I'm New To Mixing and Mastering...

S

soundsovisual

New member
I understand that this Mixing/Mastering profession isn't as easy as some may make it seem. I have been involved in music production for a long time but am still new to the whole mastering/mixing concepts.
If anyone with a little more experience could give me some important tips,tricks, ect. I would appreciate it very much.

Thank you guys
ssv
 
I think it's a lifelong journey of learning, definitely not simple! Although it's not super hard to get started - I'd advise starting from the basics, which often get overlooked: practice setting your levels right. This often tends to get skimmed over (by newbies), then trying to compensate by overprocessing (without a deeper understanding of what everything actually does) the hell outta everything.

Also, another thing that I always say: forget about the mastering part at this point, focus on the mix. They are separate entities, and mastering shouldn't be something that "fixes" a so-so mix. The mix should be 95% there before even thinking about mastering.
 
A mix is only as good as it's weakest link.

Get into the habit of listening to your music a LOT. Listen at home, stick it on your phone and listen while you're walking etc

Be disciplined with your focus, there may be a lot of problems but what is the single biggest one while listening to the track? timing? no clarity? too much reverb?

Once you have this now focus on fixing it, take as much time as you need, try different approaches, different plugins, A/B and be honest with yourself if what you are adding is actually helping or whether you are just in the mindset of "I just added more processing so it's better now"

Once you fixed this, guess what? Now we move on to the next worst part of the mix :)

As you can tell we keep playing this game until you are left adjusting the snare level by 0.1dbfs and realize that it no longer makes a difference because you finally have a great mix. At this point you know it is ready*

*Last paragraph written for semi-humorous purposes of course
 
Also another completely psychological trick that might or might not work for you: play your it's-starting-to-sound-pretty-good or even "finished" mix to other people, and suddenly you hear all the glaring mistakes and clumsy decisions in their naked glory that had completely eluded you so far. Sounds stupid, but at least for me (and I've read an article or two on the phenomenon, so not alone on this) it really works :D
 
soundsovisual said:
I understand that this Mixing/Mastering profession isn't as easy as some may make it seem. I have been involved in music production for a long time but am still new to the whole mastering/mixing concepts.
If anyone with a little more experience could give me some important tips,tricks, ect. I would appreciate it very much.

Thank you guys
ssv
Click to expand...

1. Use reference tracks.
2. Mix in a quality listening environment (good monitors, good room treatment, and good monitor placement).
3. Watch ear fatigue (rest your ears after a long session).
4. Listen on different systems.
5. Mix with your ears...not your eyes.
 
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