Mixing/production advice for beginners.

[Hipster Bales]

Hey!

So for the beginners on this forum I want to give some very important advice for mixing/production (which I didn't get when I started back in 2022), especially on your first 3-6 months of producing.

1. Learn basic EQ, compression, reverb, delay, etc (e.g. how they work, how to use them efficiently, etc).

2. Don't leave everything on the master channel, that can cause muddiness in the mix. Instead, place all your channels/elements on their own independent mixer tracks.

3. Manage your levels! this one is especially important, and if your levels are out of wack, your mix will sound horrible.

4. Don't buy expensive gear for the sake of it, learning your standard speakers or headphones first is more important. (It's not about the gear, but about the ears).

5. Train your ear every single day. You'd be surprised how far you'd come!

Have fun!

[lfm]

5. Train your ear every single day. You'd be surprised how far you'd come!

Use reference tracks from professional recordings that you feel sound great.
- it calibrate ears for gear you use

Producers Manual by Paul White has a whole bunch of tips on effects and the lot, I would say.
- 350 pages with a really good index as well to find exactly what you want
- he is a columnist and article writer since decades on www.SOS.com
- as stated "get pro recordings and mixes"

Other things like from Mixing Engineers Handbook, Bobby Owsinsky
- have all frequencies represented to make a mix sounding full
- so choice of instruments and arrangement matter a lot

Make things more interesting to have things come and go
- kill your darlings one could say
- every instrument need not sound all the way through

Stacking too much on top of each other is a common mistake.

[Hipster Bales]

Use reference tracks from professional recordings that you feel sound great.
- it calibrate ears for gear you use

Producers Manual by Paul White has a whole bunch of tips on effects and the lot, I would say.
- 350 pages with a really good index as well to find exactly what you want
- he is a columnist and article writer since decades on www.SOS.com
- as stated "get pro recordings and mixes"

Other things like from Mixing Engineers Handbook, Bobby Owsinsky
- have all frequencies represented to make a mix sounding full
- so choice of instruments and arrangement matter a lot

Make things more interesting to have things come and go
- kill your darlings one could say
- every instrument need not sound all the way through

Stacking too much on top of each other is a common mistake.

Great answer! I was gonna explain that but I didn't wanna make it hard to read