Mixing Lab 1

Learn mixing by clarifying fundaments of the process. This event will overview the steps and answer participant questions. The group will deconstruct a mix from start to finish. Tracks used in demo will be made available as Full Track Pack for attendees to download and try at home. Notes from the session and a recommended reading list will be available for download.

Overview of The Mix

Sometimes we need to look at the big picture. What are the goals of this mix? Consider style/genre. Consider delivery methods. Every mix has a different approach. Clarity or crushing?  Space or tightness? Imagine the goals before you start.

Monitoring and Acoustics.

You can’t trust your decisions if you can’t trust your speakers. An overview of how-to setup, measure, and improve the mix environment. Why to use fixed monitor gain designs.

Mix prep. Organizing and Routing.

Editing the best take. Reducing noise floor before the mix. Track layout and project organizing. Routing defaults and “starting point” settings. What to aux bus? What to group?

EQ.  Carving space.

Know the frequency range of the part. Sweeping to find problem resonances and whistle tones. Dynamic vs Static. Why we high pass and low pass.

Insert vs Aux vs Group Processing

What’s the chain? Pre or Post? When to aux bus. When to group. When to send groups to aux. Traditional insert chains of effects.

Compression basics. LUFS and Levels.

Ratio and threshold. What’s the target and how to hit it. Master bus processing…  but not too much

We can’t cover everything in one day, but we’ll get the big picture. Demos and QnA throughout the session. Deep dive topics like compression types (Brickwall limiting vs VCA vs Opto vs FET) and eq types (parametric, dynamic, mid-side) and tricks like parallel compression will be topic for future sessions.

Here is a look at the proposed schedule for this event.