I’ve noticed something interesting over the years:
A surprising number of my favorite mixers are also really into photography.
And I don’t think that’s an accident.
Both are really about the same thing: deciding what deserves focus.
Light and shadow. Perspective. Depth. Negative space. Contrast.
The more I mix, the more I realize that great records don’t usually feel exciting because everything is huge…
…they feel exciting because certain moments are allowed to become huge by comparison.
If everything is: wide, bright, loud, compressed, saturated, massive, or emotionally intense all the time…
…nothing actually feels massive anymore.
Contrast is what creates depth.
Afternoon Chat – Fan Ho, 1950
And I think this is one of the hardest things to learn in mixing.
Because when we first start out, our instinct is usually to ADD: more width, more top end, more excitement, more layers, more effects, more energy.
But depth often comes from allowing certain things to become: smaller, darker, narrower, dryer, simpler, or quieter for a moment.
That’s what creates perspective.
A chorus only feels huge if something before it feels restrained.
A vocal only feels intimate if the space around it allows intimacy to exist.
The records we love usually don’t feel static. They feel like they’re taking us somewhere.
A mix isn’t just balanced vertically (EQ/volume) — it’s balanced emotionally over time.
One question I come back to constantly while mixing:
👉“What is the listener supposed to focus on right now?”
Not for the whole song. Just this moment.
Then support that.
Interestingly, this whole train of thought was sparked by a really thoughtful forum thread from a new Mix Protégé member named Sumu.
He’s working on only his second-ever release and described his mix as feeling:
“flat and one-dimensional.”
Which… yep. We’ve all felt that.
What I loved was that he wasn’t really asking about plugins or LUFS or technical tricks.
He was trying to describe a feeling: why some records seem to leap out of the speakers emotionally… while others feel strangely static even when all the “right” ingredients are technically there.
At one point I jokingly described part of the issue as:
“wall-to-wall guitars-at-the-same-volume” 😄
…which somehow perfectly captured the feeling he was wrestling with.
The cool part is that the thread gradually became less about “fixing a mix” and more about learning how contrast, arrangement, automation, restraint, and perspective create emotional movement in a record.
Sumu described wanting the outro guitar solo to feel like:
“an apocalyptic merry-go-round.”
Which honestly made me immediately want to hear the song 😂
And one thing he said later in the thread really stuck with me:
“I still feel like I’m being taken on a journey.”
That’s such a beautiful way to describe what great records do.
If you’d like to hear the track, follow the conversation, or drop Sumu a word of encouragement or constructive feedback, you can check out the thread here: