Introducing myself. Hello! Mixing help?

[Musicmonk84]

Hi! I'm new here. I'll be honest - I just made this account so I could look for some plugin deals. Looks like I'll need to prove myself before I'm allowed to respond in the Sell & Buy threads (stevenk734's post looks really good for me)

I've been producing music for a while, but my current foray into more professional work has required me to get better at mixing. I've been eyeing these fabfilter plugins for so long I gotta get 'em! Anyone got any good ideas for a solid online teaching course for mixing? Thanks y'all.

[Azbest]

You don't need Fabfilter to make good mixes. You need a lot of time.

There are plenty free mixing tutorials on youtube, but what counts the most is practice. Also basics (volume, panning, eq) > everything else.

[DJ Warmonger]

Plugins can help you get where you want to be, but can't help if you have no idea what to do with them.

As to specific tips - I posted some very specific tips on my Youtube channel. It's not as easy topic however, because:
- There are many newbies who expect that new and expensive plugins will automagically do all the work
- There are many seasoned experts with 30 years of experience, for whom it is all obvious and they deliver awesome mixes just intuitively. But it doesn't mean then can pass their knowledge to others.
- Everyone has different style and expectations, just copying somone's tutorial won't give you the same results they had. Because, apart from the 10 minute tutorial they posted on Youtube, they also had 10 years of experience, trials and errors, and a number of other techniques and solutions they used before that point.

All in all, it's important to understand the fundamentals. What happens, how and why. The universal knowledge which works for every track and every plugin.

[imrae]

This book is good

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/108 ... all-studio

The trouble with video is that it is difficult to separate the technique and principles being taught from the presenter's own style. There tend to be implicit genre-specific assumptions made (e.g. loudness being more important than naturalness, extended sub-bass being required, tempo modulation being non-existent...). Of course it is possible to give biased advice by text as well (as you will see in this forum), but it is good for teaching to not focus heavily on a small space of examples.

[bpblog]

As Azbest already mentioned, you don't need a specific brand of plugins to get good at mixing. Yes, some plugins are better and easier to use, but most will get the job done. What you do need, though, is a lot of time and practice.

Mixing is one of those skills that you can't learn without making many mistakes. Mix every day and learn from your mixes.

My favorite book about mixing is Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio by Mike Senior. It is tailor-made for music producers who mix music at home.

I can also suggest BPB's recent guide to mixing as a free starting point that covers the first steps and some setbacks you can avoid.

https://bedroomproducersblog.com/2022/1 ... ing-music/

[andymcbain]

If I was going back in time I'd tell myself to spend the money where it matters - getting your monitoring as good as it can possibly be. Having Fabfilter stuff has helped, but only now that I can properly hear what the plugins are doing - which in turn gives you the knowledge and skills to know when to apply them. I do a lot with Cubase's stock EQs now to be honest - though admittedly Pro-Q3 is a bit nicer to work with.

Another vote for Mike Seniors book, also!

[Adam_w]

As always, once you have a grip on the fundamentals....it's practice practice practice.
I do a month-long free group mix coaching program every few months, and you'd be more than welcome to come along. Everyone's generally nice and gets good results!

[jordan_io]

You should be mixing every day to get better. It is a lot of trial and error, making mistakes to learn what works and what doesn't work. As far as learning through the internet, be careful who you learn from. There are tons of people out there who like to teach but have no serious success to back it up. You want to be learning from people who have proved themselves and are working at the highest level. Vet the channels you come across and look up their credits, listen to the music they work on and decide for yourself.

A favorite podcast of mine is Live With Matt Rad, he brings on Jon Castelli a lot who is a master mixer with the credits to back it up (Khalid, SZA, Macklemore, etc.). Mix With The Masters is another good website, but unfortunately you must buy a year membership which can be costly. Try to find someone you know who already has a membership and pay them $30 for a month or two and watch the videos and take notes.

There's a website called Tourna-Mix which host mixing competitions twice a month, but you have to pay $15/month but IMO is worth it to constantly have mixes to practice working on.