How To Get Balanced Mixes Every Time | Pink Noise Mixing

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Hey internet! Today we're here to talk about my FAVORITE trick for getting professional, balanced, and clear mixes for your music: pink noise.

Pink noise is an INCREDIBLY useful trick to achieve a polished balance to your mix in only a few minutes and this trick will easily level up your productions.

▼▼▼TIMESTAMPZ:▼▼▼
0:00 Intro
0:35 Today's Topic
1:00 Important Disclaimer
1:24 Science Time with Cameron
2:51 Track Before Mixing
3:52 Adding a Noise Reference
4:03 Adding a Meter Tool
4:16 Setting Reference Levels
4:33 Mono Summing
4:43 Setting the Noise Level
4:56 Project Setup
5:14 How Loud to Listen
5:24 Noise Mixing Example
6:06 After the Mix
6:27 Perfect Low End
7:00 Final Result
7:48 Closing Thoughts

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[VenusTheory]

What's your favorite mixing tip? 🤔
▼▼▼TIMESTAMPZ:▼▼▼
0:00 Intro
0:35 Today's Topic
1:00 Important Disclaimer
1:24 Science Time with Cameron
2:51 Track Before Mixing
3:52 Adding a Noise Reference
4:03 Adding a Meter Tool
4:16 Setting Reference Levels
4:33 Mono Summing
4:43 Setting the Noise Level
4:56 Project Setup
5:14 How Loud to Listen
5:24 Noise Mixing Example
6:06 After the Mix
6:27 Perfect Low End
7:00 Final Result
7:48 Closing Thoughts

[agreen]

i just shout as loud as i can and raise volumes until i can hear above me shouting and i know its done, true story

[dantei.]

Great video and a good idea to show this trick to the people. There are few other videos out there on the topic but I haven't found a single ultimate one (not that noise mixing is some kind of huge topic. There are, however, few things worth mentioning when using this technique). I'll allow myself to list here a few things that helped me out at the beginning of my journey with music production when I used pink noise pretty much all the time for balancing purposes. Btw. Even now, when I trust my ears much more than when I was starting out, I still use pink noise in cases of a busy mix or particularly annoying one. Here are the things worth remembering:
1. Ideally, the gain level of pink noise should be set to 80dB(SPL). Mixing in open headphones this would mean: "Pretty loud, enough to barely hear (I'd say more 'perceive' than hear) if somebody was standing next to me talking.". The reason for this is that our hearing is the most 'neutral' or 'linear' in this range out of all other possibilities. If you crank up the volume too high, you will hear the bass and high frequencies better (which can result in mids being recessed and so-called 'laid back' sound), if you set it too low, the opposite will happen and your track might sound bass-shy and missing sparkle (which if overcompensated leads to U or V-shaped spectral image). 80dB is the holy grail of mixing on headphones!
2. Remember that mixing with pink noise (if done correctly) will make the sound spectrum of your track follow +/- a diagonal line with the highest amplitude in the bass region and lowest in the air range. This means a few things: One - it's not gonna be ideal for all genres! People who love bassy music (most of Venus Theory audience, including myself) will find it a great starting point but say, somebody who listens to mostly acoustic music will find the bass to be too prominent. Two - Depending on the instrumentation of your particular track, it might cause the mix to sound too muddy or boomy - in this case equalisation comes in like a superman!
3. Prior to adjusting your tracks to the noise, make sure you do a preliminary EQ! (IMPORTANT) This is to avoid clutter and excessive muddiness, so high-passing and low-passing tracks is great to be done before and also, remember the balancing with the noise is a STARTING point and doesn't mean it should stay this way because even though your track is balanced, it will still miss ear-candies and stuff that stands out and gives the tune a character.
4. Don't bother with adjusting to the noise things like risers, one-time samples, ambiences etc. - this is NOT something that should be adjusted to the noise! Pink noise should be used to set the levels of the most important, core elements of the tune like drums, synths, bass, etc. - in other words, things that are present all the time or most of the time (things in the foreground and maybe middle ground, don't bother with background elements). Elements that should be sitting back in the mix, if adjusted to the noise, will be cutting through the mix too much and you'll end up having to readjust them afterwards.
And that's all I can think of now, hope it saves somebody time and frustration! :)
Cheers!

[noiszif]

Thank you! I was going crazy with "how should desing the pink noise?". I went all around internet looking for any tutorial to obtain a "high quality" pink noise, and you gave me the solution. Melda prod <3

[eddmaster]

I would definitely like to hear more about mixing techniques, as this is my main struggle with any track. Maybe some mix and EQ tips & tricks

[ClaudeYoung]

More mixing tutorials would be awesome! Perhaps one on how you use reverb to glue a track together.

[espenstoro]

There's a lot of controversy around this trick, and yeah I get it, no generator replaces ears and artistic decisions... but, the real strength of this is when you've been tweaking some damn bass patch for hours, or any sound for that matter, there's no way you can tell if it's too loud or not in context. It really helps to get it in some sort of semi-ballpark for a decent starting point when the ears have gone home for the day. That's my experience, at least.
Nice demonstration.

[sarca]

This channel is a goldmine! Thanks Cameron :)

[glenesis]

Howdy! That's 7 new things I learned from you this week. Thank you! This is interesting. I'm off to write something new to try this with. Have a great weekend everyone!

[LandOfBits]

this is seriously one topic that not everyone is talking about ! and i think it offers really solid results <3 great video

[bradylasserre]

Million thanks for this.
I mix hard rock music and this immediately put me in a great starting point that allowed me to make minor taste choices and changes.
Cheers and thanks again!

[macronencer]

This looks like a great technique for getting your mix into the right ball park. I don't have a wonderful room to mix in, and I'm 57 so my hearing isn't perfect... I think I might try using this technique and then getting other people to give me feedback on the results. Thanks a lot for the tip!

[syaron]

More for the mixing guide. I always struggle with mixing becuase I can't trust my ear. That's when mixing techniques come to help. I really appreciate this tip because whenever I mix, the low ends always be on top of the mix. Anyway, thank you so much for creating this video.

[Darkest_of_Winter]

Thankfully I found this video. About to start mixing my next project and eager to try this and compare to what I THOUGHT was a mix draft.

[Rhekluse]

Great stuff! I've played with this technique a few times and I really like the concept of mixing into a pink noise threshold. Its also great for balancing studio monitors as well.

[kboyburry]

Thank you for sharing this! Haven't seen anyone talking about cool things like this

[shinezacharias]

super thanks for the video, i watched some other videos with pink noise they even gave the pink noise but my mix was coming out horrible n i knew some thing is some where deep shit is going on so i tryed ur video n mix coming like super smooth super thanks once again

[KozmykJ]

THAT is a Powerful tip there Cameron ...

[travelsnacks]

Cool stuff bro. I didn't understand anything you said, but I like the coffee part. :)

[djvoid]

I've never been a fan of this technique as it doesn't account for front to back depth in a mix, which is a creative and orchestrative decision. That being said, it gets around deficiencies in your room acoustics and can potentially reveal tonal problems with elements in your mix (e.g. if after the pink noise mix your kick seems too quiet, it might be too boomy in the low end and need the transient click portion to stick out more)