The world is watching and the countdown to the US elections is on. While Obama and McCain are battling over how they should help Main Street and either bail out or crack down on Wall Street, Gordon Brown is trying to hold on to Downing Street long enough to meet the new president and Sarah Palin is well… who knows what Sarah Palin is?

A politician in some ways is a little like the magician David Blaine: high risks, a little trickery, some mind games and a lot of media attention and money with some unconvincingly important stunts. A little magic may indeed be needed to step up to the role of the new US president, the selected candidate has a lot to prove and people will expect quick fixes.

On a much smaller and less catastrophic scale a bit of magic and a quick fix is something that is often asked of the mix engineer. A number of friends of mine say they are often handed low quality recordings and poorly arranged and mixed projects that they are then expected to turn into a hit by the next day for little money.  

So are quick-fix mixes possible? The truth appears to be that they are becoming a frequent reality as deadlines tighten, budgets are cut and the general quality control barriers of music creators seem to open. Maybe this is in part inspired by our MP3 generation listeners, maybe by lack of experience from artists and producers or maybe as people just rally around in search of the next project, next hit and next pay cheque.

The simplest way to quickly improve a sound recording is by giving the stereo mix a little treatment. The best way to do this, in my mind, is to add a little compression to help glue the mix together and a little eq to sweeten it.

I also think it is good to do this using analog gear, as it seems to add some depth and warmth to the mix. I believe that using analog gear compared to digital is similar to the difference in cooking in an oven or in a microwave; sometimes the microwave can be quicker, cheaper and easier, but it just doesn’t taste or look the same as when cooked in a good old fashioned oven.  

Try using a stereo compressor/eq on the outputs from your DAW.  If you don’t have a dedicated eq, try using your desk’s eq if you have some and see if they have a nice sound to them.  Obviously it depends on the material for exact settings, but an easy lift can be created with a smile curve eq boost.
This entails a boost in the low, a cut in the mids and a boost in the highs. Usually this will quickly add some depth and sparkle to the mix.

As for compressor settings, it depends what condition the material you have is in.  If you are pre mastering, try not to over-compress and squeeze all of the dynamic range out of the song, but you can afford to whack up the ratio a bit if your material allows it without sounding too condensed.

I find that if you do use a lot of compression it sounds nicer on the ear to keep a soft knee with short attack and slow release. Always A/B what you are doing frequently and be careful not to just use a compressor as a fancy volume knob.

If you have access to all the files but no time to mix it over again, then there are other ways you can give the mix a little TLC. Often poorly mixed tracks can sound very thin, boxy and muddy. The first thing I would check is reverb: Is there enough? A lack of reverb can make a track sound unnatural and boring with no space definition. Try making quick groups of your drums, guitars, strings and vocals.  Then set up a separate reverb aux for each group. This way you can very quickly add some suitable reverb trails to the different instrument components. Be careful not to lose intelligibility by keeping reverb times shorter; use less pre delay and diffusion if you need to.

If you have a console or summing mixer, you can also bring the track out through it to sum in analog. This will tend to give an impression of greater width, depth and separation in the mix.  Combining summing with compression and eq will produce good results, so look out for summing mixers that have insert points to make this easier.

A quick fix is expected from everyone when the pressure is on and although quick fixes don’t always address the problem (in this case a poor recording or mix), they aim to make it better in the interim and then earn the trust to fix the problem in the future.