10 Years of Mixing Advice in 10 Minutes

Summary

In this reflective video, the creator marks a decade since purchasing their first MIDI keyboard, sharing hard-earned lessons and common mistakes from their journey into music production. They discuss the importance of arrangement and production over mixing for a cohesive sound, the limitations of full-range presets, and the significance of phase checking in sample layering. The creator also emphasizes the importance of efficient software use, the end of the loudness war, and the value of context when mixing tracks. They debunk the myth that 'it's all about the ear, not the gear,' and caution against online advice, urging viewers to discern truth from nonsense in the pursuit of mastering their craft.

Takeaways

• 🎵 The speaker has been involved with music production for 10 years, starting as a hobby and evolving into a full-time job with their own studio.
• 🔨 The importance of fixing arrangement and production issues before mixing, as they cannot be fully resolved in the mix alone.
• 🎚️ The challenge of mixing competing tracks and the need for elements to groove around each other for a natural mix.
• 🌐 The full-range nature of many presets and the necessity to make compromises to allow the song to breathe.
• 🔁 The significance of checking phase when layering samples, especially in the low end, to avoid cancellation.
• 🔍 The 'five click rule' for optimizing workflow in DAW software to avoid unnecessary clicks and streamline processes.
• 📊 The end of the loudness wars, with professionals often disregarding streaming service specifications in favor of song-specific loudness.
• 🎚️ The misconception that soloing channels is beneficial during mixing; it's more efficient to work in context with other tracks.
• 🛠️ The acknowledgment that while 'it's about the ear, not the gear,' having the right tools and equipment is crucial for accurate music production.
• 🤔 The caution against taking online advice at face value, as it can often be misleading or incorrect without context.
• 🚫 A warning against any 'formulas' or 'methods' for music production, emphasizing the creative and individual nature of the process.

Q & A

How long has it been since the speaker bought their first MIDI keyboard?

It has been exactly 10 years since the speaker bought their first MIDI keyboard.

What initially inspired the speaker to start making beats?

The speaker was inspired by some of their favorite artists to start making beats.

What was the speaker's approach to learning music production when they started?

The speaker bought the cheapest MIDI keyboard they could find, loaded up free software, and started making beats in their bedroom for fun.

How did the speaker's music production evolve over the years?

Over the years, the speaker evolved from a hobbyist to running their own studio and turning music production into a full-time job.

What is the speaker's view on mixing competing tracks?

The speaker believes that the issue with mixing competing tracks should be fixed in the arrangement and production, not just in the mix.

Why does the speaker suggest that the mindset of allowing tracks to groove around each other is important?

This mindset shift helps tracks sound more confident, have more purpose, and groove well, which can make them mix themselves more easily.

What is the issue with using full-range presets according to the speaker?

Full-range presets can make it difficult to stack other elements on top of them, requiring compromises to let the song breathe.

Why is checking the phase of samples important, especially in the low end?

Checking the phase of samples is crucial to ensure that waveforms reinforce each other rather than cancel out, which can happen if they are out of phase.

What is the 'Five Click Rule' mentioned by the speaker?

The 'Five Click Rule' is a personal guideline the speaker uses to find a more efficient way to do tasks in their DAW if they require more than five clicks.

What has the speaker observed about the loudness war and mastering practices among professional engineers?

The speaker has observed that the loudness war is over and loudness has won, with most professional engineers disregarding streaming service specifications in favor of what's best for the song.

Why does the speaker advise against soloing channels when mixing?

Soloing channels can slow down the mixing process and lead to ear fatigue, as it's easy to make things sound good in solo but then have to adjust when they don't fit with the rest of the mix.

What is the speaker's stance on the importance of having the right equipment for music production?

The speaker believes that while skill is important, having the right equipment is also crucial and should not be dismissed as unimportant.

What misconception does the speaker want to clear up about online advice and formulas for music production?

The speaker wants to clear up the misconception that there are formulas or exact methods for producing a hit song or a perfect mix, emphasizing that music production is a creative process without such formulas.

What does the speaker suggest as a way to connect with the community and offer value?

The speaker suggests sharing advice and insights, like the ones in the script, to connect with the community and offer value, especially to those starting out in music production.

Outlines

00:00

🎶 Reflecting on a Decade of Music Production

The speaker recounts their journey of the past 10 years since purchasing their first MIDI keyboard, which was inspired by their favorite artists. They describe the evolution from a hobbyist to a full-time job running a studio. The speaker also reflects on the lessons and mistakes made along the way, including mixing tips and mindset shifts. They offer to engage in deeper conversations in the comments section and hint at potential future videos on specific topics. The main point emphasized is the importance of fixing arrangement and production issues before mixing, rather than relying on plugins to carve space between tracks.

05:01

🔊 The Loudness Wars and Mixing Techniques

This paragraph discusses the loudness wars and the shift in professional practices regarding audio mastering. The speaker notes that despite loudness specifications from streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, most engineers now prioritize song quality over strict adherence to these guidelines. They argue that this makes hiring a mastering engineer even more crucial, as they can provide options and select the best fit for the genre. The speaker also shares personal production tips, such as avoiding soloing channels during mixing to prevent ear fatigue and ensure tracks fit well together. They caution against blindly following online advice and formulas, emphasizing the importance of using the right tools and equipment for accurate audio production.

10:02

🚫 Debunking Myths and Seeking Authentic Learning

The speaker addresses common misconceptions and myths in music production, urging beginners to be discerning about the advice they follow online. They highlight the importance of understanding one's own equipment limitations and not being swayed by those with expensive setups who claim it's all about 'the ear.' The speaker also warns against purchasing courses promising step-by-step formulas for success in music production, asserting that there is no one-size-fits-all method in this creative field. They encourage viewers to share their own lessons learned and to engage with the community for valuable insights and support.

Keywords

💡MIDI keyboard

A MIDI keyboard is an electronic musical instrument that sends MIDI signals to other devices, such as computers or synthesizers, to create sounds. In the video, the speaker mentions buying their first MIDI keyboard 10 years ago, which was a pivotal moment that led to a journey of music production and eventually a full-time job.

💡Mixing

Mixing in music production refers to the process of combining multiple tracks into a single, cohesive piece of music. The video discusses the challenges of mixing, emphasizing that some issues need to be addressed in the arrangement and production stage rather than during mixing.

💡Mastering

Mastering is the final step in music production, where the mixed tracks are polished and prepared for distribution. The video touches on the loudness wars and the current trend of disregarding specific loudness specifications in favor of what sounds best for the song.

💡Arrangement

In music, arrangement refers to the organization of musical components, such as melody, harmony, and rhythm. The script mentions that the arrangement is crucial for elements to groove around each other and fit well in the mix.

💡Plugins

Plugins are software components used in music production to add effects, process sound, or generate new sounds. The video mentions using EQs and dynamic EQs as plugins to carve space between different tracks.

💡Polarity

Polarity in audio refers to the phase relationship between two waveforms. The script discusses the importance of checking the phase of samples, as incorrect polarity can lead to phase cancellation and negatively affect the mix.

💡Five-click rule

The five-click rule is a personal productivity guideline mentioned in the video, suggesting that if a task takes more than five clicks in a digital audio workstation (DAW), it should be automated or simplified to improve workflow.

💡Loudness War

The loudness war refers to the trend of increasing the volume of music to make it stand out, often at the expense of dynamic range. The video states that the loudness war is over and that professionals are now focusing on what sounds best rather than adhering to streaming service specifications.

💡Soloing

Soloing in a mix is the practice of listening to a single track in isolation. The video advises against over-reliance on soloing during the mixing process, as it can lead to ear fatigue and a less cohesive final product.

💡Gear vs. Ear

The phrase 'it's not about the gear, it's about the ear' suggests that skill and talent are more important than equipment in music production. The video challenges this notion, arguing that having the right tools and equipment is also essential for achieving high-quality results.

💡Accountability

Accountability in the context of the video refers to the responsibility of online content creators to provide accurate and useful information. The speaker acknowledges the potential for misinformation and emphasizes the importance of learning from mistakes and correcting them.

Highlights

10 years of experience with a MIDI keyboard and the transition from hobby to full-time job.

Learning from mistakes and mindset shifts in music production.

The importance of fixing arrangement and production issues before mixing.

The limitations of using full-range presets in mixing and the need for compromise.

Checking phase of samples, especially in low-end layering to avoid cancellation.

The 'Five Click Rule' for streamlining workflow and reducing reliance on manual processes.

Loudness wars are over, with professionals disregarding streaming service specifications for song quality.

Avoiding soloing channels during mixing to prevent ear fatigue and improve mixing speed.

The misconception that gear is not important in music production.

The need for good monitoring equipment for accurate music production.

The pitfalls of taking online advice at face value without discerning its validity.

Dispelling the myth of strict EQ and compression limits in professional mixing.

The importance of recognizing that there is no one-size-fits-all formula in music production.

The value of community and learning from shared experiences in music production.

The shift towards short-form content on social media for connecting with the audience.

Invitation for viewers to share their own lessons learned in music production.

Acknowledgment of the collective journey of learning from mistakes in music production.

Transcripts

okay let's try this again I just filmed

this entire video dragged it onto the

computer and everything was corrupted so

here we go again it's been exactly 10

years since I bought my first midi

keyboard I was super inspired by some of

my favorite artists so I went to the

local music shop got the cheapest one I

could get loaded up the free software

and started making beats in my bedroom

just purely for fun I spent those 10

years producing mixing mastering

eventually accidentally sort of turning

this from a hobby into a full-time job

and running my own Studio but more

importantly it got me thinking about

loads of the harder lessons or just

straight up mistakes that I've made over

the years a few of them are just simple

mixing tips others are mindset shifts

that really help things click into place

I don't want to turn this into a 45

minute long video essay but if any of

these Concepts really resonate with you

or connect and you want to have a much

deeper conversation just leave a comment

and I'm happy to have a chat or I can

turn any of these into a much longer and

more detailed

video this is the best way to mix

competing tracks and it's the most

common question I he while there are

lots of plugins designed to help carve

space between different tracks and you

can use eqs and dynamic eqs to you know

attenuate and boost the same regions on

different tracks to try to carve space

but the reason it's so difficult to get

all of these competing elements to fit

together in the mix is because the

problem cannot be fixed in the mix this

is one thing that really has to be fixed

in the arrangement and production and

nobody likes to hear that it was so

annoying to hear this when I was

starting out or even for many years but

listen to any of your favorite records

notice how all of the elements Groove

around each other fit in the pocket and

they're all working with the arrangement

once this mindset shift SNS in your

tracks are going to sound so much more

confident they're going to have a lot

more purpose they're going to groove

well and they're going to Mi pretty much

mix themselves lots of the presets you

use like synthesizer presets they're so

full range with Basse mid and treble and

they sound amazing you're not going to

be able to stack too much on top of it

you've got to make some compromises if

you want to let the let the song breathe

and do what it's supposed to do as a

song this is a more practical tip this

is how important it is to check the

phase of your samples if you're going to

be layering them especially in the low

end I've got a whole video about this

but really quickly if you literally zoom

in on the sample say you're layering two

kick drums you can see the waveforms go

above and below the central line just

make sure that at the same time they're

both going up and down because these

will reinforce each other if the two

waveforms are opposite they're actually

going to cancel each other out and no

amount of processing EQ compression

Distortion anything you lay onto it can

help because the two waveforms are

canceling each other out before you've

even started and the reason I share this

is I've just had a few embarrassing

mixes that I've done where I didn't

realize until the next day or the next

week why I was struggling couldn't make

the kick and base work layering samples

adding on EQ low-end um exciters and

Distortion all sorts of stuff all it

needed was the polarity to be reversed

so there's always going to be some

degree of phase cancellation I just

didn't understand anything about that

for the first couple of years and I was

just you know loading on samples and

trying to make things work and it just

it was bad so hopefully you've learned

from that

mistake I learned this one years too

late I call it the five click Rule and

I've never shared this online at one

point I decided that if anything was

going to take more than five clicks in

my dawr software I had to find either a

better way to do it automate it shortcut

it or simply just use a different

software my relationship with the

software at the start was really bad I

felt like I was wrestling this software

to make it work for me I always felt

like I was having to do the heavy

lifting and the software was just

totally getting in the way there had to

be a better way to do it and the truth

is if you go through the manual if you

look for advice online there almost

certainly is if you're trying to record

stuff add effects uh pull in your

favorite presets load up projects

there's no need to be clicking through

loads of menus unless you're looking for

very obscure things or maybe you're

doing something very labor intensive

like manual pitch correction if I'm

creating folders opening up new projects

I can just type a name type the artist

name song name and it will generate all

the folders open the project pull in the

tracks open up all my effects you

usually pay quite a lot of money for

these softwares so at least let them do

a lot of the heavy lifting for you so

that you can just be creative do your

music production mixing master ing

whatever it is and have a bit of fun

with it instead of wrestling with the

software this one is insanely

controversial and I really don't know

why but basically a few years ago it

looked like loudness regulations and

specifications were going to be coming

in and that it would make everything

more beneficial to you if you mastered

at slightly lower levels and uh followed

the specifications for particular

streaming services but it's become

completely apparent to me especially

after my last mastering video where I

looked at what a bunch of Professional

Engineers were doing and what levels

they were hitting but to keep this brief

basically the loudness Wars are over and

Loud has won almost all Professional

Engineers are pretty much disregarding

the specifications that Spotify or apple

music are giving and we're simply doing

what's best for the song or maximum

loudness now this annoys a lot of

Engineers because it makes people think

well you know you don't need to hire

anyone you can just do this yourself but

I actually think and so do a lot of my

clients that this makes it even more

important to hire a mastering engineer

because they can audition a whole bunch

of loudness is give you loads of options

and we can both pick the version that

sounds best for your genre instead of

arbitrarily following what Spotify or

iTunes or apple music thinks is best for

your song in short the loudness Wars are

over you don't need to master to any

specific specifications those

regulations exist so that when you

submit your song it's not going to blow

anyone's eard drums out or play back

super super loud this this is a more

practical tip soloing your channels is

great when you're learning effects or

you're learning processing but when I'm

actually mixing this slows me down

because it's so easy to make things

sound good in Solo you know what it's

like you mix something that sounds

amazing you play the rest of the tracks

and it doesn't fit in you have to make a

load of adjustments so what I tried to

do and this is really difficult and

disorienting at first is playing that

track in the context of everything else

if you're mixing the snare keep the rest

of the drums on while you're adding

effects if you're mixing the vocal maybe

keep the guitars or the synthesizers on

even at a lower level this is going to

rapidly improve the speed of your mixing

because you're not going to have to go

back and remix everything for the second

third or fourth time when things aren't

fitting in but also it reduces your ear

fatigue because you will be working

quicker not having to listen to the same

sounds over and over again you've

probably heard the phrase it's not about

the gear it's about the ear and while

this tries to be positive I think a lot

of the time it's actually just wrong and

it can sometimes come across as

gaslighting when there's people sitting

in front of really expensive equipment

telling you that it's not about any of

that it's all about your ears some

issues are going to be skill-based and

you don't need more equipment it's all

just about what you know but there are

other times when you do need the right

tool for the job now we don't apply this

phrase to any other profession that I

can think of if you're an electrician

it's okay to have all the tools you need

in your toolkit Gardener it's okay to

have a great lawnmower video editor you

can have a great color accurate screen

otherwise you can't see what you're

doing if you're a music music producer

mixer mastering engineer it's okay to

have good equipment that lets you

accurately hear your music when I was

starting out I had awful speakers no

acoustic treatment no amount of skill

could have made that much better there

are things that I could I could not even

hear in my mix that were issues and

having a good monitoring environment

certainly would have helped the message

here is not to go out and buy a load of

equipment it's just to understand the

limitations of your own equipment and

don't let people Gaslight you while

sitting in front of loads of expensive

equipment telling you that it's all

about their ears and that none of the

fancy equipment makes a difference cuz

I've seen people in with millions of

dollars of equipment and room

surrounding them say that it's all about

their ears and it's just like well why

would you have all that incredible

equipment if you didn't need any of it

it's a little bit

disingenuous so this one's a bit awkward

cuz I know that I am a person online

who's trying to share advice from time

to time but at least with me and other

people in videos we've got a name a face

there's a level of accountability if I

make mistakes I'm either going to own up

to them and fix them or people in the

comments are going to tell me that and

we can all learn from it but the amount

of things that I picked up on forums and

blogs as a beginner that I've had to

unlearn because they're complete

nonsense and at the time I didn't have

the experience to know whether it was

truth really legit or just a complete

load of nonsense and Bs to be honest it

takes several years to be able to

develop that ability to know so when

you're uh more experienced or more

advanced these these forums and blogs

can be great because you can pick the

bits you need and pretty much throw away

the rest people sharing advice about

levels for a particular tracks or saying

that you can only EQ or compress by a

certain number of DB like three or six

DB when I was starting out in music

production this concept of never

compressing more than 3 to 6 DB was just

spoken like gospel all over the Internet

and then you get into the more

professional world and you realize that

is absolute nonsense you just do what

the tracks need and by far the biggest

lesson here is that if there's anyone

online trying to sell you any sort of

formula or method to mix or produce a

song or Master by a particular method or

formula or by numbers that's absolute

nonsense anyone that's professional

knows that there's no such formula it's

a very creative process and anyone

trying to sell you especially a course

uh that gives you some exact

step-by-step guide to like to a hit song

or some perfect mix that is nonsense and

I wish I'd known that soon as well so

that's all I have time for here I've got

loads more points that I want to get to

but I'm aware this video is just going

to get super super long which I said it

wouldn't uh I'm trying to do some

different things on YouTube and my other

social medias especially with short form

content at the end of the day I'm trying

to do this to connect with the community

and try to offer stuff of value the sort

of stuff that I wish I was I had seen

when I was starting out so just let me

know what are the sort of stuff you'd

want to see and also let me know if

there's any you know mistakes or lessons

you've learned along the way I know some

of you have been doing this longer than

I I have and I'm sure you've made just

as many mistakes as I have although I

hope not but you tend to learn from your

mistakes I've learned from them

hopefully you can learn from them all

too so thank you very much for watching

I hope to see you in the next video and

have a great week bye for now