Never thought about it, i’ll definitely try it 
Here’s this guy in some detail and covers everything available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoQjWZpt0KI
1 Like
Thanks MarklarMusic for starting this topic, I’m honoured that I’ve been asked! Great answers so far. Its an encouraging to see a cultural shift in this industry from secrecy, to open sharing. I’ll try not to repeat what others have already covered.
It’s a huge question, and probably needs dividing up into two parts:
Mixing: (Engineering / Panning / Balance / Mastering)
AND
Production: (Arrangement / Instrument Choice / Sound design)
MIXING:
1.Reference Tracks
Reference tracks are a fantastic way to not only learn your room and your speakers, but help you give you a reality check on what things should sound like, and stop you from getting too isolated in your own little world. (Its easy to do that these days where people are effectively ‘one man bands’ writing, performing, mixing and producing everything themselves)
2.Personal Development
Mixing is a bit of art, and science. And involves practice, and homework. I personally love youtube channels like Pensado’s Place, and Recording Revolution, magazines like sound on sound, computer music, forums like gearslutz and kvraudio, video tutorial subscriptions like groove3 etc… There are so many interviews and tips from those considered the best in our field, and most of this info is free. Personal development isn’t really a chore because its in the field of my passion.
3.Mix Translation
Two of the most underrated mixing tools are your laptop speakers, and your car stereo (whilst driving). If your mix translates to these two environments correctly, you got the mix spot on.
4.Fresh ears
Sometimes its easy to get too involved with your own mix. Take a few days break from it, make sure you work on other projects, get out of the studio etc, then come back to it. Its interesting how many times I discovered my mix was really awful with fresh ears.
5.High Pass / Low pass
There is a bit of controversy in the industry about this, but personally I have found it has helped a lot. Don’t be afraid to get rid of unwanted frequencies in your tracks. ESPECIALLY in dense mixes. High passing vocals, acoustic guitars, synths, delays and verbs etc , and Low passing BV’s, elec guitars, synths, delays and verbs can really clean up a mix. There are no rules here, just what your ears tell you sounds good.
5.Move around/mixing volume levels.
Move around the room / outside the room, and listen at different volume levels. The best mixing volume level is just below conversation speaking volume. If someone is speaking they should be able to talk above the mix. If your mix sounds good at this level, it should translate well. Mix at too high a volume, you will fatigue easily and get tricked into thinking that you have a well balanced mix. (Because the frequency response of the human ear flattens out as volume levels increase)
PRODUCTION
1.Build your sound library.
I’m a total addict for new sounds. New sample libraries and instruments (whether acoustic, electric or virtual), are like new tools for your craft, and when you find a really nice tool, its inspiring.
2.Organise your DAW / workflow.
Having your arsenal of plugins and libraries well organised is key to keeping the flow while inspiration is good. Not being able to find things quickly and easily is a real vibe killer in the studio. Learn your shortcut keys, make track templates, session templates, macros, whatever you need to get the technology out of the way of the music. I’m a big fan of Reaper because of its abilities to customise every aspect of control.
3.Know when to quit.
Sometimes an idea is just plain bad. Usually if a song takes too long to produce, if I’m spending way too much time tweaking knobs and not getting anything done, then its a bad song, and I just need to let it go. I have loads of bad songs I have in a trash folder. It’s so tempting to keep working on it, because a lot of these tracks are ‘nearly good’. I usually give an idea 3 or 4 days, I keep writing/rewriting it. If I’m still not happy, its time to let it go.
4.Shazam everything that gets your attention.
When listening to music its hard not to have my producer hat on, but it’s cool, I’m always listening to things I might like to try and incorporate into my own methods. It may be the synth sound, the way the drums are mixed, the vocal sound, the arrangement of the BV’s. If I hear something I like, I’ll Shazam it then look it up later and analyse it to see how they achieved a certain texture or feel.
I think theres lots to cover, but all i can think of right now. Keep doing great work peoples!
Benji.
7 Likes
Awesome stuff from er’body here!
I will say, reference tracks have been a huge catalyst for my mixing skills. So +1 on that note!
+100 for the RR shout out. Graham is the man.
2 Likes
Hey, thanks for starting this thread! Very useful and great answers so far… From what I read, the three things that had the most impact on my mixes recently are :
1/ cutting low frequencies. This cleans the mix a lot, don’t be afraid to test by applying EQ on all instruments. This makes room for the kick and the bass (careful, as said by someone here, you must find the sweet spot for these two, meaning you’ll have to cut some low frequencies on those too)
2/ a good pair of headphones. I opted for a pair of Audio-Technica that took me from audio darkness to bright light lol
3/ going for a walk 
I too have a mixing/mastering question related : I noticed that my masters have a lower volume than a lot of tracks here on AJ. However, when I’m done with a track, my master volume is always right below clipping, so I can’t get more energy out. Any clue? Is it DAW-related or am I missing something?
1 Like
Some additional tips about EQ and Dynamics when mixing:
- Sweeping EQ helps locate problem frequencies and find most valuable “sweetspot”. Try to select a bell-shaped EQ with a fairly sharp Q then add a boost of 12dB or even more. Sweep the frequency control until the element you want to adjust pops out. For musical parts with changing notes, you may have to do this a few times to home in on them. When you established frequencies, you can confidently apply more musical boosts or cuts.
- If you EQing bass, it is useful to combine a high-pass filter with a low shelf or bell. This gives you the flexibility and musicality of the low band with the tailoring precision of the filter, and helps keep the very low frequencies in check. In this case good starting point is to set your filter at around 50Hz with a medium slope. Keeping an eye on your frequency analyser or monitoring with a subwoofer can really assist with decisions here.
- Parametric EQ are freat for sorting out honking frequencies or loud notes. Use sweeping or a frequency analyser to tune the points and then cut with a sharp Q. Deep, sharp cuts can work well without affecting surrounding frequencies.
- Compression adds flavour but can reduce transient definition and punch. For the best of bots worlds, try parallel compression by splitting the signal into two channgels and compress only one, then blend them together to balance flavour and punch. Some plugins have mix controls for this, but using twin channels is more flexible.
- EQ shelving vary in shape with many lifting frequencies very broadly. Sometimes you’ll want this, but it can also create to much lift. This is where an overshoot shape can come in handy, as increasing the Q setting will eventually lead to a dip just before the lift, creating vital frequency space.
- As was said before reverbs can occupy lots of space (frequencies) and in isolation this cam sound very impressive. But in reality, it can make things muddy to. By using a low-pass and high-pass filter after your reverb return, you can quickly tailor the sound without getting bogged down with the plugins own parameters.
- A compressor can be a great tool for shaping the envelope of a sound, especially drums\beats. By using a slower attack and faster release alongside an auto gain make up option, it is possible to retain some attack, and almost clamp the remainder of the sound, for a punchy effect known as snap compression.
1 Like
A tip I recently read in relation to high pass and cutting the lows which is pretty subtle. Try to have the high pass cut the lows at a different frequency. Some EQ’s will create a notch at the cut point and if you have many different tracks all cutting at the same point it will create a boost in that particualr frequency. So try to get in the habit of cutting at different frequencies.
1 Like
Hey there, maybe you can try to lower the volume of the first instrument at the start of the project, and then, as you insert new instruments you can adjust their levels to the first instrument.
Thanks for the tip! I’ll try this. I try to work pre-fader too to know how much energy I’m throwing in, this helps a bit when a compressor is set too high.
One small but very useful trick - do not be too involved while listening your mix. Some better ideas come when you listen your music from relaxed point of view. You need to listen your music as “whole” thing, not too focused on parts and details. It gives you other perspective on your mix. Also mixing on low, comfortable levels is one of the most used trick. By doing this, you can precise pin whats wrong with your frequencies.
4 Likes
Hey Guy,
I’m honored to have been asked as well! There are definitely some great responses here, and I can really echo what everyone else is saying. Here are some thoughts.
- Have monitors and a room that you really know and trust. For a while I didn’t fully trust my monitors and room. So I often guessed at how mixes would translate. Once I better treated my room and improved my monitors, my mixes improved greatly. It just really helps you understand when you should or should not be doing something.
- Read articles/books on mixing/production. Watch videos on mixing/production. “The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook” really helped me understand what I could do to improve and what I was doing wrong. Pensado’s Place is great. Sound on Sound has great interviews.
- Personally, I think automation is important. Performance alone may not always capture the dynamics you want. If you want something to build or have a big hit, accentuate it with automation. Also, automate to minimize the work a compressor has to do.
- To avoid my mix getting too washed out, I use more delay than reverb. I’ll have different delays in one track for different instruments.
- Like Benji said, hi-pass filtering really helps open up the low end. I’ll always hi-pass everything except kick and bass at around 100 - 150hz.
- Use multiple compressors instead of just one compressor. I run through at least a couple that only hit at like 3 - 5 db of gain reduction. This doesn’t necessarily apply to every instrument. Sometimes more so the most important ones.
- I check my mixes at low levels for balance and at loud levels for bass and energy. I also sometimes check in mono and listen by stepping outside my room to make sure nothing sticks out.
Like others mentioned too, go with what sounds good for you. When I learned about parallel compression or stereo imaging plug-ins, I thought that would completely change how I mix. Really though, I seldom use either technique. Ultimately, I don’t think there is one thing that makes or break your mix. Each thing you learn or buy makes a small incremental improvement to your mix.
Practicing every day helps. I find that if it’s been a few days since I’ve mixed, I feel a little rusty. Practice often and compare to mixes that you really like. The more you do it, slowly the closer you’ll get to the mixes that you desire.
Hope that helps! Happy mixing/producing!
5 Likes
Oh, it’s long story))
You need to train your ears to good frequency response.
And based on the wet sound find the balance in the mix.
Finally - most important thing it is arrangement!
1 Like
This is so good. THANK YOU Benji!
Related to your laptop/car speaker test…do you ever check your final mix in iPhone earbuds? I’m assuming a lot of people are listening to my music in those at some point. The newer version of Apple earbuds are pretty boomy in the low end, so I don’t know if they’re a great reference tool, but they’re so ubiquitous…any thoughts appreciated!
-STM
MrMatt -
Energy can come from volume (SPL), but also harmonic boosters like Sonnox “Inflator” (my favorite, hands down) and for the low end specifically, Waves “Renaissance Bass (RBass).” Both of these plugins sort of “trick” your ears by adding harmonics that SOUND way louder than your SPL meter will reveal. The Sonnox technology is really quite amazing and unique and it is currently at the lowest price I’ve ever seen:
http://audiodeluxe.com/products/sonnox-oxford-inflator-native.
Check out RBass here: http://audiodeluxe.com/products/waves-renaissance-bass
*I’m not affiliated with Waves or Sonnox, just a happy customer 
2 Likes
Some tips about Width and Depth
- Pitch & Formant shifting is handy for quickly widening mono synth, vocal and guitar tracks. Creating two copies of a track and panning them hard left and right; applying slightly different pitch\formant shift values to each copy. If you want more wider effect duplicate additional tracks with different pitch\formant settings.
- To widen your stereo track, flip the reverb or delay so that the ffect from the right channel is played in the left and vice versa. Set reverb or delay to 100% wet on a buss and then flip the left\right channels using your utility plugin.
- Try rotary plugins and autopanning on mid-\high-frequency percussion like hi-hats, shakers, giving the tops width while the kick and snare stay dead centre.
- Our ears can make out only a few different panning positions at the same time. Use this knowledge to keep the panning of individual tracks nice and simple. Using just 5 pan-positions will keep your mix clean and increase separation between instruments. The positions like hard right, mid right, centre, mid left, hard left can be used exclusively.
- Our brains is rarely able to pinpoint more than two or three positions of distance simultaneously. So you can this knowledge to simplify the depth of your mix.
- Careful eqing is one of the ways to create an impression of depth in a mix. For sounds you want to place “near”, set the eq curve to brighten them, exaggerating teir dominant frequencies. For “away” sounds, roll off the top-end around 2kHz and slightly boost the low frequencies below 200Hz.
1 Like
Hehe looks like black magic! Thanks a lot for the tip it looks really promising, I add it on my “to buy list with my AJ earnings” 
I have often wasted much energy on weak songs, learn to recognise when something has potential and when something needs to be ‘put on a shelf’.
^ 1TB of HDD is pretty cheap nowadays 
This is why I also check my mixes in my car, where I have a huge subwoofer ready to check those low sub frequencies.
1 Like