Audio mixing (recorded music)

[1]: 11, 325, 468  Audio mixing techniques and approaches vary widely and have a significant influence on the final product.

[2] Audio mixing techniques largely depend on music genres and the quality of sound recordings involved.

In the late 19th century, Thomas Edison and Emile Berliner developed the first recording machines.

Emile Berliner's gramophone system recorded music by inscribing spiraling lateral cuts onto a vinyl disc.

The process was improved when outputs of the microphones could be mixed before being fed to the disc cutter, allowing greater flexibility in the balance.

[6] Modern mixing emerged with the introduction of commercial multi-track tape machines, most notably when 8-track recorders were introduced during the 1960s.

[8] In the mid-to-late 1990s, computers replaced tape-based recording for most home studios, with the Power Macintosh proving popular.

These processes, such as equalization, compression, sidechaining, stereo imaging, and saturation are used to make each element as audible and sonically appealing as possible.

The mix engineer also will use such techniques to balance the space of the final audio wave; removing unnecessary frequencies and volume spikes to minimize the interference or clashing between each element.

[19][20] Any console with a sufficient number of mix busses can be used to create a 5.1 surround sound mix, but this may be frustrating if the console is not specifically designed to facilitate signal routing, panning, and processing in a surround sound environment.

Whether working in an analog hardware, digital hardware, or DAW mixing environment, the ability to pan mono or stereo sources and place effects in the 5.1 soundscape and monitor multiple output formats without difficulty can make the difference between a successful or compromised mix.

In a surround mix, sounds can appear to originate from many more or almost any direction depending on the number of speakers used, their placement and how audio is processed.