5 Tips to Learn Mixing On Your Own

/ Mixing, Music Lifestyle / By

In this article, I will give you 5 tips on where and how you can start learning how to mix on your own. I will also provide 2 bonus tips at the end of this post, so feel free to continue scrolling. These tips are also helpful for any other project or skill you are currently working on.

 

Mixing is an art and a big part of all forms of media. It will enhance the story and flow of a project and keep the audience engaged in the artistic piece. It’s more complex than moving a fader to turn up its volume or adding some reverb to make it sound cool. Every and any change an audio engineer makes to a track can intensify the song or overall sound. The ordinary person won’t be able to tell minor or major adjustments, but the everyday musician or musically inclined person will hear these adjustments immediately, especially if they have been doing professional media work for a while.

 

NOTE: I won’t go into greater detail on HOW TO MIX. If you need a step-by-step guide on how to mix a song, you can download this quick guide to get you started. This post can still be applied to all seasoned professionals.

 

1. Talk to your closest Friends and Family.

 

I put this tip on the top of the list because this is one of the most crucial things you should do, and many people believe it to be unimportant.

 

Here’s the thing. Trying to manage your relationships, health, finances, hobbies, work, or school can overbook your time and energy throughout the week. You might be living a lifestyle where you have nothing going on, or you can be living an actual telenovela where there is some sort of drama every week. Either way, if you are like me, where your energy can get drained very fast, you need to speak to the people closest to you about your next steps as an audio engineer.

 

Being an audio engineer, or in any creative field, requires your emotions to be controlled and not keep you from pursuing your goals. This is a big reason why many creatives get writer’s block. It’s not that we have reached a limit with our art; 90% of the time, our mental state goes on a marathon of a past or current situation that keeps us away from creating freely.

 

Speak to your family and friends. Talk to them about this route you are taking. Tell them how much you really want to do this, how much time you need to work on your craft during the week, and what you need from them and vice versa. This may be the most challenging step for some people because they don’t know how their family or friends might react. 

 

If you have close loved ones who do not accept your goals and this new lifestyle that you are pursuing, you need to find new loved ones. Of course, that previous statement was a joke, but not entirely. Find people who encourage, motivate, and inspire you to continue your journey. Having those around you who get upset that you don’t “hang out” anymore or don’t understand why you are choosing music over them will only make it harder for you to reach where you want to be. 

 

For some, these negative emotions fire people up, which is incredible because they are finding something that fuels their ambition. Still, I recommend finding someone who encourages and inspires you. You never know when you need great advice from someone who cares about your career.

 

2. Find your Genre

 

Figure out what type of genre(s) or project you are deeply passionate about. This can be Hip Hop, Rock, Salsa, Soundtracks, etc… 

Choose no more than two genres to focus on for 3 months and begin to immerse yourself in that world. Whatever will help you understand the instruments, music, and artists in that type of genre.

 

3. Get yourself some sort of Education

 

This article is aimed at those wanting to learn on their own, so here is the thing: if you plan to teach yourself on your own, you will need some form of schooling. Whether through YouTube, books, and lots of them, a paid online course from class platforms such as Udemy or LinkedIn, or finding yourself a mentor. Either way, you need to take an educational route.

Remember to give yourself some homework!! 

 

I always had trouble with homework; I hated it while in school. I saw no point in it until I began to get serious about learning how to mix.

For the first time outside of traditional schooling, I missed having some sort of assignment that would allow me to practice a new technique with mixing. So follow through on the assignments and tips that you find from the resources you currently have.

 

You should always be learning.

 

Here are a few places, books, and mentors I look up to.

 

4. Set a Consistent Schedule

 

One advantage of traditional schooling is that it gives students a consistent class schedule. Before the start of a semester, the school will provide the class schedules on certain days. The student will choose the schedule that fits their time frame and begin class on those days. Traditionally, it is a few days a week for about 2- 4 hours each class day.

As someone beginning to learn mixing independently, having a committed schedule to practice your mixing will be most beneficial moving forward. Working on your craft daily is ideal, but practicing every day can be overwhelming if you are just starting out. 

Walking first before you run

Begin with a few days a week, and after 2 weeks of consistency, move up to 3-4 days. After another 2 weeks, move it up to 5 days a week. Adjust your time as you see fit. This will help keep your endurance strong and focused on honing your mixing skills.

Don’t overbook yourself; remember to do something fun with friends and family to avoid burnout.

 

5. Start or find a Project!

 

Put in the work! Get out there and Get some real-life experience! Don’t let fear drive your journey; instead, embrace it. Think of this as an internship or apprenticeship that you are putting yourself through. Begin building your portfolio to increase your skill set. Here are a few ideas you can do to expand your portfolio.

 

  1. Ask Bands you know if you can record and mix their music
  2. Go out and find a local singer-songwriter at an open mic night (these guys are always looking for audio engineers)
  3. Record or produce a song yourself
  4. Find Practice Mixes online. Here is Mike Seniors Free Multitrack Download Library. WARNING: These downloads are free of charge but for educational purposes only, so don’t go out and tell the world you were the mixer for the project.

 

BONUS TIPS!!

 

6. Journal your Journey

 

If I were to give my young, naive self advice about doing this music career thing, it would be to journal all my experiences. Having some sort of journal of all the lessons I learned from my mistakes would have saved me time, money, and headaches! 

Don’t get me wrong; I don’t regret anything, but I would have avoided many repeated mistakes over the years if I had a reminder of what NOT to do. Hence why I started this blog.

Here are a few things you can write down, and it doesn’t have to be a whole essay either, just some detailed notes that your future self can understand.

  1. Write down questions from a course that didn’t cover a particular topic.
  2. Write down your to-do list for the following day or week.
  3. What went right? What went wrong during your first attempt at contacting a local band?
  4. What workflow do you feel suits you best?
  5. Is there anything you want to focus on learning in the future?

 

7. Advance your Skills

 

Add more reps to your workout when things get too easy. In other words, you need to advance your skills and find another form of Education to further your expertise. 

Whether that’s getting in-depth editing your mixes, researching professional audio engineers and their mixing workflow, or taking a step back to advance your recording techniques. Whatever it is, never stop educating yourself!

 

  1. Continue to learn from others
  2. READ BOOKS
  3. Get a mentor
  4. ask for feedback
  5. Practice what the Pros do