I recently found my mixed voice, but it sounds horrendous. It is airy, raspy and weak.
Am I stuck with it, or will I see some drastic changes if I keep practicing?
It's a bit discouraging because I spent countless hours trying to find my mixed voice.
It's really difficult to say without hearing it. But be aware of one thing for sure, your mixed voice shouldn't sound airy. Try to imagine that you're speaking when you're practicing pharynx resonance exercises so that your vocal cords come together and stop this air flow, and see if you get some improvement!
I agree that it's difficult to say without hearing, but airy, raspy and weak voice have nothing to do with one's vocal range per se. It's a matter of technique and practice. Airy and weak voice are the most common problems that people have when they start singing lessons. These problems will not go away by random aimless practicing alone, but the key point is to practice using the right methods and techniques so any progress that you make, will be actually useful progress for the better. I recommend that you find a good vocal pedagogue who understands the anatomy and physics of human voice and can assist you in pinpointing what practically happens when you're not producing the desired tone of voice, and what exactly you can do to train the problematic areas. You want a voice coach who understands the science of voice; avoid coaches who promise to transform you into a wonderful gimmicky pop star in an unbelievably short time.
Actual mixed voice is walking a thin line between falsetto and chest voice, keeping a precarious balance between elements from both.
You need solid control of both voice types you are blending, and then solid control of the blend. Solid control of both voice types takes years to establish, and now you assume that having found mixed voice for the first time (for the record, I consider it rather unlikely that you actually work with mixed voice here: it's more likely just falsetto) without working hard at it by traversing the vocal break from above, namely falsetto, and it should sound great? The most complex singing feat of all should just be there, ready to be "discovered" rather than developed, and be useful?
There is a reason professional singers take decades of lessons, you know. Mixed voice is not something you "discover", like you don't "discover" how to juggle. It's the result of a conscious blending of two voice types you are in control of, and that blend does not happen by accident since its in the middle of two stable configurations of the larynx. It sits in the middle of what happens when your voice flips. You stay stuck in the middle of that flip for a range covering several notes.
For this to make sense, your chest voice must be well-controlled and sounding strong, and your falsetto must be well-controlled and sounding strong. If either has still problems, hanging in the unstable middle between them will have more problems.
