Add clarity and focus to your mix by panning individual audio signals to different regions of the stereo field. Panning instruments or vocals in a recording allows individual tracks to be heard clearly without forcing the listener to wade through a wash of sound. If a mix includes vocals and a prominent instrumental line playing simultaneously, allocate the vocal track to a center region of the stereo field and place the instrumental tracks predominantly in the left or right speaker. In heavier audio tracks, panning distorted guitar lines away from drum kits or other layered sound can help improve the clarity of your musical production.
Although many popular contemporary music genres utilize driving bass figures, exaggerating bass frequencies in the sonic spectrum creates a muddy, unfocused sound in the entire mix. Ensure that your bass tracks are subordinate to the rest of the audio signals. Due to their unique position in the frequency spectrum, the bass tones will be continue to be heard regardless of their overall sonic intensity. Slightly reduce the low frequencies of instruments such as the bass guitar or kick drum to preserve the quality of your heavy production. Additionally, reduce the bass frequencies in thick guitar lines to allow vocal tracks to stand out within the complete mix.
Determining which tracks carry melodic and harmonic priority throughout the duration of a song or production is essential to successfully mixing volume levels. Always ensure that the most important elements of a production are the most dominant elements within the mix. This will create an aesthetically pleasing hierarchy of sound that will yield professional results. Although heavier music mixes often incorporate layers of competing audio material, such as keyboard passages, guitar melodies and multiple vocal tracks, the audio selection presenting the primary melody should always stand out.
When recording tracks in heavier songs, record the individual signals at their maximum possible input level to avoid having to rely on a compressor for volume enhancement. As heavy compression often creates distortion and blurry audio, it is essential to use as little compression as possible to preserve the audio quality of tracks that are already very texturally dense.