Why Do You Always Get Distortion When You Master?? 😩
Oftentime this comes down to an imbalance in the frequency ranges within your mix. In most cases this comes down to the bass being too loud (shoutout 808’s for keeping me on my toes). Sometimes though the midrange can be a problem and cause distortion when you push the limiter. This can be fixed by things like EQ, multiband compression, or simply leveling.
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Song: Instincts by @gnedds
Secret Vocal Production Technique to Add Excitement: 🗣️🎙️🗣️🗣️🎙️
They’re called “ins & outs” and I learned about this while interning in recording studios that did hip-hop sessions. The idea is to emphasize certain words in a line to create a contrast between a line that’s doubled and one that isn’t. My process for this is to record a double of every single line and then picking and choosing which lines to do double while in the “arrangement phase.” The other way to do this is to plan which lines you’re going to double in advance. But it makes the vocal arrangement so much more exciting!
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Song: Instincts by @gnedds & Sriracha by @therealtechn9ne & @joynerlucas
Are You Flying Your Vocal Chains?? 😡
If you work with the same vocal more than one time there is no reason you shouldn’t be saving time by “flying” your vocal chains (copying the settings from the previous session). Switch off every plugin and then turn them on one by one, making adjustments as necessary to suit the song. This way you’ll save time and get a great sounding vocal chain after only making a couple of tweaks! (If Any)
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Song: Paint Me a Picture by @justushajas
How I Mix a Song From Start to Finish:
Step 1: Session Prep (everything from putting the stems into the session to vocal editing)
Step 2: Gain staging/leveling in mono
Step 3: Getting a solid vocal mix
Step 4: Kick and bass mix
Step 5: Drum Mixing
Step 6 Instrument mixing
Step 7: Switching to Stereo and finishing touches
Step 8: Mastering & automation
⭐ Click the Link in my Bio to Work With Me and Learn How to Produce, Mix, and Master your Music to Sound as Great as your Favorite Songs on Spotify!
Song: Paint Me a Picture by @justushajas
When Would You Actually Use Regular Compression vs. Multiband Compression? 🧐🎚️
The main difference has to do with compressing the entire vocal versus specific frequency areas within the vocal. You’re always gonna have to add compression to the vocal but oftentimes you’ll find that the midrange or the top end needs to be compressed on its own. In this case you’d reach for a multiband compressor to even out that midrange and make it more consistent (which adds clarity to the vocal overall).
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Song: Paint Me a Picture by @justushajas
How I Produce Dense Vocal Arrangements: 🗣️🗣️🗣️🎙️
Step 1: Pick the RIGHT KEY for the song. I usually find the highest note in the melody that I can sing comfortably and then base the key of the song around that. That way I can add an octave down to everything.
Step 2: Record low vocals (because they require the least amount of stamina)
Step 3: Record highs (usually I do every other line to give myself space to breathe in between lines)
Step 4: Record Harmonies & any other backups
Step 5: Do a couple entire runs through to figure out what I’m going to do for ad libs. By the 3rd or 4th take I usually have a pretty good idea and start laying down what’s probably going to be the final.
Step 6: Arrange them however it makes the most sense to create a dynamic vocal arrangement (so that not everything is playing at the same time to create some contrast)
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Song: Distracted by Nick Tello (release date tbd)
How Can You “Think Like a Drummer” When Programming Drum Parts?? @andrewsllvn makes some great points during one of our group calls about how a drummer can play slightly off time and play things more ergonomically as opposed to how we might “think” we should be programming drum parts (which would be hard for an actual human to play).
Click the link in my bio or comment “mixing” to learn how to produce, mix, and master your music to sound as great as your favorite songs on Spotify! ⭐️
How Many Vocal Layers Should You Add?? There’s no correct answer for everyone but here’s a good guide based on my process, without going overboard and creating more work for yourself: 🗣️🎙️
1. Main high and main low
2. Doubling both high and low octaves
3. Harmonies (doubled, either single or two octaves)
4. Ad Libs, Falsettos, Whispery vox (anything extra)
⭐ Click the Link in my Bio to Work With Me and Learn How to Produce, Mix, and Master your Music to Sound as Great as your Favorite Songs on Spotify!
Song: Out West by Nick Tello (release date tbd)
My Unique, Efficient, and CPU-effective Way to Program Drums: 🥁
Essentially what I’m doing here is creating sample library “kits” out of my favorite drum samples for each category of sound: kicks, snare, hats, etc… This way I can move MIDI notes around while selecting the sample best suited to the song and save on CPU by having one loaded kit that plays out multiple samples. It also makes sample-stacking a breeze!
⭐ Click the Link in my Bio to Work With Me and Learn How to Produce, Mix, and Master your Music to Sound as Great as your Favorite Songs on Spotify!
Song: Out West by Nick Tello (release date tbd)
How Do You Know if it’s Time to Take a Course, or Sign Up For Coaching? 🤔
This is NOT a pitch. Look at how long you’ve spent trying to get your mixes to sound how you want. If it’s only been two months and you’re seeing a LOT of improvement, then soon enough your mixes might sound like your references or at least be up to your standard. At that point you should probably just keep going because whatever you’re doing is clearly working! But if it’s been two years and you’re struggling and every time you sit down to work on a mix it makes you want to quit music forever and go live in the forest… then it might be time to consider some outside help.
If you see yourself really thriving off of YouTube videos but find them too scattered, then you probably just need the right information in the right order. In that case it would make sense to check out a video course. But if videos still leave you more lost than when you started and with more questions, then it might make sense to consider getting some hands-on guidance.
It doesn’t matter how you become great at your craft, but being self-aware of what works for you and what doesn’t is a VERY important step towards getting you closer to reaching your music-making potential. It’s about making the right decisions so that you see improvements because you don’t want to plateau or end up quitting because you couldn’t figure it out.
⭐ Click the Link in my Bio to Work With Me and Learn How to Produce, Mix, and Master your Music to Sound as Great as your Favorite Songs on Spotify!
Song: Sunsets by Nick Tello
Melodyne Crash Course: 🥕
Put the plugin on the track and hit transfer so Melodyne can read the audio.
When doing pitch correction you don’t wanna do too much, so if you double click while the “pitch tool” is selected it will snap the notes into place. Sometimes it’ll snap the notes into the wrong spot so you’ll have to double check.
Use the split tool to split up the notes to be able to put the different pitches within the note into the right place. The pitch modulation tool affects how much the pitch strays from the center (correct) pitch, and the pitch drift tool affects how much the note overall drifts from the center pitch. You can also use the note transition tool to smooth out the transition between notes.
I should also mention that you need at least Melodyne Assistant to use most of these tools.
⭐ Click the Link in my Bio to Work With Me and Learn How to Produce, Mix, and Master your Music to Sound as Great as your Favorite Songs on Spotify!
Song: Out West by Nick Tello (release date tbd)
Why Mixing in Solo Can Be a Dangerous Game: 🧐
Your listener is not going to hear your kick in solo, so why mix it that way? Sure you can solo it so that you can snipe out specific frequencies and get a closer listen but for the most part you want to be making mix decisions while the rest of the mix is playing so that you have that added context.
⭐ Click the Link in my Bio to Work With Me and Learn How to Produce, Mix, and Master your Music to Sound as Great as your Favorite Songs on Spotify!
Song: Forsaken by @marcus_the_clarkus
Watch Me Level This Mix in 90 Seconds WOOOO: 😤
Bring your kick in and have it peaking around -10db.
Bring the snare in and have it peaking similarly to the kick.
Bring in the bass, have it just below the kick.
Bring in the vocals and have them just underneath the kick and the snare.
Bring in the hats and other percs underneath the snare (almost the same volume).
Bring the rest of the instruments and elements into the mix in the order of importance but making sure you can hear everything (while keeping the vocal at the forefront).
Voila! Now you’re ready to mix down your track yeeeehawww
⭐ Click the Link in my Bio to Work With Me and Learn How to Produce, Mix, and Master your Music to Sound as Great as your Favorite Songs on Spotify!
Song: Forsaken by @marcus_the_clarkus
How to Mix Low End??? 😩
With your bass you want to ask your self if it’s filling out the sub, the body of the bass, and the upper bass or lower midrange. If the answer is NO then you might want to consider adding a harmonic enhancer like RBass, distortion, or something similar that will help enhance the bass and fill out the low end and the low mids of your mix a little bit more.
Next question to ask yourself: is the bass consistent? Is it the same volume note to note? If not, add some compression or a plugin like Bass Rider by @wavesaudio to make the bass more consistent.
For the kick, you want it to be tight and punchy most of the time. If it’s flabby and gross you can try compressing it with a slow attack time (to allow the transient through) and slow release time (to keep it from amplifying the tail, therefore keeping it tighter). You can also use a transient shaper to tighten up the kick overall or just its low end.
The relationship between the kick and the bass is also very important. One common trick is to sidechain the kick to the bass, that way the bass ducks down when the kick is present, giving the kick space to punch and leaving your mix with more headroom.
⭐ Click the Link in my Bio to Work With Me and Learn How to Produce, Mix, and Master your Music to Sound as Great as your Favorite Songs on Spotify!
Song: Forsaken by @marcus_the_clarkus
Need More Low End? Try These Plugins: 🙌🏼
RBass by @wavesaudio - enhances frequency areas where it’s lacking. Great for adding more sub, mid bass, and upper bass/low mids
LoAir by @wavesaudio - enhances subby low end specifically. POWERFUL plugin for low end!
Bark of Dog by @bozmillar - great free plugin for enhancing low end. Three different modes, the combo is a killer!
⭐ Click the Link in my Bio to Work With Me and Learn How to Produce, Mix, and Master your Music to Sound as Great as your Favorite Songs on Spotify!
Song: Forsaken by @marcus_the_clarkus
FULL VIDEO UP ON YOUTUBE (link in bio) A lot of y’all asked, so I uploaded the full “how to fix a thin mix” lesson where I show one of my students Ryan how to use his reference track to address this issue. Cringy thumbnail and everything. Go check it out
⭐️ Comment “mixing” if you wanna work with me to learn how to produce, mix, and master your music to sound as great as your favorite songs on Spotify!
How Do You Fix a Thin Mix?? Here I show Ryan (one of the students in my coaching program) how to address this issue using his reference as a guide.
Click the link in my bio or comment “mixing” to learn how to produce, mix, and master your music to sound as great as your favorite songs on Spotify! ⭐️
Vocal Mix in 90 Seconds Let’s GOOOO: 😤
1. Autotune (to tighten tuning)
2. De-esser (to tame sibilance)
3. First stage of compression (3-5db of gain reduction)
4. Subtractive EQ (cutting lows, taming midrange, telephonic frequencies, and bite)
5. Second stage of compression (another 3-5db of gain reduction)
6. Multiband compression (to even out midrange)
7. Soothe/Dynamic Resonance Suppression (to even out resonant or muddy frequencies)
8. Third stage of compression (significantly less gain reduction than the first two)
9. Additive EQ (for presence)
10. De-esser (the additive EQ added sibilance)
11. Reverb (filtered to be between around 400~7k)
12. Delay (ping-pong, filtered between 400~3k)
13. Parallel compression, short reverb, and slapback delay
⭐ Click the Link in my Bio to Work With Me and Learn How to Produce, Mix, and Master your Music to Sound as Great as your Favorite Songs on Spotify!
Song: Life When It’s Over by @iammainza
How Should You Be EQing drums?? 🤔🥁
Kicks: Boost 60hz for UMPHHH. Knock around 100hz. Click around 3k and up.
Snares: Punch around fundamental midrange (160-400hz), bitey harshness around 2k-3k. Top end (either enhance or tame) with a top shelf.
Hi-Hats: Don’t always default to using EQ… try just turning them up or down lol. Sometimes there is some high harshness that needs to be tamed though.
The mindset behind EQing drums is to listen for problems, and listen for where it’s lacking so that you can know where to cut or boost in order for the drum to play its position more strongly.
⭐ Click the Link in my Bio to Work With Me and Learn How to Produce, Mix, and Master your Music to Sound as Great as your Favorite Songs on Spotify!
Song: Life When It’s Over by @iammainza
How Should You Be Compressing Instruments?? 🤔🎸
There are a couple questions you should be asking in regards to each element and how it should be compressed. Is every note the same volume? Is the sound smooth overall? If not you can use compression to bring the sound forward overall. When it’s tucked into the mix you’ll hear every note evenly.
If you’re working with a pluckier or more transient sound you’d want to work with a slower attack time to leave the transient intact. Then if you’re trying to bring up the tails and bring the sound forward overall you’d work with a faster release time. If you want to tighten the sound and make each note length shorter you’d make the release time slower, that way it doesn’t come up as quickly.
DM for Coaching, Mixing, or Production! 📩
Download Free Vocal Mini-Course (Link in Bio)
Song: Life When It’s Over by @iammainza
