ABSTRACT
Whether starting as a songwriter, bedroom producer, performer, or studio tea boy, people were all introduced to mixing through their love of music and the desire to take part in its creation. There is a strong bond between music and mixing, and to understand it people should start by discussing the not-too-distant past. History teaches people that in the Western world, sacred music was very popular until the nineteenth century, with most compositions commissioned for religious purposes. A basic definition of mixing is: a process in which multitrack material is balanced, treated, and combined into a multichannel format. But a less technical definition would be: a sonic presentation of emotions, creative ideas, performance, and musicianship. Even for the layperson, sonic quality does matter. Novice classical music listeners often favor new recordings over older, monophonic ones, regardless of how acclaimed the performance on these early recordings is.
