Audio Mixing Tutorials

When we think of vocal warmth, we’re often talking about those low-mids and mid range frequencies in the vocal, not to mention a more analog, vintage sound. Let’s cover how to get vocal warmth in the mix with a combination of effective EQ and saturation. How to Get Vocal Warmth Before we get into the… Read more: How to Get Vocal Warmth – The Best Settings

A vocal throw is one of many aspects of ear candy we can throw into a mix (no pun intended) to keep the listener engaged. Let’s talk what a vocal throw is, and more importantly how to make and use a vocal throw in your mix. Vocal Throws First, let’s identify what a vocal throw… Read more: How to Make and Use a Vocal Throw in Your Mix

Reverb on vocals is all about creating separation and depth either against the instrumental, against the other or backing vocals, or both. Let’s cover the best settings for using reverb on vocals to get your vocals to sit just right in your next mix. Reverb on Vocals To get the most out of vocal reverb,… Read more: How to Use Reverb on Vocals – The Best Settings

While oftentimes we’re after vocal clarity through EQ, with some genres or more specifically songs we’re after adding or bringing out warmth in our vocals. This warm vocal EQ cheat sheet will cover the exact cuts and boosts to make to get your vocal sounding warmer. Warm Vocal EQ A quick reminder before we get… Read more: Warm Vocal EQ – The Best Settings For Warming a Vocal

Acoustic guitar sits somewhere in the middle of an average mix in terms of its dynamic range relative to other common instruments. It’s certainly not to the level of bass or vocals, but the subtle dynamics of an arpeggiated part (finger or plectrum picked) or simply a track whose dynamics rise and fall from section… Read more: How to Compress Acoustic Guitar – The Best Settings

Backing vocals can serve a number of purposes in your mix. They can harmonize with the lead, fill in some gaps, or provide a kind of vocal bedrock to prop up the lead. Regardless, the approach when you EQ backing vocals differs from lead vocal EQ, and oftentimes we want to sacrifice a bit of… Read more: How to EQ Backing Vocals – The Best Settings

One of the most dynamic types of audio in any mix, meaning audio with a wide difference between the quietest and loudest, is the vocal. This comes by virtue of how vocal performances are recorded or better said delivered as the level of the recording will vary with the energy and emotion from one section… Read more: 5 Compressing Vocal Tips For Getting Professional Vocals

One of the more nebulous parameters on a compressor is its knee. While it’s adjusted in decibels, this affects the shape of the curve, and compressor knees are generally described as a hard knee or a soft knee. Let’s compare the two, identify what they both are, and which you should favor in different situations.… Read more: Hard Knee Vs Soft Knee Compression – Which is Best?

Whether you are strumming full chords or finger picking a delicate arpeggio, you want clarity, fullness, and some level of controlled dynamics to keep every note present. With that in mind, let’s cover the best acoustic guitar settings, from the start in the case of an onboard EQ on the guitar itself to the best… Read more: The Best Acoustic Guitar Settings – Onboard + in the Mix

I recently covered sidechain reverb and how to use it in your mix to keep whatever you want to apply it to dry and clean while still getting the reverb on the backend. One of the best applications of sidechain reverb is on your snare, so let’s talk how to set this up with the… Read more: Sidechain Reverb on Snare – The Best Settings

EDM is a percussion and bass-centric genre and begins with the low end and goes out from there, but beyond that there are a lot of things you can do to get your EDM mix sounding its best. Let’s cover 11 tips for mixing EDM for better, professional sounding results all DIY. 11 Tips for… Read more: 11 Tips for Mixing EDM and Getting Better Sounding Results

I recently talked about how to use sidechain reverb in your mix. In that tutorial, I mentioned how, while you can use a return track for your sidechain reverb, this is typically better used as an audio effect rack in Ableton Live as this is typically a single track specific effect. Audio effect racks allow… Read more: How to Use Audio Effect Racks in Ableton Live

Sidechaining your reverb can help keep the track(s) you’re applying it to clean while still getting the benefits of the size on the back end. Let’s talk what is sidechain reverb, why you should consider doing it, and most importantly hot to sidechain reverb in your next mix. What is Sidechain Reverb When we’re talking… Read more: How to Use Sidechain Reverb in Your Mix

Amongst the many effects mastering engineers employ during the final phase of audio production that is mastering, compression in one form or another might be the most ubiquitously used. This can be used to glue together the final mix for a needed extra touch of cohesion or it can certainly be used in a limiting… Read more: How to Use Mastering Compression – The Best Settings

“Warm” is one of those mixing terms which is used to describe a certain sounding mix. While there’s no “cold” alternative, a “warm mix” generally describes the opposite of a cleaner sound and is more associated with the analog leaning, familiar sounding mixes of the 90’s and before. Let’s talk how to get a warm… Read more: How to Get a Warm Mix – 5 Tips

Autotune and reverb are a standard combo or better said cogs in a bigger machine that is good vocals either in studio or live. Let’s talk autotune and reverb, offering options for plugins on both to get your vocals tuned up and give them a sense of depth. Autotune and Reverb When it comes to… Read more: Autotune and Reverb – How to Use Both to Improve Your Vocals

As I recently covered, New York Compression is a type of parallel processing which can add energy, sustain, and life to any track in your mix. Let’s talk how to create New York compression specifically in Ableton Live to get that same benefit using the stock compressor in my DAW of choice. How to Create… Read more: How to Create New York Compression in Ableton

Crossfading in mixing terms refers to fading one clip into another and the specifics of that fade. Crossfading has a number of applications in your mix and can likewise be used to resolve a number of issues. Let’s talk more about what is crossfading, how to do it, and why or better said when you… Read more: What is Crossfading (And Why and When To Do It)

The vocal is the star and emphasis in most mixes. When you have a lot of the common problems mixers run into with vocals, it can detract from the entire mix, no matter how good the supporting instrumental is beneath it. Let’s identify and address how to fix the most common vocal problems you’ll run… Read more: How to Fix the Most Common Vocal Problems in the Mix

Sidechain compression is all about compressing and controlling the dynamics of one track based on the behavior and dynamics of another. We can use this in a number of ways in our mix, so let’s talk how to use sidechain compression, both getting it set up and the applications of it in your mix. How… Read more: How to Use Sidechain Compression (And Why Use It)