Tutorial 7 – Mixing and adding effects

Mixing is an important part of recording that can really help the music you create in SONAR sound its best. Mixing involves placing different instruments and sounds in layers of the frequency spectrum, adjusting levels so that tracks blend nicely, spreading them across the stereo field and adding effects where appropriate.

There are many important decisions to make when mixing, things that are sometimes not considered while writing a song. The choices you make can have a major effect on how pleasurable the listening experience is for your audience.

In this tutorial, we'll discuss some general guidelines. But, it's important to remember that there are no rules. This is another artistic stage of song creation.

We'll start by opening the MixingTutorial project:

1.	Go to File > Open and select the file named MixingTutorial.cwb.

Note: Tutorial files are located in the /Cakewalk Content/SONAR X2/Tutorial Projects folder, by default. If you specified another location during installation, navigate to the tutorial folder you specified during installation.

2.	Go to File > Save As and save it under a new name. This way, you can save your work without overwriting the original, in case you'd like to start over.

In the same folder is a file named MixingTutorial-Complete.cwb, which is a copy of the same project, but after the tutorial has been completed. You can use this project as a reference to which you can compare settings and levels.

 

See:

Volume and pan

Adding effects (FX)

Using Automation