The Rule of Three Elements – Clear & Powerful Mixdowns
With this tutorial, we’ll show you how to apply the rule of three elements.
The goal is to arrange your track so that the mixdown remains transparent to our ears and doesn’t get muddy. This also makes it easier to achieve a good-sounding mixdown and a louder mastering afterward.
We’ll start with an arrangement that already sounds okay, but if we count from the blue clips down to the orange clips, we find sections where more than three instruments are playing at the same time. This causes the mix to sound muddy in those places.
Element 1: Drums / Percussions
Even though we don’t use any additional percussions here, when drums and percussion play together, they count as one element!
Element 2: Bassline
In the top yellow clip, we have a continuous midrange bassline. Below that, additional short bassline snippets are added to create variations.
The problem here is: since the bassline variations play on top of the continuous midrange bassline, this results in two elements coming together – leaving only one more element available.
To merge the bassline and its variations into one element, we simply cut out the sections of the continuous midrange bassline where the variations occur. That way, we can keep the bassline on just one track.
To give the midrange bassline more punch if needed, you can add a sub-bass (grey clip at the very top).
As for the question of whether the sub-bass must follow the movements of the midrange bassline: not necessarily! The important thing is that the sub-bass grooves with the drums.
Element 3: Leads, Vocals, Pads & FX
The same rule applies here: if multiple instruments form the third element, they must be merged into one element – just like with the bassline.
In this mix example, we see three FX samples at the bottom (orange clips). Together with the drums, this adds up to four instruments playing at once. While this technically works, it still sounds somewhat unclear and muddy. We fix this by removing one instrument at that point.
Conclusion
No matter how many instruments you use or how you arrange them, always make sure that no more than three elements/instruments are playing at the same time.
The only exception is layered sounds that behave the same in form, movement, or playback sequence, since they practically act as one single unit.
Before (at min 1:13) – After (at min 4:49)