60 tips to Help You Get Better Sounding Mixes - Mastering The Mix

© Mastering The Mix 2019
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60 TIPS TO HELP
YOU GET BETTER
SOUNDING MIXES

CONTENTS
Introduction 4
Polarity vs Phase Explained 5
Small Home Studio Ideal Monitoring Volume 6
Soft Clippers & Hard Clippers Explained 7
Super-Efficient Progress Tip 8
Mixing For Small Speakers 9
Start Your Mix in Mono 10
How to Get Intimate Ambience in Vocals 11
Skills Audio Engineers Students Need 12
Volume Vs Gain: Loudness Explained 13
How To EQ Vocals 14
3 Ways To Ensure Your Mix Sounds Great 15
Learn From The Pros #1 16
Top 3 Techniques For Mixing Background Vocals 17
What To Listen For When Using Reference Tracks 18
Top 3 Pitch Correction Tools & When To Use Them 19
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Mixing Samples 20
Here’s Why Your Mix Sounds Bad in The Car 21
4 Ways To Achieve a Professional Mix Using Panning 22
How To Create a Great Sounding Track Using EQs 23
Learn From The Pros #2 24
How To Choose The Right Microphone For Your Voice 25
Why True Peak Matters 26
The Right Way To Side Chain Audio Signals 27
4 Ways To Make Vocals Clear and Professional 28
How To Master to an Exact True Peak 29
How To Make Your Beats Loud Without Distortion 30
3 Ways to Make Your Kicks and Snares Cut Through The Mix 31
Bohemian Rhapsody Structure 32
Mixing Foo Fighters Guitars 33
Compressor Explained: Soft and Hard Knee 34
Learn From The Pros #3 35
How To De-es Vocals Properly 36
Frequency Spectrum Division 37
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What is 32 Bit Floating 38
Add Tremolo Before Your Reverb For a Unique Space 39
Automate 40
Top-end Balance 41
Open Back Headphones vs Closed Back Headphones 42
How To Set The Perfect Vocal Level in Your Mix 43
Build Your Mix in Mono For a Solid Foundation 44
Stem or Stereo Mastering? 45
Layer Your Synths to Sound More Unique, Not More ‘Full’. 46
Start With the Important Things 47
Try Adding a Dynamic EQ Before Your Reverb to Smooth Out the Sounds 48
Bass Space With Levels 49
What ‘Attack’ Means in a Compressor 50
What ‘Release’ Means in a Compressor 51
What ‘Knee’ Means in an Expander 52
3 Ways To Fix Your Muddy Mix 53
Mastering For Apple Music 54
Use Stereo Width to Reduce Masking 55
Dealing With Rejection 56
Which Compressor Gives A Great Final Glue to Your Mix? 57
What Does the Threshold on an Expander do? 58
What is the Difference Between: FIR and IIR Filters 59
Why Level Matching is so Important 60
The Importance of Creating a Well Balanced Mix 61
What is the difference between: FIR and IIR Filters⠀ 61
What is Harmonic Distortion? 62
How To Set The Perfect Monitoring Levels For Your Home Studio 63
What is Sample Rate? 64
What is Loudness Range? 65
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Introduction
Hello!
Thank you for downloading this eBook! I hope you get inspired with some fresh new ideas to
inject into your music productions.
Mastering The Mix’s single driving goal is to help music producers get better sounding mixes.
We do this primarily through free education.
We’ve been posting content on our social media channels daily for over a year now and we
intend to keep the posts coming. If you want to join the 188,000+ producers that are getting
these tips, you can follow us here: https://www.instagram.com/masteringthemix
Some of the posts involve our plugins, which also come with educational guides. You can
download the free trials here.
Enjoy, and get your music sounding better than ever!
Tom Frampton
Director
Mastering The Mix
© Mastering The Mix 2019
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Polarity Vs Phase Explained
'Changing The Phase' and ‘Reversing The Polarity are terms that are commonly confused by
beginners and pros alike. They do not describe the same process.
The polarity is the signal’s position above or below the median line. Flipping the polarity
inverts the positive readings to negative and vice versa.
Phase is related to the delay or change in time of an audio signal. The phase of a signal,
relative to the starting point, is expressed in degrees. A 90° phase shift, is a quarter of a
wavelength. It follows that a 180° phase shift is a half-wavelength and a 360° phase shift is a full
wavelength.
How is this is applicable in music production? If you were recording a bass guitar DI AND a
bass amp, the DI signal would hit the DAW quicker because the amp takes longer to recreate the
input signal. This can cause the time alignment of audio to be out of phase
In a separate circumstance, if the DI signal was duplicated and one of the signals had its
polarity reversed, the two signals will cancel each other out and you would hear no sound.
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