06 January, 2026
Art is all about impressions. Just because you want something to feel a certain way doesn’t mean it has to be that way.
From Mixing & Mastering — Field Notes
When producing a song, sometimes you want the vocals to feel upfront and present, or the bass to feel massive and punchy, or the cellos to feel dark and lush…and you’re right. That’s how you want them to feel. But that’s not how they have to be in order to feel that way.
A vocal that’s given a little more top end will feel more “in your face” without having to physically be louder. Combine this with a little compression and you might actually be able to bring the volume down considerably without the vocal feeling any quieter, because its level is more consistent.
Make sure no other instrument is fighting the bass for space in the low end. Clarity down here is what gives it size and energy, not volume. Shape the transient so it pops a bit more. Add some harmonics via saturation, distortion, to give the bass some presence in the mids. It’ll cut through better on smaller speakers now (like headphones) without having to physically be louder.
The cellos aren’t playing by themselves. They’re supporting the lead vocal. Use a dynamic EQ to thin out the cellos in the frequency ranges where they overlap with the voice. Pan them around a bit so they’re out of the way now too. Roll off a little top end. If they’re too bright and sparkly, they won’t sit back in the mix and let the vocal shine. Compress and saturate on the cellos bus so they feel more like one sound instead of 6 instruments. The cellos are actually thinner, less detailed, and altogether less impressive on their own, but alongside the vocal they feel like this dark, warm, and lush texture just wrapping itself around the voice.
The listener doesn’t care that these are all supposedly “illusions.” It matters very little what’s “technically” happening. How does the music feel? Even if that’s an illusion, it’s the only thing that’s real.
To You
The young artist lacks nuance and thinks of everything too literally. But so much of the magic in art is in its ability to offer us such vast landscapes of beauty through such limited means and mediums provided by the artist.
How can a painter capture the warmth of the breeze during a summer sunset using only the interplay of color on a canvas?
How can a musician tell the entire story of your life with just 12 notes in the octave?
Art requires the imagination. Great art leaves the canvas. It transcends the instrument. It creates a world for us beyond the paper and the strings.
It’s metaphor—as all things are.
Great art feels the way it does in spite of what it may or may not “actually” be.
So let go a bit and allow the medium to be the medium. And let it gesture at something more without having to be that something more.
That’s art.
The rest is all yours,
— David Kennedy