Sound Masking Effect In Music Mixing

Since the early20th century, after the birth of the first phonograph, sound recording technology which in a steady stream of technological development began to emerge. Especially since the21st century, with the development of digital technology, music recording and mixing technology highlight their important role in the field of the music industry. Due to the physical characteristics of the voice itself has pitch, loudness, timbre, etc., by its physical characteristics derived from a series of acoustic phenomena are recording and mixing with particular attention to the link. How to make good use of some of the acoustic phenomena, how to avoid some of the acoustic phenomena in the production of musical works to undermine the degree of completion, will be the link that we need to pay more attention.In this article, masking effect will be the study object. At present, researches on masking theory are more common in the field of medical and architectural acoustics. Especially in China, studies of masking effect are much seen in the field of orchestration theory, and not much common in the field of music production. The masking effect is a very common phenomenon in the music recording and mixing. Especially when we do the mixing, the similarities between different tracks will cause some serious masking. If the workers engaged in mixing work which will not mention it, there will be a huge disadvantage.Analysis as qualitative analysis, descriptive analysis, observation analysis, experiment analysis, case analysis and other research methods will be used in this article. Starting from exploring frequency and spectral of the sound, loudness and loudness curve, through four auditory experiments we have explored that frequency and loudness have direct relationships with masking effect, and the pan settings also has an indirect relationship with it. The analysis focuses on how to decrease masking between sound tracks in music mixing, through the factors as pan, loudness and frequency, in which the kick drum and bass as the main discussion. All studies are based on how to decrease masking effect in making a balanced music mixing.