to fit in well with the drums and sound like the bass was right in the pocket. I then went on to pan the guitar to the left and the brass instruments to the right. This was done in order to create contrast with the two treble high melodic instruments. The keyboard I panned both left and right slightly to the left and right, again to give more depth and so it didn’t sound like it was forgotten about. I wanted to go for a bass-heavy mix as I feel that the bass is a very important and prominent instrument in Funk music. I also used different effects on the instruments such as EQ. I heavily EQ’d the drums as I wanted to go for quite a produced studio sound with little echo or reverb. I EQ’d all instruments to get a better sound in general. I also put some reverb on the guitar so it wouldn’t sound as dead, it also added more variety to the song and made the guitar stand out that little bit more.
Overall, I think that this mix wasn’t bad and as a practice it was quite effective. However, if I was to do it again, I wouldn’t focus too much on the bass and I would make it more subtle but still noticeable. I would also try better to bring up the levels of the other instruments. For example, I found that the keyboard was too quiet during the solo so I would bring up the levels on that.