How you start a mix.

 How you start a mix.

It’ something I’ve been asked about a lot so I thought I would give you some ideas to think about when you’re Of course, I can only tell you what I usually do. If that getting ready to mix. your methods are also perfectly acceptable because it’s not method works for you then great! If not, then know that ultimately the most important thing. always the methods that matter, it’s the result that’s WHEN DOES MIXING START?

So let’s talk a little about what it means to “start mixing.” Some people look at mixing like a entirely separate aspect then you would be right to treat it that way. Somebody else of the production process. If you get multi-tracks to mix did the production and the tracking, and somebody will But if you’re involved in the entire project from start to probably handle the mastering. So your job is simple: pull up the faders and get to work. finish the lines get blurred a little bit. If you’re tracking the things should sound in the end so you basically do project and deciding on the sounds and production of each instrument you’re kind of adding a bit of your mixing mentality to the entire project. You have an idea of how everything with the end in mind. same things to the mix regardless of how much you’re Either way is cool, there’s just an interesting mentality shift in your thought process depending on when you get involved in the process. You’ll end up doing a lot of the involved but you’re still coming at it from two different points of view.

IN THE KITCHEN Now, either way, you can’t start slapping plug-ins and processors on until the recording, production and editing process is over. So before you even start moving the faders around make sure you clean up all the crap in your tracks.

1. DO THE DISHES SO YOU CAN COOK Then yo Here’s an analogy for you, let’s see if you can keep up. Cooking is great. Doing the dishes afterwards is terrible. And it’s even worse when you leave them in the sink until the next time you have to cook. Then you not only have to do the dishes before you cook, but you ALSO have to do them afterwards! Terrible right? It’s the same with mixing. If you clean up your tracks before you start mixing you’ll have a more enjoyable experience. You don’t want noise creeping through the vocal tracks during the solo. *Trim the regions and delete the “noisy” silences between parts. *Add fades to all the regions so they don’t If you don’t edit your tracks first, you’ll run into similar problems. You’ll notice an annoying click somewhere, a misaligned drum hit or background noise you should have edited out. This hinders your workflow because you’re constantly going back and forth between the mixing and the editing phase. If you’re always changing hats then you’ll never fully focus on one aspect of your production. Edit first, then focus on the mixing. It’s better to cook with a clean kitchen. Having a full sink of plates and utensils you might need is just going to rob me of the pleasure of making my meal. The same goes for editing. You’ll rob yourself of the joys of mixing if the editing phase is constantly nagging at you in the back of your mind. Like dish washing, editing is pretty boring. It’s tedious and usually pretty un-creative. But if you gloss over it and ignore it, you’ll be left with a sub par production. abruptly pop in.

2. SIMPLIFYING MAKES SENSE

Once you’ve gotten all your tracks cleaned and edited it’s time to simplify. This is where busing comes in. It’s definitely the easiest way to make sense of a really big arrangement. If you have 50+ tracks in your mixer it’s hard to keep track of all that. You waste a lot of time scrolling from one side to the other looking for the guitar parts. That’s why sub-mixes are so great. *Drums

*Guitars (including bass)

*Keys and other synths

*Vocals

Even with close to 60 tracks that’s really what you’re balancing together in your mix. So breathe, don’t worry about the enormity of the session. Once you’ve broken the mix down into a handful of different elements your perspective on the session will change.

Simplify With Routing

Once you’ve drilled the session down you can simplify it even further inside the respective elements. Say you have all these drum tracks that even by themselves are overwhelming. *Two kick drum tracks *Top and bottom snare tracks *4 toms Overheads and room mics You can simplify those tracks further by combining things into buses *Combine the kicks into one bus *Combine the snare into one bus *Combine the toms into one bus *Combine overhead and room mics into one bus That simplifies your 12 drum tracks into 4 tracks you can play with. You’ve cut your hyperventilating down 66%! Of course, make sure you balance each track into the bus before so that you have control over the sound that you want, but if you do it in stages and one track at a time you’ll end up with a session that’s much easier to handle. What About All the Fancy Overdubs? You’ll have sessions that include all the necessary foundational instruments like guitars, bass, keys, drums and vocals. You know, those instruments that make up most of the song. But then you’ll also have solos or lead fills here and there that only play for a limited time during the song as “sweetening.” Sometimes these tracks can make up a good chunk of your session so it might seem like there’s a lot of tracks but there’s actually not that much going on most of the time. It’s a good idea to calm your brain down by completely ignoring these instruments until it’s time to mix them in with everything else. Usually you can group and process those tracks together fairly quickly so worrying about them is pointless when you should be focusing on the mix as a whole. Work on simplifying your mix

*What are the most important instruments? *What’s driving the song? *What should you try to enhance? *What can you leave in the background? Going into the mix with a more artistic approach than a technical one can help you understand what you should focus on. For instance, the most important instrument is usually the vocal but then you also have other instruments that really help support the vocal so you need to focus on them as well. Think of it like a sitcom, there are the main characters and then there are the supporting characters. Find your main character and then mix the supporting roles around them. Once you’ve figure that out you can start your rough mix. An Alternative Way of Creating a Static Mix If you want to get a static fader mix done pretty quickly but you have too many tracks (even after simplifying) you can try mixing in the arrangement window. Set all your faders a little bit below unity gain so you have some headroom to work with and then flip over to the arrangement window Here’s why I think it’s helpful Seeing the waveforms on the tracks as you scroll up and down the arrangement window is incredibly useful. You can tell what tracks will be playing next so you can be ahead of the mix, knowing exactly which fader you need to work on before the track starts playing. Using the inspector window in Logic it’s easy to simply click on the track and raise or lower the volume of the fader to where you think it sounds good. Of course some instruments might get lost during the first pass but it’s a quick and easy way to get a good static mix going. So try that the next time you’re firing up your next mixing session.

READY TO START ADDING PLUG-INS?

Once you’re done with the basic balancing and rough mixing it’s time to start adding plug-ins. And if you want to get the biggest results and improve your mix the most with only the least amount of plug-ins

How To Master Your Song At Home.

How To Master Your Song At Home.

Mastering.

Most people see mastering to as making a song just louder.

It’s SIMPLE. It’s not easy, mind you. It takes good ears and a lot

of practice. But it’s SIMPLE.

In this article you are going to learn why you should master your songs and how to master your songs at home.

What is Mastering?

Audio Mastering is the final step of the mixing process. It’s

what happens to a song before it gets released to the world.

Mastering a song is simple using tools like compressors,EQ,saturation and limiting to Achieve these things;

1*Making the song louder,not just in volume,but in perceived volume.

2*make it sound better.

3*to make the track translatable in different speakers.

The point is making it sound like other professional songs in the market,streaming platforms.So that when its being heard,it doest sound out of place.

Mastering is all about getting a second opinion.

If you have been mixing a song, you no longer have objectivity.

You’ve heard every second of that mix over and over again.

Realizing where the problem areas are is ten times more

difficult for you!

Mastering is a very special step with its own difficulties, so

certain began to specialize in these techniques.

These mastering engineers were able to get better results than

anyone else.

But here’s the REAL reason mastering engineers exist:

To give you a set of fresh ears.

Think of it like getting a second opinion after you’ve gone to the

doctor.

These pros have a new room.

A new set of .

And ultimately, a new opinion.

Because mastering engineers have not heard your music before,

they can catch the mistakes you’ve made over hours and hours

of mixing. They can make your song sound even better than it

did before.

Learning how to master a song is important, because it changes

how you mix. Ultimately, you want to mix with the master in

mind. If need be, you wouldn’t want to not have to master the

song at all.

But hiring a professional gives you what hours of practice

cannot: objectivity. That’s why I recommend hiring one to work

on your mixes.

If cost or time is an issue for you, though, then I’d recommend

trying an automated mastering service like or .

These are just algorithms that can analyze your song and

optimize it to sound like a standard released track, so they’re

not perfect.

How to Master Music.

now you know what audio mastering is,now let know how to do it.

Step 1: Optimize Your Listening Space

Mastering is a subtle art. Extremely small moves can change

how your entire mix sounds.

Because of this, you want to make sure your listening space is as

accurate as possible.

Let’s think of it this way. If you were to master your song

PERFECTLY – with perfect balance, loudness, and excitement –

but your room is poorly tuned, it doesn’t matter!

Your song might sound amazing in your space, but it will fall

apart everywhere else.

If, for instance, your room has extra bass build up, then your

low end will seem louder than it actually is. So if you get your

low end to balance perfectly in your room, what’s it going to

sound like everywhere else?

Thin. Lifeless.

Am sure you don't want that.

Now, there’s a few things you can do to fix this. First of all, you

can properly treat your mixing room with acoustic panels. I

cover how to do this in my

If you don’t want to spend the time or money to treat your room,

you can also just take the room out of the equation by using

headphones.

I recommend the It’s also worth using a

headphone compensation software like

and . These help to balance your headphones and

make it sound like you are in a real room, and less like you are

in a vacuum.

Step 2: Finish Your Mix (to Sound Mastered).

This is self-explanatory. Make sure you finish the mix first!

Mastering is the last step of the mixing process for a reason.

Make sure you’re not trying to do both at the same time.

One important thing to do is to mix your song to sound

mastered. While this doesn’t mean to literally attempt to master

your song while mixing, i

, it does mean you want to adequately

prepare your mix for the master.

You want it to sound balanced in most systems, dynamically

consistent, and exciting.

Rather than expecting the mastering engineer to make your mix

sound more “stereo”, do it yourself with panning.

Rather than expecting the mastering engineer to make your mix

more energetic, do it yourself with saturation.

Of course, you don’t want to overdo anything. You still want the

mix to sound as professional as possible. But the rule of thumb

is this:

You want the mastering engineer to have to do very little!

Step 3: Check the Levels.

Before you bounce (export) your mix, you want to make sure that

nothing is clipping. Digital distortion can often be quiet when

you are mixing, but during the mastering stage all of the little

imperfections in your mixes become very obvious.

Make sure you have on ALL of your faders. Any

channel, buss, or send needs to stay out of the red.

This is something you'll love to do before mastering,gain staging all your tracks to make sure nothing at all is clipping.

You'll want the loudest part of your track to peaking -4db to -6db of stereo output.

Step 4: Bounce Down Your Stereo Track.

Next step is very simple. Just bounce down your stereo track as

its own file.

Make sure to keep your project settings exactly the same when

exporting. If you recorded in 24 bit, bounce the file at 24 bits. If

you recorded at a resolution of 48kHz, bounce your file at

48kHz. So on and so forth.

A few more things:

Make sure you are bouncing the file in your preferred lossless

format. DO NOT export the song as an MP3! That’ll be done

after the mastering. Export it as a wav or an aiff file.

Also, if your DAW has a “normalize” option when bouncing,

make sure to not use it. Normalizing is essentially a crude way

to make your track louder. We’re going to do that during

mastering ourselves. No need to jump the gun.

Step 5: Take a Break (of at LEAST One Day).

Make sure to give your ears a break!

Mastering is a game of small, subtle changes, so you want your

ears to be fresh before starting.

Even more importantly, you want your mind to be fresh.

If you’ve been working on the mix for hours (or days), then

there’s no way you can be impartial while mastering.

Take a day break at a minimum. Preferably, take several days. A

week. A month, even!

The longer amount of time between you mixing and you

mastering, the more objective you can be (and the better your

masters will be!)

Step 6: Create a New Project and Import Your

References.

Open up a new project and import your mix into it. Then import

your references on a track beneath it.

I’m going to take this opportunity to get on my soapbox and

preach for a second. Reference tracks are one of the biggest

secrets to a successful mix and a successful master.

You need something to compare to while you’re doing your

work. Otherwise you might be making mix moves that sound

great in a vacuum, but fall apart when compared to other mixes

in the real world.

Having professionally mixed music to listen to every so often

while you work will keep you focused and making the best

decisions for the song.

Step 7: Listen for The First Time (and Take

Notes).

Alright, we’re finally going to get started!

First things first: you need to listen to your track.If you gave yourself enough time, it’s been a few days since

you’ve heard your mix. You’re coming at it with fresh ears.

This will be the most honest you will be with yourself. You’ll

hear 80% of the problems in this first listen.

Make sure to keep a notepad by you, or open up a text doc on

your computer. Take notes as you listen. These notes will

become the basis of your moves while mastering.

Does the high end sound too brittle? Too dull?

Does the vocal stick out? Is it buried?

Does the track sound muddy? Does it sound too boring?

Write all this stuff down. You only get one first listen. Make it

count!

Step 8: Make a Full Analysis.

Now it’s time to pull out all the stops

Listen through the track a few times. Write down what you hear.

Listen to your references, then listen to your track. Write down

what you don’t hear (or what you hear too much of).

Listen on your other speakers. Listen in your headphones. Write

down what you hear.

Listen on your iPhone. Listen in your car. Write down what you

hear.

The point of this is to have an accurate image of what your

song CURRENTLY sounds like and what it NEEDS to sound like.

That way you can make intentional mastering decisions, rather

than just using your tools at random.

Now, let’s talk about your references.

There’s a few things you can do (other than use your ears) to

use these to their highest potential.

One important thing to note: make sure you match their volume

to the volume of your mix. Otherwise, your ear is going to hear

differences that just aren’t there.

Loudness affects the way we hear sound. As we turn music up,

our brains interpret that sound as having more bass and more

treble.

So if your reference tracks are too loud or too soft, your masters

won’t be balanced!

Step 9: Control the Dynamics.

Now, you’ve prepped enough. Time to get to work!

The first thing to do is to add some compression. We want to

make sure that the dynamics of the entire track are being

controlled.

You want the song to feel “glued” together.

Here’s how you set up your mixbus compression:

*set the ratio to 3:1

*lower the threshold until you are getting about 10db gain reduction

*set your attack time very slow(100ms)

*set your release time very fast (5ms)

*decrease the attack until you hear the transient of the sound become dull and lifeless,then back it off a little.

You don’t want that much compression at all. 1-2dBs of gain

reduction is plenty. You shouldn’t go any higher than 3dB.

This is getting applied to the entire track, so a little goes a long

way.

Air on the side of caution with your attack time. Too fast, and

you could make the entire song sound dull. Start your attack

around 10ms, and tweak it from there. If it’s a faster song, move

it up a tad. If it’s slower, move it down.

For your release time, use your auto-release function if you have

it. That will most likely produce the most natural sound. If you

don’t have that ability, start your release time around 150ms

and tweak from there.

The game here is subtlety. Small moves make more difference

here than they do in a mix.

Use your ears! If things start sounding too dull or too

aggressive, you’ve gone too far.

Step 10: Fix the Tone.

The next step is to get the tone of your song balanced with your

references.

Your primary tool is going to be EQ . Make sure to use a linear

EQ if your DAW has one. These are EQs that are made primarily

for affecting multiple instruments at once. They’re extra “clean”,

and they’re perfect for mastering in the box.

Go back to your notes. What did you write down that needed to

be fixed? More top end? More low end? Less mud?

Use your linear EQ to shape the tone of the song to solve those

problems.

With mastering, you want to use wide cuts and boosts . During

mixing, narrow cuts tend to be more common. But that goes out

the door when it’s applied to the entire song.

Try not to boost/cut more than 3dB. Your moves while

mastering need to be subtle. Massive changes will change the

very foundation of your mix.

Sometimes a slight High Pass Filter can be good, if you are

feeling too much sub-bass energy in the song. I would caution

against using a Low Pass Filter, however. That could make the

song sound muffled and dull.

Our other main tool for this step is multiband compression.

Let’s say that after you finish your EQing, the verses are

perfectly balanced. But the chorus still has too much low end

thump, and it overpowers the vocals.

If you were to simply cut more of the bass using your EQ, that

would fix the problem in the chorus, but your verses would

suffer.

Enter multiband compression. Basically, it has the ability to

compress only a specific frequency range, rather than

compressing the entire track. When you’re trying to fix tones

that are inconsistent throughout the song, this tool is for you.

A multiband compressor works the same way as a regular

compressor. You still have your threshold, ratio, attack, release,

and makeup gain. Nothing is different.

You just have to set the range of frequencies you want it to act

on.

If I was trying to fix an inconsistent low end for example, I

would set my range for 20Hz-150Hz and shoot for 2-3dBs of

gain reduction. You don’t need too much, because you want it to

just be applied to the inconsistent parts, not the entire song.

A few words of warning regarding multiband compression:you don't want to use make up gain when using multi band compression.

Step 11: Enhance the Mix.

Now that we’ve balanced the song dynamically and tonally, we

can add a few enhancements.

Before we get started: These are OPTIONAL. If you mix doesn’t

call for it, don’t use it. Always a good rule of thumb.

The first enhancement you could use is saturation. This could be

a saturation plugin, a tape emulation, or an exciter. They’re all

variations of the same concept.

Saturation can be used to add a little “color” to the mix. It

makes the mix feel a little fuller, a little more intense, a little

more exciting. It’s great if your mix is still feeling a little thin or

underwhelming.

It can easily do more harm than good, though. Oversaturating

your mix will add distortion and take away some of the nuance

and dynamics of the mix. It can potentially make the mix sound

flatter.

So don’t add it unless you need it. As with all of these: a little

goes a long way!

Another enhancement option is stereo widening. This tool helps

the song to sound wider and more separated than before.

It’s great for when the mix sounds clustered or close together.

Stereo widening can help spread sounds apart, or it can make

the mix sound “larger than life.”

HOWEVER, it can also introduce phase issues into the mix,

which means that every time the song was played in , it

would sound even worse than before.

So to repeat: So don’t add it unless you need it. A little goes a

long way!

Finally, volume automation can help to increase the impact of

certain sections of the song. For example, you could automate

the volume of the song to where the final chorus sat at 0dB, but

the rest of the song was at -1dB.

Small increases and decreases in volume are fairly obvious in

mastering, so don’t do more than 2dBs of automation. Make

sure to tweak the slope as well. You want the increase to sound

natural, not abrupt.

Step 12: Limit It.

This is one of the most important steps to mastering. Limiting

is the process of making the mix louder – as loud as everything

you hear on the radio.

We mentioned earlier how important volume is to a mix. The

quieter a song is, the duller and thinner it sounds to our ears. So

we want to make sure that our song is the same volume as

others in the genre.

Now, if you were to just turn the volume of a mix up, you would

cause it to clip. You’d be getting more volume, but you wouldn’t

be getting more “perceived volume,” which is when the song

feels louder to the ear than it actually is. You’d also be causing

distortion, which will make the song sound worse!

Limiting your mix brings the volume of the track up while also

creating more perceived volume. It’s the best way to set your

song to industry loudness levels.

A is essentially a simple compressor. But rather than

having a regular ratio (like 2:1 or 3:1), it has what we call a

“brick wall” ratio – ∞:1.

This means that NO amount of sound goes above the set

threshold. 100% of it gets turned down. So no clipping.

Here’s how you set up your limiter:

*add the limiter as the last plugin in your chain.

*set the output ceiling at -0.5dbfs.

**set your attack very slow (100ms)

*set your release very slow (500ms)

*Decrease the attack until you hear the mix start to lose impact,then back off

*decrease the release until you hear the mix start to distort,then back off.You could also use the auto if your compressor has.

*Decrease your input gain until you're getting 2-3db of gain reduction.

We are wanting our track to sit around 0dB, so the first thing to

do is to set your output level (the limiter version of a threshold)

around there. Specifically, you want to set it between -0.3dB and

-0.8 dB. That will make sure that it doesn’t clip in speakers that

have a bit of a gain boost built into their circuits.

After that, you want to turn the gain of the song up until you are

getting 2 – 3dB of gain reduction. If you are using a stock

limiter, don’t go any higher than that, because it can create

some nasty artifacts. If you are using a quality third-party

limiter, you can go a little higher to 4 – 5dBs of gain reduction.

The gain knob is increasing the actual volume, but the brickwall

limiting is increasing the perceived loudness. So your track is

loud, but it feels even louder.

Step 13: Make Your Final Checks.

Congrats! You’re nearly there. Now it’s time to make any final

checks.

Personally, I use Dynameter to check the track still has a high

dynamic range.

Other people like to use a LUFS meter to check the final

loudness level.

If you don’t have any specific plugins for these purposes, skip

this step. At this point in time, you’ve already done everything in

your power to ensure that this is a great master.

Step 14: Bounce It (at 16 bits and 44.1kHz).

This is it. The master is done, and you’re about to release it to

the world!

The final step is to bounce (export) the song in a file that will be

compatible with all types of playback systems.

First things first: Select for the track to be bounced as both a

lossless file and a .mp3 file. You can pick whatever lossless

type you prefer – .wav, .aiff, .caf.

Then you’ll want to make sure the track is bouncing at

resolution of 16 bits and a sample rate of 44.1kHz. These are

the standards for audio.

One very important detail: make sure to dither your track before

you bounce. Without getting into the science, dithering helps to

prevent extra distortion from happening when you are bouncing

your track at a different resolution. Without it, your hard work

would go to waste.

Your DAW will most likely have different dithering options. I

recommend using the pow-r 2 setting.

IMPORTANT: Make sure to only dither your audio file once! You

can cause audible noise if you dither multiple times.

Finally, if there is any “normalizing” function in your DAWs

bounce window, DON’T use it. Normalizing is essentially a crude

way to make your track louder. You don’t need it once you’ve

mastered your song.

Hit that OK button, and you are done mastering!

What is compression?

What is compression?

Compression reduces the overall dynamic range of a

piece of audio by detecting when it exceeds a specified

level, and then attenuating it by a specified amount to sit all the same with the quieter level. Put

simply, it narrows the difference between the loudest and

softest parts of a track so that it’s more consistent in

level.

The parameters of a compressor

Though there are always exceptions, most compressors

share a common set of parameters. Understanding what

each one does will allow us to approach compression

with more Intentionality and ease.

Threshold

A compressor’s threshold, expressed in decibels (dB),

determines the level at which the compressor starts

compressing. The threshold can be set strategically to

target specific moments in your audio — for example, if a

drum groove’s snare is too loud, you can set the

threshold so that it’s low enough that the snare exceeds

it, but high enough that the rest of the kit is bypassed

(the best way to do this is slowly raise or lower the

threshold until the meter only reacts to the snare).

Attack and release

The attack of a compressor, typically measured in

milliseconds (ms), determines how quickly it pulls the

input signal down to the full ratio value when it exceeds

the threshold. The release is the opposite, representing

the total time it takes for the signal to return to an

uncompressed state.

Knee

The knee determines the character of the gain reduction

that’s applied to a signal. It ranges from a value of 0.0 to

1.0, with 0.0 being a hard knee and 1.0 being a soft

knee. A hard knee begins reducing gain abruptly when

the compressor exceeds the threshold, whereas a soft

knee introduces gain reduction gradually as the signal

approaches the threshold.

A compressor’s knee is more nuanced in its impact than

attack and release times, but can be valuable

nonetheless. In general, choose fast attack and release

times with a hard knee for more noticeable / aggressive

compression, and slow attack and release times with a

soft knee for subtle / gentle compression.

Make up gain

We often associate compression with making a track

louder. However, we’ve learned that by definition,

compression actually reduces level. Make up gain is what

allows compression to make a track louder. We can

compensate the level that we lost using this parameter,

and because we tamed the peaks, we can actually make 

the overall audio louder without running into clipping. 

you don't know me

Drop-A-Verse

WHY YOU SHOULD USE SATURATION IN YOUR MUSIC!

 WHY YOU SHOULD USE SATURATION

Firstly what is saturation in music ?

Audio saturation is the essence of what makes analog hardware

sound musical and pleasing. Driving sounds through tape, tubes,

transistors, and circuits have long been an essential ingredient in

great-sounding mixes.

Saturation is a subtle form of distortion.

It adds pleasant sounding harmonics to Vocals and Instruments.

Less of it would make your vocal sound more expensive.

Saturation is being used to add character,presence,warmth and more .

Use saturation on dull vocals to make it more happening and fuller.

Every Pro you know goes through saturation during mixing. They believe its the secret ingredients to a better mix.

Less of it is needed,if you apply to much,you mess up the whole thing.

Its also good to apply in the master bus.

DOES THE EFFECTS CHAIN ORDER MATTER?

The order of your plugins in an effects chain does matter. A plugin will

affect the sound differently depending on its position along the effects

chain. Knowing how the order of plugins influence sound can help you

make mix decisions and troubleshoot problems.

WHAT'S THE CORRECT ORDER FOR PLUGINS IN A EFFECT CHAIN?

This topic is confusing because there is no absolute rule. The order you insert your

plugins depends on the source material, what you’re trying to achieve,

and what sounds best to your ears. There is not a right and wrong order.

         However, there is a traditional order of effects widely adapted. This

workflow provides a good starting point. Moreover, it’s important to

remember these are general mixing suggestions and not hard rules.

Using the same order of plugins may not work for every sound or

situation. Swap the order and remove or add plugins as needed.

1. GAIN STAGING

Gain staging is managing levels at each stage of the signal path.

Maintaining the gain structure gives your mix sufficient headroom and

dynamic range for mixing. It also ensures the audio signal flow is at an

optimum level without clipping as it passes through various

processors and mixer stages.

Inserting a gain plugin first in the chain allows you to adjust your levels

before further processing. You can also insert a gain plugin anywhere

needed along the effects chain to prevent clipping. Avoid running a

“hot” signal into a plugin. Overloading a plugins input signal will give

you poor results.

2. SATURATION

Saturation adds presence, character, warmth, excitement, punch, and

cohesion. Driving sounds through tubes, transistors, and circuitry has

long been the key ingredient in achieving analog sounding mixes.

Saturation enhances sounds by adding even and odd order harmonics.

These harmonic frequencies make a digital-sounding mix sound full,

fat, and warm. It also helps sound translate on small speakers that

can’t reproduce lower frequencies like earbuds, laptops, and phones.

Inserting a saturation plugin before an EQ allows you to cut or

minimize unwanted harmonic frequencies created by saturation.

However, it’s also suitable to saturate after EQing.

3. SUBTRACTIVE EQ

Subtractive EQing removes problematic frequencies, creates clarity,

and adds presence. The goal is to clean up the sound and minimize

problematic frequencies that might get boosted by the compressor.

Use a parametric EQ to cut unwanted sub frequencies and harsh

resonances. Avoid boosting in this first stage of equalization. It’s often

better to boost with a second EQ after making corrective moves with

subtractive EQing and compression.

4. COMPRESSION

Compression smooths out the dynamic range of a sound to maintain

constant levels. It also adds loudness, cohesiveness, punch, and helps

shape the tone. However, used incorrectly can reduce the impact of

the sound, so only apply compression when needed.

This first stage of compression focuses on corrective work. Use a

compressor to control dynamic range and catch the loudest peaks.

Inserting the compressor after a subtractive EQ prevents unwanted

frequencies from triggering the compression.

5. ADDITIVE EQ

After doing corrective work with subtractive equalization and

compression, try shaping the tone with additive equalization. Tonal

equalization adds presence and character. For example, it’s common

to boost the high end to add presence in pop and electronic music.

The best way to shape tone is with an analog modeled EQ . Analog

modeled equalizers emulate the circuity and musical character of their

classic hardware counterparts. Analog modeled EQs also add, warmth,

presence, punch, and sheen to your music.

It’s common practice to use a combination of digital and analog-style

EQs. For example, digital EQs are excellent for corrective work because

they are precise, flexible, and transparent sounding. Whereas analog-

modeled EQs are ideal for tonal work and sweetening. They excel at

emphasizing or attenuating certain frequency bands in a broad,

musical manner to achieve clarity and punch.

6. MODULATION EFFECTS

After achieving an ideal frequency balance and dynamic range, add

modulation effects if needed. Common modulation effects include

chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo, stereo width, and auto-pan. These

creative audio effects add movement, depth, width, and character to

sounds.

It’s common to insert creative effects after corrective work in post-

production. Some prefer to get the basic sound down before

modulating or adding ambiance. However, it’s also common to apply

modulation effects before corrective effects during the sound design

process.

Again, there are no rules. It might sound better to insert a modulation

effect before the subtractive EQ and compressor. This workflow is

logical if you want to clean up the sound and tame dynamics after

creative processing. Use your ears!

7. REVERB AND DELAY

Reverb and delay effects are typically inserted towards the end of the

chain or on return tracks. These time-based effects add a sense of

space, dimension, and fullness to your mix. They also provide that

integral polish that immerses listeners.

The order of these two effects will also make a difference. For

example, when using delay and reverb together, it’s common to insert

the delay before the reverb. This way the reverb doesn’t wash out the

sound before it hits the delay.

8. LIMITING

Limiters are essential dynamic processing tools used for mixing and

mastering. At a basic level, limiters reduce the peaks in a waveform

and prevent them from exceeding a digital ceiling. The result reduces

the dynamic range of an audio signal and increases perceived

loudness .

Insert a limiter towards the end of your effects chain to reduce

excessive transients, control dynamics, glue sounds together, boost

levels, and add power. However, not every sound requires limiting.

Only apply a limiter if it’s needed.

9. SIDECHAINING

Sidechain compression creates separation between elements and

helps them punch through the mix. It also minimizes phasing and

frequency masking between the two elements.

A sidechain compressor uses an external sound source to quickly

reduce the volume of a sound. For example, sidechaining a bass track

will lower the bass volume every time the kick strikes. This technique

allows the kick to cut through the mix more clearly. It will also give the

kick more of an impact.

Applying sidechain compression last in the effects chain also helps

control reverb and delay tails. In addition, it gives you more flexibility to

adjust the amount of sidechaining without affecting the signal input of

other effects plugins.

10. VOLUME

Inserting a gain plugin last in the chain allows you to adjust your levels

further if needed. It’s also recommended to insert a gain plugin at the

end of the effects chain if you plan on using volume automation.

Automation is an essential process that helps make your music sound

more compelling, exciting, and dynamic. It’s better to apply automation

using a gain plugin instead of the tracks volume fader. This method

keeps the volume fader free to make further gain staging adjustments.