How to Give Mix Feedback Your Engineer Can Actually Use

The first mix of your song lands in your inbox. You listen, you have feelings about it, and now you have to turn those feelings into notes someone else can act on. That step trips up a lot of artists, and it's not because their ears are bad. It's because "make it pop more" can mean ten different things, and your engineer has to guess which one you meant.

Good feedback is one of the most useful things you can bring to a mix. It gets you to the sound in your head faster, with fewer back-and-forth emails. Here's how I'd suggest giving notes on a mix, from the side of the person who reads them.

Listen the way your audience will

Before you write anything, listen to the mix on systems you know well: the headphones you use every day, your car, the speaker you play music on at home. You know how your favorite records sound on those, so you'll hear what's different about your mix right away.

A few habits help:

• Listen at a normal volume. Very loud playback makes everything sound exciting and hides balance problems. Very quiet playback makes the low end disappear.

• Give it a full play first. Listen top to bottom once without stopping or writing. Get the overall impression before you zoom in.

• Take breaks. After a dozen plays in a row, your ears stop being reliable. Come back the next day if you can.

• Don't judge it against a finished master on loudness alone. A mix often plays quieter than a mastered release. If you're comparing, turn the louder one down until they feel about equal, then compare the sound.

Use timestamps for everything specific

The single most helpful habit is attaching a time to every specific note. "The vocal gets buried in the second chorus" is good. "1:42, the vocal gets buried when the guitars come in" is better, because I can go straight there and hear exactly what you heard.

Use the time on the file you were sent, and write it the same way each time (minutes and seconds). If a note applies to every chorus, say so once rather than listing each one.

Describe the problem, not the fix

This is the big one. You don't need to know mixing terms to give great notes. In fact, notes that prescribe a technical fix often work against you.

"Boost the top end on the vocal" tells me what you think will fix something, but not what's bothering you. Maybe the vocal feels dull. Maybe it feels too far back. Maybe it's fighting the guitar. Each of those has a different fix, and the one you guessed might not be the right one.

Instead, tell me what you hear and how it makes you feel:

• "The vocal feels like it's behind the band in the verses."

• "The kick and bass feel muddy together on my car speakers."

• "The chorus doesn't lift as much as the demo did."

• "The snare is a bit harsh on headphones."

Those notes give your engineer the problem and leave the solution to the person whose job it is to find it. If you do have a specific idea, add it as a suggestion after the description: "The vocal feels distant in the verse. Maybe less reverb?"

Name your references clearly

If there's a record that has the feeling you want, say so, and be specific about what you like in it. "Make it sound like this song" is hard to act on, because a song has a hundred things going on. "I love how the vocal sits right in your face on this song, and how dry it is" is something I can use.

Send a link or the track name and artist, and if it's a particular moment, add a timestamp there too. One or two well-chosen references with a sentence about each beat a long playlist with no notes. If you sent references with your stems at the start, it's fine to point back to them.

Put all your notes in one list

Collect every note into a single, numbered list and send it once. It's tempting to fire off thoughts as they come, but notes scattered across texts, emails and voice memos are easy to miss and hard to keep track of.

If you're in a band, this matters even more. Agree as a group before you send anything. If the guitarist asks for more guitar and the singer asks for more vocal in the same spot, your engineer can't serve both. One person collecting and sending the band's notes keeps everyone on the same page.

A simple order that works well:

• Big-picture notes first (overall feel, balance, how the vocal sits).

• Then specific moments, in time order, with timestamps.

• Then anything that's a question rather than a request.

Say what's working, too

Tell your engineer what you love about the mix, not just what needs to change. It's not about flattery. If you say the drums sound great, I know not to touch them while I'm fixing something else. Without it, a mix can drift away from the parts you were already happy with.

Be clear about how big a change you want

"A little more vocal" and "the vocal needs to be way more upfront" are different requests. Words like "slightly," "a touch," or "a lot" go a long way. If you're not sure how much, say that too, and your engineer can make a version you can react to.

Revisions: aim to narrow down, not start over

Each round of notes should get you closer. Early rounds are usually about balance and overall feel. Later rounds should be smaller and more specific. If you find yourself wanting to change the whole direction late in the process, it's worth talking it through before sending more notes, because the issue might be the arrangement or the recording rather than the mix.

Also check how revisions work with whoever is mixing your song before you start, so there are no surprises. Every engineer handles it a little differently.

And make sure the files you send at the start are clean and well organized. A lot of mix problems are easier to avoid than to fix later. I covered that in How to Prepare Stems for Mixing.

The bottom line

Listen on systems you know, at a normal volume. Put a timestamp on every specific note. Describe what you hear rather than prescribing the fix. Name references and say exactly what you like about them. Send everything in one list, including what's already working. That's how you get from first mix to finished song faster, and how you end up with a mix that sounds like what you heard in your head.

If you're looking for someone to mix your next song, take a look at my online mixing service. Send the files, tell me what you're going for, and we'll work through it together.

— Jim

If you'd like one-on-one help with your own mix, vocals or audiobook, you can book an online session with me.