Music Production - 10 tips for beginner mixing.

Music is tricky to master (no pun intended), producing and mixing, especially. It's an art, just as much as composition is. All you can really do is keep at it and listen to the individuals who know more than you do; that's what I did and most of what I know came from exactly that. I'm not claiming to know more than anyone (take this all subjectively), but hopefully these 10 tips and suggestions can help you get there quicker -

Tip #1 - One thing at a time.

Find a good starting point (usually drums and percussion are mine) and anchor your track around those sounds. Get a good mix out of those first. From there, start adding in one channel at a time, slowly building your mix back to full, while making your mixing decisions along the way. Take it slow and give time to each instrument/channel to see how it's reacting to what you've already established. Do the elements you started with still retain their character as you add things in? Doing this can give you a better idea of the levels each instrument should be coming in at, by helping you understand the role that each part of your track actually plays. Trying to mix a bunch of channels all at once can be confusing and sometimes misleading.

Tip #2 - Have a reference.

Pull up a song that can be used as a reference, and keep it handy to consistently check back to, as to make sure your mix isn't falling into any weird or unwanted places. It can be any artist, really, as long as you like how the reference track sounds, and the track is generally in the same family (using an acoustic/folk track might not be a great reference for mixing a metal track). It works the same way as when you're learning to draw; if you're drawing a dog, it might help to look at a picture of a dog to get it right. There's nothing wrong with that. It's the same with producing music. As you get better, you might not need a reference every time, but for now, it's a great method to keep you on track.

Tip #3 - Moderate your monitor/headphone volume.

I made this mistake all too often in my early stages of mixing/mastering. Be sure not to blast your speakers while you're working. Loud volumes are fun (trust me, I do it too), but save it for when your mix is done! Turning it up loud can skew your judgement on your volumes and EQ'ing - quieter/moderate volumes give you a much better idea of what your song actually sounds like regarding your levels and stereo spacing. However, I will say that sometimes not all aspects of your track are audible at very low volumes, so be sure to check back and forth between quiet and medium volumes to make sure everything sounds alright (and turn up after!)

Tip #4 - Use visuals to your advantage.

I always trust my ears before anything else, but modern technology offers us all kinds of tools to visually check our work. Some EQ's offer visual frequency response (FL Studio's Parametric EQ 2 is a great one), and you have a digital mixer board in front of you showing you ALL of your levels. Don't be afraid to question why something may look WAY out of whack visually, because chances are, it is. Investigate. Again, your ear is the most powerful tool, but we're only human and can only hear so much. Take these visual red flags seriously and your ears might thank your eyes for the heads up.

Tip #5 - Sometimes, just leave it alone.

Overmixing is a thing. I've spent HOURS and HOURS working on a mix only to find that the previous version of the same mix sounds way better. I've spent hours on a vocal chain trying to get them to sound great (and banging my head against the wall asking myself why they don't) with a mile long list of compression, EQ'ing, reverbs, delays, etc. only to find that the original take was close to where it needed to be in the first place. I STILL make this mistake all the time. Don't overproduce and know when to leave it alone!

Tip #6 - While learning, be careful about mixing and mastering simultaneously.

It's tempting to get a taste of that final product by throwing compressors on your master channel early, especially if you're the one doing the master as well as the mix. When you do this, you're not getting an accurate representation of what's happening in your mix. Now that's totally okay (sometimes preferable for a lot of modern genres), if you already have a good grasp of how to tame your mix with your master. If you want to throw on some mastering plugins to get an idea of where you're going, sure, go for it, but be sure to spend time learning the components of each process before you start making guesses and doing things in a way that might not be ideal. And plugins should never be a substitute for a good mix (lookin' at you, Soundgoodizer). As you progress, you will learn to understand what's going on behind the scenes to the point where you can mix with plugins on your master when you have reason to, but in the learning stages this can sometimes hurt you more than it can help.

Tip #7 - Cut before you boost.

When EQ'ing, it's easy to find yourself making big ol' frequency spikes because it might sound better in the moment. However, do this to 20-30 channels and now you have kind of a mess on your hands. If you've already established a decent mix, doing this is going to affect it, sometimes negatively (refer to tip #5). However, cutting unneeded frequencies can simultaneously retain a good mix and remove unwanted clutter/muddiness. Take the time to listen to each channel, analyze it's purpose, and decide whether or not you really need below 200hz on a hi hat. In MOST cases, you won't (of course there are exceptions to any rule), so cutting out some of these frequencies from channels that don't need them can make your mix cleaner and clearer.

Tip #8 - Let your song evolve naturally.

Regarding Tip #2, this is the flip side of the same coin. It's great to have a reference, but sometimes I find myself frustrated that my mix sounds different. In a whole lot of cases, that 'difference' doesn't have to mean it's a bad mix, and the hours I spent just trying to recreate my reference track has cost me time, energy, and sometimes a great mix. This is actually more of a tip for being an artist, but for electronic music producers, production is kind of your instrument. It's perfectly okay to sound different, in fact that notion sounds kind of nice, doesn't it? Don't lose yourself trying to live up to the industry heavy-hitters when you could've been sitting on a gem all along. Keep in mind, they probably got to where they are by being something different too.

Tip #9 - Be comfortable with your monitors.

Super fancy, expensive music equipment is awesome. That's a true statement. I've owned some really nice studio monitors in the past, and yet I've been mixing on a tiny pair of $80 Alesis USB monitors for probably almost a decade. Why? Because I know EXACTLY what they sound like. Yeah, it's important to mix on a pair of speakers that are capable of putting out an adequate spectrum of frequencies, yada yada. But we're not all rich, and especially when you're starting out, make sure you make yourself very comfortable with a specific set of speakers, expensive or not - changing your output too often can confuse your ears.

Tip #10 - Field test your mixes often.

Do your work on a pair of speakers you're very comfortable with, but test your mixes on EVERY pair of speakers you can get your hands on. I frequently go on car rides (or in friends' cars) just to listen to my music in the car to see how it sounds. I wouldn't want to ACTUALLY produce through my car speakers, no. However they're still speakers I trust, and a lot of times I get 'Eureka!' moments when I'm listening to mixes on somewhat foreign speakers because I'm hearing my mix in a different context.