5 Minutes To A Better Mix Is Back [Video]

Want to make more music in your studio this year? Then you’ll be glad to know I’ve brought back the insanely popular 5 Minutes To A Better Mix video series. The first time I did this, thousands of people joined in and watched the videos. Starting this Sunday, January 1st, I’m bringing this free mixing series back with 31 brand new videos covering all new content!

Make Better Music In 2012

I promise you’re going to love round 2 of 5 Minutes To A Better Mix. Just log on to the site each day for the month of January and spend 5 minutes of your day with me learning a new tip, trick, technique, or philosophy and then go apply them to your mixes. Get motivated and pumped to start your year off right with the resources you need to make not just more music, but bettermusic!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Volume Fader EQ – Part 1 of 31

 

Welcome back to 5 Minutes To A Better Mix, a free mixing series where we’ll look at 31 mix tips in the next 31 days. I hope you’re ready for a month packed with mixing tips and techniques!

Your Faders Are Like An EQ

To start things off this time I have a huge foundational tip for you: treat your volume faders as your first line of EQ. Sometimes the slightest volume fader tweak between channels can make all the difference in getting the tonal balance you want out of all your tracks. So before you reach for that vintage EQ, go back to the faders and tweak till it’s right.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Most Important Section – Part 2 of 31

Welcome to day two of 5 Minutes To A Better Mix. I’ve got plenty of great stuff in store for you and today’s video is no exception. Again, don’t be fooled by it’s simplicity. This one tip can totally change the outcome of your final mix.

Where You Start Matters

When mixing, where you start makes a huge difference. Too many of us jump all around randomly when we mix. Today I’ll make it simple for you. If you can identify the most important section of a song and mix that to perfection first, the rest of the mix will come together naturally!

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Most Important Instrument – Part 3 of 31

Like we looked at yesterday, where you start your mix matters. I know some people like to mix with all the faders up, but I find it a bit easier to zero in on one instrument at a time, and build from there.

Your Anchor Track

One helpful tip is to find the most important instrument for a given mix and start there. Make it your anchor track and begin building the rest of the mix around it. This could be the drums, piano, or even vocals. It all just depends on the song. Let’s take a look.

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Phase Check Drums – Part 4 of 31

Mixing drums is one of the hardest things to do well. But before you even dive into what kind of EQ, compression, and effects you want on the kit, you should take a few minutes to ensure your drum tracks are in phase as best they can be.

A Quick Phase Check Never Hurt

This step isn’t really a tedious one. I generally just try to make sure each close drum mic is at the best possible phase relationship with the overheads. That way you’ll have the fattest, punchiest raw sound to start with. Trust me, when you start to do this, you’ll wonder why you never did it before. Let’s take a look!

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: EQ In Mono – Part 5 of 31

 

We’re back with another video mixing tip. Today’s is so foundational that it’s really worth more than one day’s tip. But it’s so easy that it can easily be overlooked by newer mixers.

Mono Forces You To Work Smarter

If you want to get the absolute best EQ balance in your mixes, then make it a habit to do most of your EQ’ing while in mono. That way you won’t have the stereo field to distract you with “easy separation”. You’ll be forced to think hard about which frequencies need attention to get your tracks to sit together well.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Subtractive EQ – Part 6 of 31

If you can get EQ right, your mix is almost done. It’s really that important. And like we looked at in yesterday’s video, how you approach EQ has a lot to do with your final result. Today’s tip is no exception.

Cut Away The Bad Stuff

If you want mixes with more clarity, musicality, and headroom, then consider using EQ to cut away the bad stuff than to boosting the good stuff. If you use EQ as primarily a carving tool it will serve you well in the mixing process. Lets take a look.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Avoid The Solo Button – Part 7 of 31

If you want better mixes, faster, then skip today’s video at your own peril. So much of good mixing technique comes with good foundations that help you from fighting yourself. I’ve learned this the hard way and I’m trying to save you the frustration.

Pretend The Solo Button Doesn’t Exist

When you begin applying EQ to your tracks, don’t do it in solo. If you can avoid the urge to pop that track into solo so you can “focus” on it and hear it “better”, then you’ll save yourself hours of wasted EQing. What matters is how the frequencies interact with the other tracks, so solo EQ is rather pointless.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Instant Drum Polish – Part 8 of 31

Generally I don’t believe in magic mixing moves, but this tip feels like one to me. When trying to get your drums to sound punchy and clear (and not amateur) you’ll likely spend a good amount of time with EQ. Today’s tip will take you no time at all however.

Clarity And Punch In One Move

The trick to mixing a great drum sound is to get rid of all the garbage that’s in the signal, revealing the best parts of your recorded tracks. Today’s tip is simple and might be just the thing you need to get started on a great drum sound.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Snare Drum Distortion – Part 9 of 31

The snare drum is one of the most important parts of a great mix. If you find it getting buried beneath your other tracks as a mix progresses, you might need more than EQ to get it to cut through appropriately.

Adding What Isn’t Already There

Instead of simply trying to boost a frequency on the snare drum, it can be beneficial to add harmonic information that wasn’t there in the first place. You can do this by slapping on a simple distortion plugin to the snare. Used subtly this effect can be just what you need to get your snare to shine through a dense mix.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Cut Through Kick – Part 10 of 31

Getting the right balance of kick drum bottom and smack is tough. Especially in a dense mix where there is a lot fighting for the listener’s attention. And unfortunately it’s not always a volume thing.

It Takes Two To Cut Through

Taking advantage of a classic parallel processing technique, today’s tip gives you complete control of your kick drum sound on two faders, allowing you to dial in just the right amount of kick drum click or smack. I’m always amazed at how simple and effective the cut through kick is each time I do it.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: The Fat Fader – Part 11 of 31

Looking for fatter kick, snare, and bass? You need the Fat Fader technique. It’s nothing new, but it works so well that I had to include it on 5 Minutes To A Better Mix.

Add That Little Something Extra

If your drums and bass tracks are sounding good, but are lacking that little something extra, a little parallel compression on the kick, snare, and bass can go a long way to giving you the fatness and glue that you’re looking for. Plus doing all of this on a separate fader gives you complete control in the mix, especially when it comes to automation.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Kick And Bass EQ – Part 12 of 31

Sometimes your kick drum and bass guitar fight each other for space in the mix. It’s natural since both instruments have a dominant presence in the low frequencies. But with all that masking going on, you can easily lose the punch and clarity of both instruments, which is no good.

Carving Complimentery Holes

Mixing is all about compromise, and EQ in particular is all about cutting out what’s getting in the way. So when it comes to kick drum and bass guitar, try to cut/boost opposite frequencies and watch things clear up nicely. Let’s take a look!

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: The Pain Frequency – Part 13 of 31

One thing many amateur mixes have in common is they are too harsh. For whatever reason young mixers like to boost a lot of upper midrange stuff to make their mixes sound exciting. In the end it only sounds painful.

Notching Out The Pain

There tends to be one or two main frequencies that are worth pulling back in your mix in order to reduce harshness and protect the listener’s ears. If you can avoid boosting this frequency that’s awesome. If you can pull some of it out, even better. Let’s take a look.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Punchy Acoustic Guitar – Part 14 of 31

One thing that bums me out is when you’ve recorded a great acoustic guitar track that then disappears in the mix. That’s not what you want. You want a punchy acoustic that cuts through to the listener with clarity. The way to get it? Compression.

It’s All In The Attack And Release

Compression is your friend when it comes to acoustic guitars, but it can also suck the life out of them. The key is to play around with the attack and release settings of the compressor so you’re not cutting off the transients. Once you get this right, you’ll get a nice upfront acoustic sound.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Depth With EQ – Part 15 of 31

Does your mix have three dimensions? You may hear this all the time, but there’s a lot of truth to it. Good mixes take advantage of more than just volume and panning, they have tracks placed more upfront than others and tracks further away than others.

Reverb Is Not The Only Way

But effects like reverb and delay are not the only way to create a sense of depth in the mix. Simple EQ tweaks can help your tracks move further back into the mix, giving space to more upfront tracks.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Vocal Cleanup – Part 16 of 31

When people send me mixes to critique, there are two things I listen for more than anything else: the drums and the vocals. These two elements of a mix are great indicators of the quality of the mix (and the mixer). Today I want to look at an often overlooked part of the vocal mixing process.

Clean Up The Vocal Breaths

Even if you don’t like to do much editing to your tracks, if there’s just one thing you DO edit, make it the lead vocal. By simply cleaning up the vocal breaths in between phrases you can give your mix a more professional polish and enhance the overall vibe of your tracks.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Stacking Compressors – Part 17 of 31

Trying to get that upfront lead vocal sound? If so, then compression is your friend. But everyone knows (or as at least heard) that too much compression is a bad thing. But what does that mean and how do you avoid it?

Do More With Less

One helpful tip is to stack two or more compressors on your lead vocal track in sequence, each doing a little bit of compression rather than one compressor working it’s butt off. It sounds weird, and maybe in the end not much is different under the hood, but it sure works.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Vocal Presence – Part 18 of 31

The lead vocal is so important in a mix. We do all kinds of things to try and get it to sound clear, polished, and larger than life. But sometimes even the right EQ and compression isn’t enough to get vocals standing where you want them in the mix.

The Secret Presence Track

One little tip that many people use is something called a harmonic exciter. It adds harmonic content to the track and gives it a bit of life that wasn’t there. One way to do this in your DAW without that type of effect is to create a vocal presence track that no one will ever know is there, but it makes all the difference.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Sidechain Compression – Part 19 of 31

Are your guitars (or anything) fighting your lead vocal? It’s a common problem, one that can be remedied with things like EQ and volume automation. But if that’s not enough, sometimes you can setup a compressor to turn down the guitars only when the vocal is singing.

The Magic Of Sidechaining

With a sidechain and a key input, you can tell a compressor to “look” to another track for when to flip on or off. In this example we want the vocal to dictate when a compressor should turn down some guitars. It’s simple, it’s powerful, it’s helpful. Let’s take a look.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Dynamic Delay – Part 20 of 31

Sometimes the best effect is the one you don’t hear. I know it’s true with vocal delays. As much as you want to hear them ring out when a vocal phrase ends, they get in the way when they swirl all over the vocalist as he is singing a line. You turn it down to avoid this problem, but then you don’t hear enough delay at all.

Time For The Smart Delay

The smart delay is really a dynamic delay. One that knows when to turn itself down (getting out of the way of the vocal) and when to turn itself back up to echo out the awesomeness. You can set this up with a regular old delay plugin in your DAW, with just a little help from a compressor with a sidechain.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Switch Vocal Delays – Part 21 of 31

So much of good mixing is good arranging. Part of your job as a mixer is to keep the listener engaged, and you do that by creating movement and variety throughout the song. One easy opportunity for this is to use multiple vocal delays and switch between them.

The Short And Long Of It

One thing I like to do is to create a really short delay in the verse, giving the vocal a lively, raw sound. And then open it up to a more epic style echo in the chorus to change up the feel entirely. It’s easy to do, but it can make all the difference.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Reverb Glue – Part 22 of 31

One thing many home or project recorded tracks lack is a sense of cohesion. It’s likely because everything was recorded at different times in not so musical spaces (i.e. a bedroom). You can be left with disjointed sounding tracks, and that’s no fun.

Having Something In Common

A great way to give your tracks that unity they desperately need is to “glue” them together with a simple reverb effect. A touch of verb on your tracks (the same verb) is a quick and easy way to give your mix a sense of space and focus.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: The Attack Principle – Part 23 of 31

When you get to the end of a mix, things can get tricky. One part of a track might seem just a hair too loud, but turning it down just makes it impossible to hear. And if you make a volume change on one track, it can affect how another track is perceived.

We Only Need The Attack

When I was first introduced to the concept that by simply hearing the initial attack of a note, the human mind can fill in the rest so to speak, I was blown away. This simple principle can really open things up for you in the mixing realm.

 

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: The 4db Rule – Part 24 of 31

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Do you ever second guess your volume levels near the end of a mix? Yeah, I tend to lose my mind on this when mixing. You think you have a track at the best volume level possible, but you aren’t sure. It can be maddening.

Finding The Sweet Spot

One simple and effective way to find that volume sweet spot of a track is to implement the 4db “rule”. It’s not so much a rule as it is a helpful framework for fine tuning your mix.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: The Instant Double – Part 25 of 31

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Doubles are one of the most effective ways to fill out a mix. They give you a natural chorus effect as well as more panning options. But what can you do if you never actually recorded any doubles? Simply copying a part won’t do it. We need something else.

A Little Trickeration

What makes a double sound so good, is the slight variance in performance. You never play it exactly the same way twice. So in order to recreate this in your DAW you need to fudge some parts around as if you they were a second performance. It’s all an illusion.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Octave Guitar Tricks – Part 26 of 31

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As a mixer you want to draw the listener’s attention in at specific moments of a song.You can do this in a variety of ways of course, but one that I find super helpful is to play with octaves of guitar parts.

Pitch That Sucker Down

A quick way to emphasize a guitar part is to select part of it, copy it, and pitch it down an octave. Sure it won’t sound natural, but if you bury it just under the original it can thicken up your guitar work very nicely.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: The Wide Chorus – Part 27 of 31

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The more you mix, the more you’ll discover how important the arrangement is. And as a mixer you’ll want to do everything in your power to tweak the arrangement in order to help make the mix pop.

Create Instant Contrast

One super simple way to create a huge sound is to create contrast. If you want the chorus of the song to pop for instance, then pan it as wide as possible, but keep the verses as narrow (or mono) as possible. It sounds easy because it is. But it works in a big way.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: The Minimal Verse – Part 28 of 31

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There’s a reason why great mixes pop when they hit the chorus. Because the chorus sounds more interesting than the verse! It’s a mini payoff that just keeps coming back for more.

Think Backwards

One great way to make your chorus more interesting than the verse is to think backwards. Don’t just make the chorus busier and full of pointless tracks. Instead, head to the verses and strip them down.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Percussion Layers – Part 29 of 31

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You’d be surprised at just how many famous songs throughout the years have percussion tracks all over them. I’m talking about classic tracks as well as modern chart topping tunes today. You may not notice them, but they are there.

Instant Energy In Your Mix

Percussion (like tambourine, shakers, hand drums) may not sound genre appropriate for your mix, but believe me it will likely work. There’s something about the energy and frequency response a good percussion layer can bring (even a loop) in the chorus or hook of your song.

 

 

 

5 Minutes To A Better Mix II: Power Of The Pad – Part 30 of 31

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Depending on your musical background, you may or may not be using pads in your recordings. If you’re like me (a vocalist and guitarist) then you tend to focus on the “band” instruments. You get it all recorded and then sit back to mix.

The Missing Ingredient

But what I’ve noticed over the years is just how much my mixes can usually benefit from a pad or string patch of some kind at an epic part of the song. It’s typically a subtle part, but it becomes that missing ingredient that opens up a song and breathes life into my mix.