It all start with choosing the right sound that will fit your Mix and works well with other elements in your track. You can spend time with EQ, Compressor and other tools to get a sound to work but sometimes it’s better to get back to the source and change your sample or preset.
Placement of samples and Midi clips also help to avoid conflicting issue, for example if you have your bass notes playing at the exact same time as the kick and if both sounds are dueling in the same frequency range, it will be more difficult to get a good Mix.
Using EQ or filters to get rid of unwanted frequencies, taking care of your gain staging and not overpowering effects are also important.
Always listen to each elements in context with the all Mix, you can spend hours to tweak a sound on it’s own just to realize it doesn’t work with the other elements when listening in context of the all Mix.
Those are general recommendations, you can build your Mix step by step each time you’re adding a new elements following those guidelines, then after this it’s more a matter of polishing the Mix.
Recommended Courses :
5 Beginner Mixing Mistakes with Haterade
Does Gain Staging Matter? with Kirk Degiorgio
Understanding Mixing Fundamentals with Phil Johnston
Understanding Mixing Level 2 with Protoculture
How To Mix Kick and Bass with Protoculture
Mixing Techniques Creating Space
Mixing Bass How To
Mixing in 3D with Kirk Degiorgio
Mixing with AI - Neutron 4 vs Sonible Smart Bundle with Protoculture
It’s really related to the previous points and it’s different for each song and content, what’s important is to understand what EQ and Compression can do.
When it comes to drums, it’s a blend of crafting the right beat that works with your Mix, then comes the mixing stage.
Understanding EQ Equalization - in-depth Understanding EQ guide for Beginners
Understanding EQ Level 2 with Protoculture
How To Hear EQ Frequencies with Bluffmunkey
Can you mix without EQ and Compression? with Bluffmunkey
Understanding Compressors
Understanding Compressors ( 2 )
Drums :
How To Make Better Drums with Enamour
Other Useful Tips → Tech Tips Volume 52 with Enamour
Those 2 relates to each other and still the previous ( in terms of placement, and also what you’d like to keep more mono, what you should spread to stereo ) and after this you can use chorus, delay and reverb to get a wilder sounding Mix.
Mixing Techniques Creating Space
How To Create Wide Mixes with Protoculture
Understanding Delay with Protoculture
Understanding Reverb
Understanding Reverb ( 2 )
There’s no secret for monitoring using monitors in a room, you definitely need to use acoustic treatment to get your room sounding right. It can be expensive and you need to know your room specs and how sound behaves in the room. This involve measurements that can help to know what treatment is needed and where to place them. Absorption and Reflection material only help if they are efficient and correctly placed. Not everyone can afford the time and money when it comes to acoustic treatment, at least you should try to take care of first reflections.
You monitors and listening position is crucial as well, a small and square room is the worse case scenario when it comes to reflections and bounding frequencies that will cause more issues.
Mixing on headphones is an alternative when you can’t treat your room, Open Back Headphones are more suitable than Close Back models when it comes to Mixing, for example the Sennheiser HD 650 is a good reference.
There’s also software solutions like the Slate Digital VSX ( it comes with a headphone ) and other companies like Waves Audio, IK Multimedia or Sonarworks out there, it can help, people love it or hate it.
The other very important thing is to train your ears and know what to listen to.
All the time is the answer. Always use Reference Tracks, try to get high quality audio tracks ( avoid MP3 for example ) and always compare your Mix with other Tracks, not only this helps to check levels, clarity, phase issue…etc but using Reference tracks also help with things like transition, arrangement, song structure.
Among different plugins than can help with A/B comparison, ADPTR makes really good tools
How To Use Metric AB with Protoculture
How To Use ADPTR Streamliner and Mastering for Streaming Platforms with Protoculture
