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Balance

Balance is the relationship between the levels of different sounds in a mix.

Level relevance: introduced at Nat 3; tagged for every later level where the same concept remains useful.

Explanation

Balance is one of the most important parts of mixing. It refers to how loud each track is in relation to the others. A strong mix often starts with simple level decisions before any complex processing is added. If the balance is poor, even good EQ or effects choices may not fix the overall result.

Topics

MixingLevelsWorkflow
Curriculum statussupporting vocabulary
Review statusdraft

Related terms

Gain

Gain controls signal level at the input or processing stage of the signal path.

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Panning

Panning places a sound further left, centre, or right in the stereo field.

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Automation

Automation allows settings such as level, pan, or effect amount to change over time automatically.

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Mixdown

Mixdown is the process of combining all project tracks into a finished stereo or mono output file.

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