How to Use a Stereo Mixing Board

There are a few different ways that sound can be mixed to be outputted. A mono output means that the sound is made to come out of one speaker. There are no options with panning in mono. Stereo uses two speakers, and is the most common. Surround sound is also very popular in cars and home entertainment systems. It utilizes four speakers; two in front and two in back. The last and most difficult to mix is 5.1 sound. This has the same setup as surround sound except that it adds a center speaker and a sub-woofer.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Stereo mixing board
• Speakers

1. Buy a stereo mixing board and speakers. Stereo mixing boards have been around for a while, so chances are you can find a smaller or used board for very little money. What you should be spending your money on are good speakers. They don’t have to be huge, but they have to be able to comfortably accommodate a large range of highs and lows. If you mix on bad speakers, you’ll get a bad mix.
2. Place your mixing board and speakers in a room that is isolated from outside noises. If you are recording a band, you will want them to be in their own soundproof room. If that is not an option, you’ll need to record first and mix later. Either way, your speakers should be set up to the right and left of you and your board and facing directly at you. If you are not in the proper range of your speakers, the mix will also sound bad.
3. Designate the channels of your mixer to individual instruments. For instance, create a channel for the mic on the bass guitar amp, the lead singer’s vocals, the snare drum and so on. To keep these straight, it helps to have masking tape and a felt pen handy. Place a strip of tape underneath all the tracks and write in what each channel is. When you’re finished, this can be removed without any harm to your mixer.
4. Play back the tracks individually. There will be a button on your mixer that will isolate your desired channel. A mute button will also be nearby. Add EQ by twisting the EQ knobs or moving the sliders. How you EQ will depend on your board. Some will have only two knobs for high and low EQ; others will also have a medium range and others will have even more variants.
5. Turn all the tracks on at once and mix the volume. The volume control may also be a knob or a slider. If elements of the song are clashing too much and you don’t want to turn either down, you can pan them to the left or the right. This control will almost definitely be a knob. Since you are recording in stereo, you can mic up the same instrument twice and pan the two channels to opposite sides. This will give you a fuller sound, and is basically what stereo is all about.