What mixing means
Mixing is playing several sounds at the same time and balancing them into one result. A typical example is a voice-over with background music: the voice must be clear, and the music should be audible but quieter. Other examples are adding sound effects to a recording, layering a singer over an instrumental track, or combining several microphones from a meeting. This tool is a simple multitrack mixer in the browser. All tracks are processed on your device; nothing is uploaded.
Track controls
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Offset | when the track starts on the timeline |
| Volume | how loud the track is in the mix |
| Pan | position from left to right in stereo |
| Fade in / out | smooth start and end of the track |
| Mute | switch the track off for a moment |
| Solo | hear only this track |
Getting a good balance
- Start with the most important track. For a voice-over that is the voice. Set it to a good level first.
- Bring the music in below it. Background music usually sits 12–20 dB below the voice. If you cannot understand a word, the music is too loud.
- Use pan to make space. Two guitars or two voices sound clearer with one slightly left and one slightly right. Keep the main voice and bass in the centre.
- Fade the music. A fade in of 1–2 seconds at the start and 3–5 seconds at the end sounds professional.
- Check the level. When many tracks play at once, the sum can get too loud and distort. If you hear crackling on loud parts, lower all tracks a little or use Normalize on the exported file.
Lining tracks up in time
To sync two recordings of the same event, for example a camera sound and a separate microphone, look for a clear sharp sound in both, such as a clap. Zoom in and move one track until the claps line up. With solo you can check each track alone, and with mute you can hear what the mix sounds like without it.
Some common projects and how to set them up:
- Voice-over for a slideshow: voice on track one at full level, music on track two about 15 dB lower, a long fade out on the music after the last sentence.
- Singing over a backing track: backing track at offset zero, your recorded vocal moved so the first word lands on the beat, a small pan difference if there are backing vocals.
- Sound effects for a story: the narration as the main track, each effect on its own track placed at the right second, with short fades so the effects do not start abruptly.
When you export, the mix is rendered at full quality. Choose WAV if you will put it into a video editor, or MP3 for sharing.
Related tools
If you want files to play one after another instead of together, use Merge Audio. To remove the vocals from a song and use it as a backing track, try the vocal remover. For detailed editing of a single track, open it in the audio editor first.