Mixing & Mastering Explained

Hey Friend,

Thanks for downloading this free PDF!

Graham Cochrane here. My hope is that this short report will help you understand why mixing &
mastering are key to making great songs from your home studio.

And keep in mind - the way I define mixing & mastering is simply my own personal definition that
I’ve developed over decades working as an audio engineer.

Others might disagree with the way I define these terms, but I’ve only got one thing in mind with
this: to help you get your mixes radio-ready!

Let’s get right to it…

What Is Mixing?

Mixing is taking a set of tracks, and presenting them in the best possible light through the
use of things such as volume, panning, EQ, compression, reverb, delay and saturation.

Mixing is often neglected in most home studios, to terrible results. Some musicians avoid it
because it seems complicated and scary, others just don’t want to waste endless hours trying to
perfect their music.

A good way to think about it is like baking a cake. Recording your song is like getting fresh
eggs, flour, castor sugar, some vanilla essence, baking powder… And mixing is putting it all
together, and popping it into the oven to bake.

Mixing isn’t about adding a thousand different effects to your vocals and guitars. (That’s the
production part of making music!)

Mixing is about taking away parts of tracks that don’t sound so good. Amplifying what’s already
there and making it pop.

I’ve put together two examples of a song before and after mixing. Check out those examples
to hear the power of what mixing can do for your music!

And when it comes to mixing, it’s as simple as following 5 simple steps.

1) Volume & Panning
This is the part of mixing where you’re taming the volume of the different tracks in your mix. Put
your mix on a loop in your recording software, and adjust the volume faders and panning knobs
until your mix starts to fall into place.

To make sure this process doesn’t take forever, you could even set a 10 minute timer to get the
volume and panning fixed in your mix to create an initial balance in your song.

2) EQ
This is where you can use any stock equalizer (EQ) plugin to start bringing clarity and excitement
to your mix.

While you can use EQ to add frequencies and volume to your mix, I’m a big fan of subtractive EQ.

Use your EQ like a pair of garden shears, snipping out bad frequencies, enhancing the brightness
of vocals, and opening up sonic space in your mix.

3) Compression
After EQ, compression is the next place to go. Use compression to control the volume of certain
instruments with a huge dynamic range, such as vocals, keys, or guitars. At the same time, it can
bring punch and tightness to a drum track.

A good way to view compression is to see it as an automated volume fader.

It’s not a complicated machine that requires a PhD to understand - all it’s there to do is to control
the volume of your tracks.

4) Reverb & Delay

Once you have a well balanced mix that’s been cleaned up with EQ and enhanced with
compression, now you can bring in ambient effects to turn your dry home recording into a
professional studio sound.

Tools like reverb (it helps create the sound of rooms or halls) and delay (essentially an echo effect)
help your music sound larger than life.

5) Automation
This is a little more advanced, but when done right takes your mix to the next level. After you’ve
balanced your mix out with EQ, compression, and added some reverb and delay, it’s time to make
your mix alive.

The power of using a digital recording software is that you can automate certain elements of your
mix to go up or down at different points of your song.
Mixing is a step of the music making process that’s crucial to make great music, so don’t let it
overwhelm you.

What is Mastering?

Mastering is the final step that takes your great sounding mix, and makes it presentable to
the rest of the world.

If mixing is baking the cake… mastering is putting the icing on top, and placing it inside a
pretty box for someone to open up for their birthday.

It’s crucial you don’t mix up this step with mixing (no pun intended!). In fact, when you’ve mixed
your song already, mastering is the most subtle step to take.

Originally, mastering meant taking your mix from the studio and prepping it into the final medium
for music, whether it be a CD or vinyl or MP3.

Now, that’s still the process, but over the years it’s changed. These days, it’s also come to include
putting some EQ or compression on the finished mix to make it as good as it can be.

While there’s people who specialize in mastering, I’m a firm believer in the power of mastering your
own tracks.

Here’s my quick and easy 2-step mastering checklist so your mix is ready to be shared with the
world….

1) Reference a Professional Mix

After you’ve put together your mix, it’s time to make sure your mix sounds professional.

Simply import a pro mix of your favourite song in a similar genre as yours, and put it on a new track
in your software, turn the volume down so it matches your mix, and flip it back and forth.

Use the back and forth comparisons to figure out how to make your mix closer to the professional
mix.

2) Get your mix to commercial volume

Once your mix is sounding close to a pro reference track, it’s time to get your volume up to
commercial standards.
If you’ve ever bounced your song out of your DAW, brought it to your car or played it on your
friend’s speakers, only to discover that it sounds far softer than everything else… this step will stop
that from happening ever again.

The secret is to use a limiter. Best part? Your DAW probably has this tool already. There’s no
need for additional mastering software - and it only takes 60 seconds with this simple method.

Yes, mastering can become much more complex than this, but if you follow these two steps, you’re
good to go.

Conclusion
Mixing & mastering are such big buzzwords when you’re making music from a home studio, but
most of the time… people don’t know exactly what it means, or what’s the purpose of it.

I hope this short guide has given you new perspective on how to approach your mixes and how to
mix & master them, and that you won’t be overwhelmed when you’ve finished recording your song
into your DAW.

Now, if you liked what I shared in this guide, keep an eye on your inbox because come 11th
October, I’m launching out my brand new, all-comprehensive mixing course, “Mixing
University”.

Inside Mixing University, I’m going to teach, step by step, how to take your raw tracks, and turn
them into a radio-ready song. And if you’re a beginner to recording and mixing music - this will
shortcut your progress, and your music will do nothing but thank you for it.

And if you’re a bit more advanced, there’s also pro tips and tricks inside the course that’ll show you
how to maximize your workflow and take your mixes to the next level.

And because you’ve downloaded this free guide, you’re also on my Early Access list for
Mixing University - so you’ll be able to access the course before everyone else in a few
weeks.

Here’s to making better music now!

Graham Cochrane
RecordingRevolution.com