A really common misconception about mixing is that your job is to make everything even. That may be true with something like a jazz band, where everyone’s managing their own dynamics, but in most cases, you are the storyteller, which means it’s your job to tell me what’s important. And to that end, there’s one tool that is more powerful than all the rest of them, and it’s one that you’re almost certainly not thinking enough about.
It’s not volume. Volume is the control that your listeners get so they can turn it up and turn it down. I’m talking about level, which is where you’re telling them how loud things should be.
Level is the main storytelling tool that you have. You have a fixed amount of it. That’s why everybody’s talking to you about gain staging, your saving level to tell the story that you want to tell.
Don’t get distracted by the shiny objects. I’m telling you, this right here is the sauce. So before we start talking about things like compressors, we need to really understand the power of this effect.
