You’re producing a song, and it’s starting to come together. But, you’re not entirely sure what the next step is to make the track release ready. That’s when mixing and mastering come in! Mixing and mastering are two processes that are key to finishing up a track and getting it release ready. If you’re unsure of what those are, that’s what I’m here for! Let’s dive in.
I tend to think of the song creation process as baking a cake. When you’re writing and producing a track, you’re gathering ingredients and combining them together. When you’ve combined everything, it’s time to “bake” the song together, and polish everything. That being said, mixing is when you take every track of the song individually, and edit them in a way where they fit together more cohesively. For example, that could be taking a kick track and a bass track and using an EQ to remove conflicting frequencies. Mastering, on the other hand, is taking a finished mix, and making precision adjustments to maximize the impact of the song, and get it release ready for radio play and streaming services.
Like I described above, mixing and mastering are both elements of finishing up a song and getting it release ready. But when do you do each step?
Mastering is always done as the final step. The reason being that mastering is generally done off of a single mix down of a track, rather than each individual part. Occasionally, a master is done from group stems (which are mixdowns of broader parts of a song - drums, bass, vocals, instruments, etc). Regardless, mastering is always the last step.
Mixing, on the other hand, is a bit more generalized. There’s two common methods as to when a mix is done. Depending on the genre, or producer / production team, a song is mixed in one of two places: during the production, or after the production. This can be genre dependent. For songs that are created using live instruments (folk, rock, classical, etc.), it’s generally easier to mix after the production process since the production mostly entails the recording of the instruments and vocals.
However, if you’re mostly a pop, EDM, hip hop, or any other genre that’s created predominantly “in the box” (created mostly from plugins or VSTs), you’re more likely to mix as you produce. In this case, the mix would generally happen during the production process. Occasionally, depending on budget,workflow, or need, a producer in this situation would then export tracks from the production, and send it to a third party engineer to put together the final mix. The producer’s mix would be included as a reference, but the final mix would be done by a mix engineer.
All of these processes are equally viable! If you’re just starting out in the production / mix / master world, experiment with all of these options and find what works best for you!
Now then… let’s get into the mixing itself!
I’d say there are four basic elements of mixing: EQ, Compression, Saturation, and Effects. These are all important elements to every mix, but how you use them, and how applicable they are, change depending on the project.
Let’s go over each element briefly
EQ is short for equalization and is the process of boosting or cutting the volume of specific frequency ranges. The frequency range of human hearing spans from 20hz to 20,000hz (also referred to as 20khz). Most EQs will allow you to adjust the volume of frequencies in that range. Some EQs go above the range of human hearing as well.
A compressor allows you to automatically turn down spikes in volume. Compressors usually have a few different parameters: Threshold, Ratio, Attack, and Release. The threshold is how loud an audio signal needs to be in order to trigger the compressor. Ratio is how much the compressor “compresses” or turns down the volume. For example, a 1:2 ratio would compress an audio signal that passes the threshold by 50%. Attack and Release determine how quickly the compressor kicks in or fades out.
Compression can be a very tricky element to figure out! Reading about it probably isn’t the best way to learn. It’ll be much easier to figure out how to work with a compressor by experimenting with it! So try it out on your next project.
Saturation is the process of gently distorting an audio signal to increase either warmth, depth, or sharpness. If an element in your production isn’t sticking out enough, rather than increase the volume, try increasing the saturation!
Effects is an umbrella term for reverb, delay, or other audio affecting elements such as chorus, phaser, auto pan, or anything else. (there’s a lot of them!)
Regardless of where you are in your producing or mixing journey, having a working understanding of EQ, Compression, Saturation, and Effects will be crucial! The best way to learn is to try it out! Get curious with it, and learn by doing!
Mastering is a pretty fine art in the music industry. You would use the same tools as mixing, but just to a much finer detail! However, in the mastering process, you would be preparing a track to be release ready. If you’re dead set on becoming a mastering engineer, I recommend finding an established mastering engineer to mentor you! Otherwise, there’s a few AI assisted tools that I recommend for mastering!
Ozone is my go to plugin when it comes to sending out a quick master of a demo. It’s super self explanatory and has a mastering assistant that will help you get 80% of the way there! Ozone Elements (the lite version) goes on sale often, so keep an eye out for it!
Landr is another AI mastering tool. If I’m ever working on a project that I’m mixing and mastering myself, I usually do my mastering through Landr. It gives you options to tweak the master after uploading your track, and usually I can get a great result from it! If you don’t want to go through the trouble of tweaking a master from Ozone, Landr is the way to go! A Landr membership will cost anywhere from $9-$33 a month depending on how often you need it! It’s definitely worth it in my opinion!
Alright, you’ve heard me say this before. What’s my #1 tip and trick of all time? LISTEN.
Taking time to actively listen to a track and break it down is crucial to your growth as a music creator. As you produce or mix tracks, take time often to step back and compare your mix to reference mixes or songs that you enjoy and want to learn to create. Building good listening habits is key to becoming better at your craft.
If you’re recording a live instrument, it’s MUCH easier to adjust mic position or change the tone / play style at the source than to try to fix it in the mix. I get it - it’s annoying to fix it at the source, and so much easier to put it off to when it’s time to mix, but you’ll have a much easier time mixing if your source material is good!
A lot of the producers I mentor automatically try to add frequencies when the EQ, rather than cutting out conflicting or harsh frequencies. Get into the habit of listening for what shouldn’t be there and turning it down, rather than trying to boost what’s good! It’s like cleaning. You have to clear the clutter. You can’t just keep adding accent couches to make a space look cleaner. It’ll end up looking messier than before.
Lastly, less is more. Don’t try to mix yourself to death. Use small amounts of reverb, or small amounts of eq / compression. Oftentimes, just because a tool can do a lot, doesn’t mean it needs to! Keep things tasteful.
A lot of people do! Outsourcing is one of the best ways to maximize your workflow. I’m all about it. So, how do you prep a song for mixing or mastering?
First, communicate with your engineer. How do they want your files exported? Most likely, they’ll have a specific procedure or preference. So, definitely communicate with them before exporting tracks!
Next, make sure your tracks have effects turned off. This is where a bit of judgement needs to come from you. Determine what is a production effect and what is a mix effect. Anything that you do for mix, should be turned off. For example, a low pass on a super saw would be considered a production effect. However, taking the mids out of a vocal would be a mix effect. If you need help deciding, ask your engineer! They’ll be more than happy to assist. It’s making their job easier!
What about sending a song off to mastering? This is pretty easy compared to sending a song off for mixing. Just make sure there’s an adequate amount of headroom for the mastering engineer to work with. I’m not going to give you any specific volume goals, but just make sure you’re not in the red when you export your track! Additionally, make sure you export any version of the track you’ll need (full, instrumental, tv, etc.)
That’s pretty much it for this one! Let me know if you have any questions! As usual, I’m always down to hop on a session with you and help coach you through some of this stuff! Feel free to reach out here!
Have a great day!
Spike
