Building the mix from the vocals

There's this school of thought that since the vocal is usually the most…important element in the mix; the entire mix should be built around it.…In this video, I am going to show you how to build your mix by starting with the vocal first.…So just like with all the other mixes, the first thing we are going to do is we're…going to bring the vocal up so the master mix bus levels read about -10 dB.…(music playing)…Once again, that's just an average.…

It will peak above.…It will be a little below.…I just want to get it so it's around -10, just so you have some head room left…for all the other instruments when they come in.…Now we are going to bring the kick drum so it's about the same level.…It doesn't have to be exactly, but you're trying to get in the ballpark.…(music playing)…Now we are going to bring the snare drum up, as well as all the other drums,…just so we can hear them, and they are roughly the same level as the vocal.…

We never want to go louder than the vocal.…If anything, we want to go a little bit less than the vocal.…