First of all
Mixing (typically meant Audio Mixing) is the act of balancing the level (volume) of signals to introduce a specific set or purpose. What do I mean? For example, if you have a melody of a clarinet which is the main instrument and around it there is a little saxophone creating a counter-melody, but the clarinet is the main instrument and the saxophone only turns around it, naturally the clarinet will be higher on the mix then the saxophone. There's also DJ Mixing, when they combine the end of one track and the beginning of another so it would sound natural and organic. Synthesizer is a keyboard musical instrument which has inside it the sounds of other musical instruments and it synthesizes sounds - it mixes different elements which change the audio signal to create a new sound. Maybe he had also recorded some other noises or sounds and put it in the composition, in these cases, these are effects. I haven't heard the spoken-about album so I can't tell. By the way, you don't need to feel like a retard. John Coltrane released A Love Supreme in 1964 which has four compositions, each is a step towards a higher musical consciousness (or any othe consciousness, in his case it was his dialog with god to get rid of his heroin addict), the steps are Acknowledgement (finding out the target - a higher consciousness), Resolution (finding a solution), Pursuance (following that solution) and Psalm (the englightment). I think I've only passed the first step but I don't expect to pass any other step until the end of my life. And Coltrane died only at age 40. So there's always a place to aspire to. Sorry for the long post.
