The Easiest Way to Add Depth to Your Mix 

Other depth techniques include: - Fast attack compression - Increased predelay on reverb - Volume/gain reduction - High pass filtering - Centred panning

WOW 45 years mixing and I never realized you can do this with a high pass. And there’s less competition for the high end. Good tutorial!

I've binge watched a few dozen of your videos in the past week. Frankly, you have the best mixing related tutorial content on RU-vid (and I follow a lot of "recording tips" channels.) It's criminal that you don't have more subs. The quality of the content you put out is great.

This reminds me of a compression trick I learn a couple of months ago. If you squash a sound with a glue compressor and remove the transient you emulate a sound wave coming from farther away. Complement this with your EQ-trick and you have a nice tool to add depth without needing to get all wet with reverb and delays.

How crazy it is that in 1min and 30 secs you managed to explain something that I couldn't understand in 3 years of mixing. Thank you!

Congrats! Your spot on. It's a real life example; As things get more distant from you, they lose top end. Even in the studio, the more distant your are from your monitors, the less highs you'll hear. Here's a PR move, based on your tip: At the end of a mix, have your client sit at the engineers chair for added clarity. Genius! Thank you, my friend

Some of the best advice I've ever, ever heard, less than 2 minutes in. It's not advice that's convoluted or confusing that you need... it's something like this that is so simple even non-engineers can understand it. It clicked instantly, and now all my mixes are going to be so much better for it. Thank you!!!

Honestly… you deserve an award! Gold! So simple! Changed my whole view on this over complex thing called mixing!

OMG are you serious? Something as simple as that will give my mixes space?!! Everything just sounds up front in my mix. No depth, space on anything! Thank you.

Man, it's the simplest stuff that really does wonders, huh? 1. What band is this? I'm digging it. 2. Any chance of a series about mixing each instrument and what to look for in the ideal character of each? I know that's a lot of work, but I feel like a lot of people could benefit from it. Too many channels tell you what they did and never say WHY they did it. What the goal was.

Great tip ! Depth is something I've been wondering a lot lately, and never managed to do something satisfying with reverb. Will apply it ASAP !

Fantastic use for LPFs! It’s silly how obvious it seems yet it’s a technique I haven’t really utilized. Thank you!

Great tip with the delay! Never thought of doing that!

The amount of high or low freqs is not the only thing that matters to imagine the distance. Changes also should be done to early and late reflections, attack and sustain and I may have forget something else.. With just low pass filter on a drum room it then sounds like it's covered with a pillow or somesht like that, but not like it's further away.

The 'bubble picture' appearing at 0:47 is 'Visual 167C. Heavy Metal Mix' from the book 'The Art of Mixing' by David Gibson, published in 1997.

Nice to see a David Gibson image here! That is an awesome masterclass!

I feel like my mixing has leveled up just from watching this video. Thanks Jordan!

This might be the single most helpful mixing tutorial I have ever seen. THANK YOU

The easiest way I found is just to insert Eventides SP2016 on everything. It has an insane algo that adds depth to everything without the usual wishy wash reverb sound.

First time i heard this in two years of mixing tutorials!! Genius!!! Thank you so much!!!

Great advice! And if low-passing is too much, just use a high shelf filter with whatever attenuation you wish. I like using ribbon mics as room mics, mainly for two reasons: 1) they already produce a very naturally soft high end, and 2) you can reject direct sound and emphasize reflections by angling the capsule 90 degrees towards the sound source (since ribbons have figure 8 polar pattern). That'll make the room sound twice as big!

you showed the picture available in the book the art of mixing by david gibson and i think what you said is wrong because in this book they say that when you low pass a signal the sound will appear smaller than before not far away and it's the fader what controle the depth of a signal and reverb represent were the signal is huge room ,smaller and by the way i think you have the best content in youtube thank you for your efforts

On top of this shaving off transients on certain elements can help too, less transient = further away. And obviously, reverb and delay.

Really cool trick! I’ve been thinking about controlling depth with compression until now. Going to try this also! Thanks for the videos, so helpful

Elephants communicate over long distances using low frequency rumbles. Submariners can also detect contacts that generate low frequency noise from further away

Finally got to a position where I could replace my KRKs RP6's with my Yamaha HS8's now that I'm in a bigger mix room. My primary goal from the new setup was to achieve more depth. I seem to have achieved this without even really trying. The top end is much clearer on the HS8's, so there's an interesting correlation with this video here. I'm low passing with much more confidence and I've dialled back a lot of compression on drum shells (live & samples). You can hear much more clearly when it's too much too, due to the top end sizzle you get from things. I've also upgraded to a Rosetta 800 AD/DA which has helped somewhat too. What's interesting also is that once you have more depth, it gives you space to turn down the guitars a bit, as you've created a deeper soundstage that they can blend in to.

Damn this was crazy helpful... even 5 years later.

This video alone has helped my mixes exponentially.

You should include the name of the song/artist in the description. Sounds like a cool song and I'd also like to check it out, for reference but also just enjoyment.

wow. 3 years producing and never seen such a helpful video!

Thank you so much!! Amazing video

It's absolutely wow... Though the conception is familiar to most of the people but few of them can think in this way..

THAT DELAY TRICK IS SO GREAT I CAN’T BELIEVE I NEVER THOUGHT OF IT! THANK YOU!

Very helpful 7 mins. Thanks a lot!

Might I add you can also use compression to create depth. That way you can combine even more variations of depth even for similiar instruments in the same track (I.e. lows, mid, highs)

Great, simple and clear vid! Thanks for posting!

You are amazing man big love from India❤❤

Great video. Thanks! I definitely don't do enough lo-passing.

Great vid helped a lot

Sound Particle - Air addresses exactly this in mixing. 😃

Man, that drums sounds so good!

Immediate improvement on my drum mix, thanks!

Thanks for that. Applying it to my metal project and already seeing the benefit.

Good one, you are right it does add depth. Especially on that vocal! Thank you very much..

I was wondering why my mixes had more depth when I started using a low pass filter to save cpu filtering frequencies I didn't need on certain instruments, now I can use it much better understanding how I did it! Flukes don't count, so thanks for filling that bit in for me! Started just filtering below 30hz then more for some things that didn't have any low end anyway. This will help me quite a bit, but I'll be up for days remixing now.

Excellent tip here. Sounds way warmer with LPF applied. Thx :)

For concepts use 'further', for distance use 'farther' A lot less confusing. Thanks for the video!

Dude, i hope you’re still reading old comments xD this was super helpful! I’m self tought so i still do a lot of rookie mistakes (or at least i think i do miss some of the basics) so the graph you showed in the beginning of the video is super helpful. Now the question, how does that graphic change when you mox orchestral metal where there is a lot of information in the (semi-)background. En where would you naturally carve out space in the mix for the violins en choir to sit right? Is there an adjusted graph for orchestral metal? Thanks in advance!

great tips mate. i knew that its a good idea to low pass high cut reverbs an that but wasnt really sure as too why. this makes it so simple and gives me another pathway to get to where i want. now i have an understanding and what it does and the effect it has now i can think, oh this is too close. push it back with a high cut. oh thats too far away give it a lil highs

Ok, this gives me a good idea of what I have to do to get a more spacy and old-school sound for my mixes, thanks dude.

you are Bob Rose of Metal hardcore music mixing :D

Thank you man for this

Amazing tip, thanks! I'll be sure to use this on my next mix... you've gained a new subscriber in me :)

Great tip. Thanks so much! I can see how that really provides a good front to back landscape on the mix.

That is a really great tip!

Awesome tip.

Excellent stuff! It is easy to forget in the grand scheme some of the simpler steps. Thanks Jordan!

Great tips thanks champ!

Thanks a bunch this will really advance my mixes

Thank for the the great guidance. The universe is consistantly telling me these days that less is more. Even in music! No need for widening plugins, just filter...

Love this channel

love that you use illustrations from the best mixing video in the world (The Art of Mixing by David Gibson)

once in a while there is a tip I may have already eard but in a wrong way. And even rarely you find someone who can correct this brain bug. And when it happen, you love the other dude.... So that's it, love you! ;)

Wow. Thanks!

Very cool tip! will start using it! I've already do that for the delays just for intuition, it's good to know the details on it!

Thank you for all that you have done, sharing your knowledge with us. More power to you & God bless!!

Thank you.

Super helpful thank you!!

This is really cool advice not often said on production channels

Thanks master

Uhhh, I filter my reverb and delay returns already just because of practicality... Reverbs and delays with too much high or low end will effect your mix in the same way an instrument or track with too much of either will. Nobody needs the reverb from 200 and below on a guitar, or the fundamentals of the Tom's booming in your verbs, or the low throat tones of the vocal delayed and fed back 6 times every syllable... It just makes sense to limit the frequency range of those things.

Do you have a video on the drums used/mixing for this track? That snare in particular is lovely!

I know you've already done a or two video regarding lead guitar tone but I was hoping you'd make another that deals with a less heavy song. eg.: A typical rock instrumental song. Like, 2 clean to moderately crunchy rhythm guitar and 1 main distorted or crunchy lead guitar. Creating separation between the rhythm and lead guitar is soooooooo difficult! The mids and highs clashing is a nightmare to deal with!

Excellent video! Gets right to the point with salient, highly useful, and vitally revealing Information! Thank you so much for making this video! It's the magic sauce! Tommy

Thanks so much 🙏

man FINALLLLLLLLLY another genre in your example.... THANKS!!!!!! VERY great tip :)

Great advice Jordan.... Bravo once again!

Very helpful.

Great advice, Thank you!

Great vid man! Awesome how easy it can be to achiev a great mix! Thanks for your sharing!

Great tip Jordan ! Thanks a lot !!

Thanks

ty!

Great tips; well explaned the concepts below them.

THANK YOU!!!!

Awesome

Really great explanation and valuable information enjoyed the video ! Thx !

thank u so much

whose mix are you doing? The track sounds dope!

What and excellent video!

That's good ,, the spatial reference. kudos

Wow! First time I've ever come across this trick. Awesome! Makes a lot of sense. Thanks for sharing! Like that "art of mixing" illustration by the way. =D That was also a great video.

Thank you for making this video

Refreshing.🦔 So glad l found you!🐿

“And all these things just feel so lonnnnng tryin tulub-tulub-tulub-tulub”

Uncle Larry, did the Shanks ODS miss the NOBALLS “Feels Like An Amp Mark”?

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A great reminder!

This was very enlightening!

amazing tip, Jordan!!!!!!!!