How to Mix Music: An Easy Guide to Pro Mixing | LANDR (2024)

Mixing basics

With your session organized, you’ll need a basic idea of how you want your mix to sound.

There are a lot of possibilities, so it’s best to start out with a plan.

Here are some questions to ask yourself to to help you develop a vision for your mix:

What kind of textures are you looking for in your song?

Where do you want to create space, and what elements should occupy it?

What sonic qualities are important to which sounds or instruments?

If you’re just getting started, it may not come easily to think like a mix engineer, so focus on listening critically to music you love.

The more you listen and appreciate great mixes, the more you’ll feel your own instincts develop.

In fact, the best engineers start thinking about their mix process well before they begin adding plugins to a track.

With time and experience, you’ll come to understand how to capture your sounds at the source so that they do what you need in the mix.

It’s always best to think about the big picture early!

With that in mind, most mixing workflows follow a recognizable pattern. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of the typical stages in a professional mix:

1. Choose the right sounds and elements to form your basic

2. Edit the material to clean up the recordings and fix any issues

3. Create a static mix by adjusting the levels and pan position for the basic sound

4. Apply EQ and compression to integrate each sound source

5. Add reverb, send effects and master bus processing

6. Clean up the tracks in your session and export the mixdown for mastering

How to Mix Music: An Easy Guide to Pro Mixing | LANDR (2024)

FAQs

How to Mix Music: An Easy Guide to Pro Mixing | LANDR? ›

Drums are always a good place to start, as they are foundational to the music and the mix. Here's a method for getting good drums quickly. First, listen to your static mix, and be sure to pay keen attention to the drums.

How to mix music for beginners? ›

How to Mix Music
  1. Choose the right tools. An error occurred. ...
  2. Organize your session. An error occurred. ...
  3. Listen to the mix and take notes. ...
  4. Set instrument levels. ...
  5. Set your instruments in the stereo field. ...
  6. Use EQ for clarity and cohesion. ...
  7. Control dynamics with compression. ...
  8. Create space, depth, and dimension.
Nov 8, 2023

How do you mix music to sound professional? ›

How To Make My Mix Sound Professional: 10 Golden Rules
  1. Do Your Gain Staging. ...
  2. Do Your Bus Routing. ...
  3. Compress in Stages. ...
  4. Filter Out Unwanted Frequencies. ...
  5. Use Gear and/or Plugins to Give Character. ...
  6. Sort Out the Low End. ...
  7. Do Parallel Compression. ...
  8. Do Your Panning and Spatializing.

How do you easily mix songs together? ›

2) The Basic Mixing Process
  1. Pick the two songs you want to mix together. ...
  2. Play the first song.
  3. Beat-match the second song to the first one.
  4. Start the transition. ...
  5. When the transition is finished, the second song will play on its own.
  6. Pick a new song and repeat the process!

Where do I start when mixing music? ›

Drums are always a good place to start, as they are foundational to the music and the mix. Here's a method for getting good drums quickly. First, listen to your static mix, and be sure to pay keen attention to the drums.

What is the easiest type of music to mix? ›

Techno: Techno music typically features a consistent and repetitive beat, making it relatively easy to mix for beginners. Like house music, techno has a strong emphasis on the 4/4 rhythm and also finishes sparse arrangements that are less cluttered and easier to mix.

How hard is it to learn to mix music? ›

Mixing is one of the most difficult skills to master in music. A lucky few have natural abilities, but for most musicians mixing is complicated and frustrating with a steep learning curve. What makes it worse is that a great mix has a huge impact on your listeners.

How do I tell if my mix is good? ›

A great mix should make you have an emotional reaction to the song. It should make you want to sing, dance, cry, or jump into the mosh pit. That's my marker for knowing when a mix is finished—as soon as I find bobbing my head and myself singing along, I know I'm getting close.

How to get a smooth mix? ›

When you mix:
  1. Think of yourself as a painter of frequencies.
  2. Carefully choose and distribute your sounds evenly through-out the frequency spectrum.
  3. Many sounds in the same frequency range will make your mix sound bad and confused.
  4. Think in terms of "balance" and separate or layer your sounds as needed.

What volume should you mix music at? ›

Pan the noise to your left speaker. Slowly raise the volume on your speaker/audio interface/monitor controller until you reach somewhere between 70 dB (for a small room) and 85 dB (for a large room).

How do you combine songs perfectly? ›

Audio Joiner
  1. Upload your audio files. All audio file formats are supported.
  2. Put your audio files in order. Simply drag and drop your files in the order you want them to appear in the final audio.
  3. Download your new audio file. It will take a few minutes until the file is ready and automatically downloaded.

What should I mix first music? ›

Start with the Drums and Bass

In most cases, this will be the drums and bass. The goal is to build the foundation of the song by establishing the groove in the drums. Start by dialing in a rough mix for the kick, snare and hi-hat mics, then work your way through the rest of the drum kit.

How do you make a good mix of songs? ›

If you want to create a good mix, then make sure you choose songs that go well together, and have the option to flow nicely. The larger your library is, the more options you have. Plan out the Track Order - After you've selected songs, you need to work out the best order to play them in.

How to mix a song for dummies? ›

Mixing basics
  1. Choose the right sounds and elements to form your basic.
  2. Edit the material to clean up the recordings and fix any issues.
  3. Create a static mix by adjusting the levels and pan position for the basic sound.
  4. Apply EQ and compression to integrate each sound source.
  5. Add reverb, send effects and master bus processing.

Do you mix beat or vocals first? ›

Wherever you think you are when you're first learning how to mix, always start with the vocals and do whatever you need to so you don't miss a line.

What to do before mixing a song? ›

5 Steps to Take Before Sending Your Song to be Mixed
  • Organize your audio files.
  • Clean/ trim audio files.
  • Edit audio files for mistakes/ timing.
  • Create a dummy mix.
  • Export audio files for mixing.

How do you start making music for beginners? ›

9 steps to get started in music production
  1. Train your ears. ...
  2. Learn an instrument. ...
  3. Practice writing music. ...
  4. Decide on music equipment. ...
  5. Get comfortable with a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) ...
  6. Set up a studio (at home or rent a place) ...
  7. Find artists to work with. ...
  8. Get good at recording, mixing, and mastering.

What program do you use to mix music? ›

Audacity

Used for decades as an open-source audio mixer, Audacity still stands as one of the most popular free audio mixer options out there. The app is available for a PC, Mac, and Linux.

How can I mix my own music at home? ›

Learn how to mix your own music:
  1. Set rough track levels.
  2. Tune your audio samples.
  3. Thicken and enrich your recordings.
  4. Control the dynamic range of your audio.
  5. Enhance and reduce tonal characteristics.
  6. Position elements across the stereo field.
  7. Create a shared sense of space.
  8. Use echoes to add rhythm and emphasis.
Feb 1, 2024

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