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The Secret To Mixing Like The Pros (In Ableton) — Transcript

by Ethan Davis · 5,762 words · 806 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00I've been producing mixing and mastering
0:02music for over 10 years now and I've
0:04been able to get over 100 million
0:05streams and two of the world as an
0:07artist one of the ways I make money is I
0:09mix music for other people and what that
0:11means is I'm a pro and I'm going to show
0:13you exactly how I mix the song in
0:15Ableton so hopefully you can follow
0:16along and mix your own music or mix
0:18other people's music and I think it's
0:20going to be super helpful for you
0:21whether you've never mixed a song before
0:23maybe you've been doing this for a while
0:24and you're just looking for a couple
0:26tips and tricks here and there to take
0:27your mixes to the next level so without
0:29further Ado let's open up Ableton and
0:31you can follow along every single step
0:33of the way real quick I made a PDF
0:34checklist for you guys and it's going to
0:36make it so much easier for you to finish
0:38your mix and I put a link for that in
0:39the description so make sure you go grab
0:40that for free and then you can follow
0:42along every single step in the video and
0:43it's going to make it so you can
0:44actually finish a mix instead of being
0:46lost and just trying to figure out when
0:48it's done okay back to the video so
0:49before we drag anything into Ableton I'm
0:52just going to press command comma or
0:53control comma on a PC I'm going to go to
0:55record warp launch and make sure that
0:58auto warp long samples right here is
0:59turned off because if we're dragging
1:02stems in and we're mixing them we don't
1:03want anything to be warped okay I'm
1:05going to go ahead and go to finder I'm
1:06going to click in here and I'm going to
1:08press command a to select all the stems
1:10drag them and I hover them over Ableton
1:12and hold command and that's going to put
1:14each stem on its own track and then I
1:16just let go of the mouse now honestly
1:17for years I didn't know about this
1:19little trick to put every stem on its
1:21own track and so I would drag each stem
1:23in individually and I would try to make
1:25a new track for every stem and it took
1:26forever okay so the first thing I'm
1:28going to want to do is press file save
1:30live set as now what I do is I have a
1:33separate sessions folder and that is
1:35dedicated for my Ableton sessions so I
1:37know where everything is so I'm just
1:39going to name it and I'm going to go
1:40ahead and save it in my sessions folder
1:41and we're almost ready to start mixing
1:43there's one more thing we need to do we
1:45want to hit file collect all and save
1:47and then make sure all these are
1:48selected yes and just press OK what this
1:50is going to do is make sure all these
1:52stems every single audio clip in this
1:54project is going to be saved within that
1:55folder that way we don't have to worry
1:57about looking for stems down the line
1:58it's just all going to be in the same
1:59project project it's going to make your
2:01life so much easier okay first thing we
2:02want to do is figure out what the BPM of
2:04the song is so this looks like one of
2:06the drum stems so I'm just going to solo
2:08this and play it really quick
2:10I'm going to mute the click
2:17so the first thing we're going to want
2:19to do is zoom in on this drum track
2:21right here and we're going to want to
2:22adjust the master BPM enableton up here
2:24to the left just using the arrow keys
2:26and I just want to adjust it until these
2:28drum transients line up right on the
2:30grid it looks like 148 is a good spot
2:33and they line up let's go ahead and turn
2:34on the click enableton and press play so
2:36we can hear
2:41okay that seems good to me okay so one
2:43last little step before we actually
2:45start mixing trust me I know all this
2:46housekeeping stuff can seem like a lot
2:48but this is going to set you up for
2:49success and it's going to make your
2:50workflow and ultimately your mix a lot
2:52better at the end of the day if you go
2:53to this top bar up here with all these
2:55numbers and lines you can right click
2:57and select add locator and then you can
2:59do little labels and label each part of
3:01the song which also makes it really
3:02helpful to follow along
3:04so this is like the intro or the start
3:10okay so that's the first verse I'm just
3:13gonna type this to me seems like the
3:14pre-chorus so I'm just going to label
3:15this pre this to me sounds like the
3:18chorus verse two here that's the second
3:20pre and this is the second chorus great
3:23so now that we've got everything labeled
3:24out in terms of the song structure it's
3:26going to be way easier to keep track of
3:27everything and now what I want to do is
3:29I want to start organizing the elements
3:31I like to organize everything in this
3:33order drums bass mids vocals and effects
3:36so all I want to do is just group all
3:38those elements together so for example
3:40for mids we have these Keys these Keys
3:43these Keys these Keys they're all these
3:44are all keys which I would consider
3:46mid-range elements so I'm going to click
3:47on one and hold shift and then click on
3:49the last one this is going to highlight
3:50all of them then I'm going to press
3:51command G to group them together and I'm
3:53going to right click on that group and
3:54hit rename and just call it mids and
3:57then if I hover the mouse right here I
3:58can click and drag up and close that
4:01group and then everything else that's a
4:02mid-range element I can click on it and
4:04drag it over this group and let go and
4:06it'll just move it into that mids group
4:08so I'm going to do is just go through
4:10and organize this whole set into those
4:11five groups drums bass mids vocals and
4:14effects okay great so now I've got
4:16everything organized and grouped
4:18properly and this is going to make our
4:19lives so much easier when it comes down
4:21to mixing everything so now we can
4:23finally get into actually mixing the
4:25song step number one of our mixing
4:27process is what I like to call balance
4:29balance just means adjusting the levels
4:31of each individual truck and trying to
4:33get everything to sound as good as it
4:35possibly can before we dive into things
4:37like EQ compression and effects so the
4:40best method that I've found for
4:41balancing things is on our Master
4:42Channel we want to go ahead and go to
4:44utilities drag on a utility and just
4:46select mono that's going to put
4:48everything in the whole song right in
4:49the center of the mix and this makes it
4:51a lot easier to mix levels get your
4:53drums right get your vocals right just
4:55make sure all the basics sound good and
4:57then we can get more precise and more
4:58surgical down the line but if you don't
5:00do a great job balancing things in the
5:02first step then it's going to give you
5:03some trouble down the line another thing
5:04that I want to mention really quick is
5:06as far as mastering goes I'm just trying
5:08to make sure the song is loud enough
5:09that's really all mastering is to me and
5:11so what I do is I put Pro L2 on my
5:13master and I just go to this setting e2e
5:16limiter this is a setting I made but you
5:18can easily just copy these settings look
5:20ahead is at Point 18 attacks all the way
5:22up releases all the way down these are
5:24all the way down the style is all around
5:26then you could just go up here and hit
5:28save as and save this preset for
5:30yourself but this is just a really great
5:31transparent limiter and that way I can
5:33just turn everything up and make sure
5:35it's loud enough and if my mix is
5:37Stellar then that's all I need to do for
5:38mastering and I'm good to go if this
5:40mastering method bothers you I have a
5:42friend who does a bunch of production
5:43mixing and mastering stuff for Lady Gaga
5:45and Skrillex and all these other people
5:47and he's like the best person I know and
5:49this is a method that he taught me and
5:51if you don't work this way I would
5:52highly encourage you even just starting
5:53projects if you're a producer just
5:55throwing this Pro out on the master and
5:57working like that makes things a lot
5:58easier okay so first step is balance
6:01we've made sure that our Master is mono
6:03and what we can do is go through and
6:04just balance once each of these elements
6:06at a time so we have all the drums here
6:07and I'm just going to go through and
6:08listen to the drums and I'm going to
6:10turn stuff up and down as I hear
6:11necessary and try and just get them all
6:13to sound good in the context of one
6:15another that's really all mixing is at
6:16the end of the day and in Ableton to
6:18turn stuff up and down you just click
6:20over here to the right where it says
6:22zero and you use the arrow keys and turn
6:24things up and down these are called the
6:25faders or you can just click and drag or
6:27you can hold shift and use the arrow
6:29keys and get super duper precise but for
6:31mixing I honestly just like to go in one
6:33decibel increments a lot of times I
6:35don't have to get more precise than that
6:36because I honestly can't hear a
6:37difference between one and half a DB so
6:40I just stick to one decibel increments
6:41okay let's have a listen
6:44just solo the drums
6:50okay so honestly the drums sound pretty
6:52balanced as they are so I'm just going
6:53to minimize this drums Group by clicking
6:55here and dragging up and we'll move on
6:57to base real quick
6:59and each time I start working on a new
7:01element I'm going to leave the old
7:02element in that way we can balance
7:04everything together and just keep adding
7:06new stuff into it alright seems fine so
7:07far
7:09maybe a little more bass and then we
7:11have some more bass here
7:16now also another thing worth mentioning
7:18is a lot of these drums Are drum loops
7:20and I would probably do a lot more
7:22surgical stuff turning stuff up and down
7:24working on just a snare just a hi-hat
7:26but since it's a loop there's not that
7:28much I can do in terms of balance okay
7:29so we have the base balance as well now
7:31let's dive into the mids there's a lot
7:33of mid stuff so we might spend a little
7:35bit of time here just seems like that
7:36strummy ukulele is a little bit too loud
7:39now we move on to vocals there's a lot
7:42happening vocally here but what I like
7:44to do is at least just focus on the lead
7:46vocal and get that sounding great and
7:48then we can bring in all the other
7:49vocals I'm just going to turn off all
7:50the vocals except for the lead and what
7:52I like to do when I'm mixing vocals is I
7:54use a lot of different waves plugins and
7:56I know I said we're going to get into
7:57compression and EQ and all that stuff
7:58but in terms of vocals I want to get
8:00them processed a bit and then balance
8:02them after it's just a lot easier for my
8:04personal workflow so the first thing I'm
8:05going to do is go to waves drag on rvox
8:08or arvokes I like using the good vocal
8:11preset by Dave fensado and then I go to
8:13slate digital I'm going to use the
8:14virtual mix rack and then I like using
8:16the preset under vocals I like using pop
8:19vocals
8:20[Music]
8:24so that's a good one but honestly if you
8:26have this plug-in you can just go
8:27through these different presets Airy
8:29vocals is really nice too
8:30[Music]
8:34I'm actually gonna stick with Airy
8:36vocals because I like the way it sounds
8:37next thing I'm gonna do for the vocal is
8:39I'm going to throw a de-esser on it I
8:41usually just use Pro DS and this vocal
8:43de-essing and music preset and this just
8:45kind of chills all the s's out in the
8:46vocal
8:49and the last thing I like to do is go
8:51back into waves and throw on cla2a this
8:54compressor is just like a miracle
8:56plug-in for me it really brings the
8:58vocals right to the front of the mix
8:59listen to the vocals now
9:01[Music]
9:05obviously the vocals are a lot louder
9:07now so we need to turn them down
9:10here let me group all these together so
9:13you can hear the before and after this
9:14is before
9:16[Music]
9:19is with the processing
9:21[Music]
9:24okay
9:25okay so I'm gonna go through the rest of
9:27these vocals and just pan stuff to the
9:29left and right as necessary try to get
9:31everything organized also another thing
9:33worth doing is if you've never heard the
9:35song before just listen to the whole
9:37song from beginning to end I've already
9:38heard this song before because Casey
9:40showed me before I offered to mix it for
9:41her but it's helpful just to hear the
9:43whole song so you know what you're in
9:44for now keep in mind everything is still
9:46mono so even if I pan stuff left and
9:48right it's still going to sound right in
9:49the middle of the mix all right I'm
9:51gonna unmute the rest of these vocals
9:52and just quickly adjust things make sure
9:55everything's balanced
9:56okay that does it for vocals for now and
9:59now we have this one effect stem and it
10:01seems like it's just these vocals
10:02reversed let's see yeah it's actually
10:05just vocals so I'm going to go ahead and
10:06just move this into that vocal group and
10:09now we have our four groups drum space
10:11mids vocals and effects if there were
10:13any effects and we can listen through
10:14and make sure everything's balanced and
10:16just adjust stuff as necessary
10:21[Music]
10:31so now that we've got everything
10:32balanced it's time for step number two
10:34of our four-step mixing process and that
10:36is going to be compression let's go over
10:37here and go into our master and we can
10:39go ahead and delete this utility so now
10:42we can hear stuff in Stereo again
10:47he will provide for you that lead vocal
10:50seems a little bit loud I'm just going
10:51to turn it down a little bit sometimes
10:53when you take the project out of mono
10:54you'll need to make a couple more
10:55adjustments to get everything balanced
10:57but let me show you what I do in terms
10:59of compression let's give a quick
11:00breakdown of What compression is all
11:02compression is it's just limiting a
11:04Signal's dynamic range making it less
11:06like a mountain and more like a stick of
11:08butter so let's go ahead and go into
11:09Dynamics in Ableton under the audio
11:11effects tab here Dynamics compressor I'm
11:14just going to drag a compressor onto
11:15this drum group this will be easier to
11:17explain it so if you look here the ratio
11:19is basically just how much the
11:20compressor is affecting the sound and
11:22this blue line here is called the
11:23threshold and this is basically how much
11:25you want to squash those Peaks so if you
11:27look here
11:28[Music]
11:31and solo the drums
11:34this is like super duper squashing the
11:36drums
11:37if we move it up
11:39[Music]
11:40the drums have a little more room to
11:42breathe and the attack is just how soon
11:44it takes for the compressor to kick in
11:45and the release is how long the
11:47compressor stays or holds on for once it
11:49started but what I'm going to use a
11:50compressor for on these drums is I think
11:52that these hi-hats are just a bit too
11:54much for me
11:56so I'm just going to play around with
11:58these settings and see if I can get the
12:00hi-hats to sound a little bit quieter
12:02normally I would turn down the hi-hat
12:04stem but it's just a drum Loop so we
12:05can't do that
12:09let me go ahead and actually drag this
12:10compressor onto this track instead of
12:12all the drums and let's see if we can
12:13make the hi-hat sound a little bit
12:14quieter
12:21I think what we can actually do is
12:22honestly just drag a kick sample in here
12:25and really fill out that low end and
12:26it'll kind of balance out the hi-hats
12:30if we use something like this and we
12:32just match the kick pattern
12:34and then obviously we need to EQ it and
12:36just scoop out that high
12:39and then turn it down a lot
12:41[Music]
12:43this is what it sounds like before
12:45there's almost no low end
12:48and with this new kick cleared in
12:50we actually have some low end coming
12:51through and the drums sound a lot more
12:53full
12:53[Music]
12:55and I think what I'm going to do is I'm
12:57actually going to add in a rim shot as
12:58well now let me be totally clear about
13:00this you need to build a relationship
13:02with an artist or a producer who you're
13:04working with to be able to just start
13:05throwing samples in like this because a
13:07lot of times producers or artists they
13:09just want what they've already made to
13:11sound as good as possible but for me
13:12since I know the people working on this
13:14and I know the sound they want I think
13:16these little adjustments where I'm
13:17layering in a sample just to add a
13:19little bit more low end here or there is
13:20going to really go a long way at the end
13:21of the day for the mix real quick if
13:23you're finding any of this helpful at
13:24all I would love for you to consider
13:26subscribing and give me the chance to
13:27help you make the best music that you're
13:29capable of okay back to the video I'm
13:31just gonna go into splice real quick I
13:33don't like this big view splice if
13:35you're watching this the new design is
13:37whack and the old design is quite
13:39Superior if I do say so myself
13:43I'm going to drag in this Rim shot
13:45[Music]
13:47because it sounds like this one there's
13:49our pattern
13:50[Music]
13:53so basically what I've done is since the
13:55hi-hat was too loud in their loop I just
13:57added more reinforcement for the kick
13:59and the rim shot which in turn makes the
14:01hi-hat sound quieter
14:02[Music]
14:05I just want to make sure I got the loop
14:06right
14:07the hi-hats are still sounding too loud
14:09I'm actually going to try to adjust this
14:11compressor a little bit more
14:12[Music]
14:14you know what what I would actually do
14:16is I use a compressor called Pro C2 and
14:19I would just throw this on turn the
14:20threshold down a little bit turn the
14:22ratio up a little bit
14:22[Music]
14:28and just let that kind of balance things
14:30out so as far as compression goes
14:32usually for drums I don't do that much
14:34compression but for bass what I do is I
14:37go into waves and I drag in a cla2a
14:39pretty much just put this on almost all
14:41the base and mids because it makes the
14:42elements sound so present and it just
14:44gives them this really expensive
14:46sounding quality and for the record as
14:48I'm adding in this compression and stuff
14:49I'm always balancing as I go and I'm
14:52jumping back and forth through different
14:53steps in our process all right we've
14:55added compression to our base now let's
14:57check out the mids
14:58[Music]
14:59look
15:01really almost always sounds good with
15:03this cla2a
15:07the ukulele sounds pretty good on its
15:10own I'm actually not going to use the
15:11CLA on that
15:13[Music]
15:17now the mids overall are just sounding a
15:20bit too loud to me so I'm just going to
15:21turn down this whole group this is why
15:22it's good to group stuff as we go
15:24because then we can just do these big
15:25kind of macro adjustments of things and
15:27it's really convenient okay now the
15:29vocals we've already compressed the lead
15:31vocal oh my oh my soul I don't think I'm
15:34gonna do too much more compression on
15:36the rest of these you know what actually
15:39I'm going to group these background
15:41vocals together and I'm going to go
15:42ahead and just put a little effects
15:43chain I made on them and this is just
15:45going to kind of squash them a bit and
15:47really help them sit nicely in the mix
15:49as background vocals and not be too
15:50prominent no
15:53there's a garden for the promise waiting
15:57for you if you want it just believe it
16:01and receive it
16:03open up your heart again okay so as far
16:07as compression goes I just used the
16:09cla2a on base and mids and then for
16:12vocals I'm also using the cla2a and rvox
16:15but back in the day I used to just go to
16:16audio effects go to Dynamics go to
16:19compressor and just drag on like generic
16:21compressor and then just turn it up and
16:23you can get honestly incredible sounding
16:24results from just Ableton stock plugins
16:26I have a video called three steps to
16:28finishing a song for Spotify and I talk
16:30about how to mix vocals with just
16:31Ableton plugins in that video but in
16:33this video I'm showing you exactly how I
16:34do it with all the plugins that I
16:36actually use Okay so we've balanced
16:37everything we've compressed what we
16:39needed to compress next up we have one
16:41of the most important parts of the
16:42mixing process which is EQ stands for
16:44Equalization EQ is great because we can
16:46get really surgical we can really shape
16:48sounds but most importantly what we're
16:50going to do is use it to get rid of
16:51stuff that we don't need so as far as
16:53drums go
16:55you can do is just drag on an EQ from
16:58Audio FX where it says EQ you can just
17:00drag on eq8 click on the four here and
17:02drag it up
17:05it's just going to add a lot more high
17:08end
17:08[Music]
17:11and you could just boost the highs a
17:13little bit like even just one or two DB
17:15[Music]
17:17and that will go a long way for your
17:19drums for me I'm not going to do that
17:21because these hi-hats are already
17:22piercing I've been battling against them
17:24but what I can do is actually use it on
17:25this gym Bay here
17:27[Music]
17:31I'm going to paste on this other gym Bay
17:32as well and then I'm going to paste it
17:34on this crash track as well this one
17:36right here
17:37because I like the hind of this but what
17:40I don't like about this crash track is
17:41you can see all this low end information
17:43right here
17:45that's super unnecessary we don't need
17:47that in the track at all so I'm going to
17:48click on this and click on times four
17:50that's just going to do a high pass
17:52filter and I'm going to scoop out all
17:53this low end
17:55now we definitely want to scoot out
17:56everything below 80 Hertz but I'm going
17:59to keep moving it up because sometimes
18:00you can go even higher
18:07you don't want to cut all the life out
18:08of it but you also want to take out all
18:09that low end that you don't need let's
18:11see how the drums sound
18:12[Music]
18:18cool now let's get into the base now for
18:20this base there's not very much low end
18:22[Music]
18:26when I say low end I mean sub bass so
18:29basically anything under like 80 Hertz
18:32so I'm just going to boost that here
18:34[Music]
18:39now what I'm going to do is just make
18:41sure that EQ is only on that Casio base
18:43because this other base actually does
18:45have a pretty good amount of low end
18:48[Music]
18:51there we go all right the drums and bass
18:53are sounding good in terms of EQ
18:56now let's jump into these mid-range
18:57elements usually when it comes to mids
18:59this is where I find a lot of
19:00unnecessary low end
19:04even if we just listen to this Whirly
19:08there's a lot of low end Rumble here
19:10that we don't need so I'm just going to
19:11scoop all that out
19:13because we don't want this to interfere
19:15with the base we want the base to fill
19:16up that low end and the base space and
19:18we want the whirly to fill up that
19:19mid-range but we don't want them to be
19:21fighting each other I'm going to drag an
19:22EQ onto this lead line as well
19:25you can see all this right here is not
19:27even necessary at all it's just like
19:29room noise so let's get rid of this
19:32now we have our mids
19:36foreign
19:38once again a ton of low end right here
19:41that we don't need
19:43[Music]
19:45and copy that over to the leads
19:48and then to this Juno Keys thing
19:50[Music]
19:53so I've pretty much pasted this EQ
19:54that's scooping out the low end on just
19:56about every mid-range element
20:00but that's because we want to make room
20:01for the base and for the kick sound
20:04okay and as far as vocals go I could
20:06just put an EQ on the whole vocal group
20:09oh my soul you just scoop out that low
20:12end that we don't need
20:15oh my soul why are you so downcast for
20:19okay great that's gonna wrap it up for
20:21EQ most of what I do for EQ in the
20:22mixing process is just scooping out the
20:24unnecessary low end and then boosting
20:26highs to make things a little bit more
20:27shimmery another thing you can do is
20:29like for these bass sounds
20:31if you think they're a bit muddy you can
20:33just dip around here
20:35200 to 500 range
20:38but the biggest thing with this with
20:40production songwriting all of it is
20:42trial and error and use your ears so now
20:44that we've balanced everything we've
20:46compressed when necessary we've eq'd the
20:49final step of my mixing process is
20:50effects and basically all I do for
20:52effects is I just add a little bit of
20:54Reverb or delay to the vocals so here's
20:56our vocal for the verse
20:59it's completely dry right now what I
21:02like to do is utilize the sends in
21:04Ableton and if you look right here to
21:06the right right below the fader on this
21:07vocal track these are sends and what
21:09these do is they send the vocal signal
21:11all the way down here to these return
21:13tracks where it says a Reverb and B
21:15delay so let me show you what it does
21:17let's listen to the vocal as I turn it
21:18up oh my soul why are you so downcast
21:23all of a sudden there's a ton of Reverb
21:25on it and if you want to adjust the way
21:26the Reverb sounds you can double click
21:28on the return track down here and here's
21:30the Reverb you can adjust all the
21:31parameters and then you can adjust how
21:33much of the Reverb you want right here
21:35the reason we use a send track like this
21:37instead of just dragging a Reverb
21:38directly onto the vocal is this way we
21:40get the full vocal signal as well as the
21:42Reverb on top of it it's a great way to
21:44do effects for vocals
21:46[Music]
21:50great I think that actually sounds
21:52really good another thing you can do is
21:53you can EQ this Reverb so just throw an
21:56EQ on after the Reverb on the return
21:58track and just scoop out the closed
21:59captioning not available
22:04[Music]
22:21[Music]
22:26I'm just going to tweak the settings
22:27this one has an EQ built into it
22:35obviously a ton so I'm going to back it
22:37way off
22:45[Music]
22:55okay so that's pretty much all I do for
22:56effects is just add some Reverb And
22:58Delay to the vocals but you can also add
23:00Reverb or delay like this to different
23:02mid-range elements or even percussion
23:04just use your ears and do what sounds
23:06good I know it sounds really simple but
23:07seriously use your ears so at this point
23:09your song should be balanced compressed
23:11eq'd and you've added some effects where
23:14necessary and maybe your mix sounds
23:15pretty darn good but how do you finish
23:17that last 10 maybe even five percent to
23:19get it sounding professional and ready
23:21for Spotify and that kind of stuff
23:22there's four little tricks that I do to
23:25really take the song across the Finish
23:26Line the first thing I do is called
23:28combing I just comb through the song I
23:30listen through it over and over and I
23:31make little adjustments as necessary
23:33until I can listen to the whole thing
23:35from beginning to end without feeling
23:36like I need to change anything after
23:38that I take a break okay you're gonna
23:40want to give yourself a break at least
23:42like one sleep cycle so if I'm working
23:44on the song late into the night I'm
23:45gonna go to sleep and I'll come back the
23:47next day and my refreshed ears are gonna
23:49catch so much stuff that my tired ears
23:51would normally miss this is like a
23:52non-negotiable taking a break really
23:54does make a huge world of difference the
23:56third thing is I'm going to listen on a
23:58few different sets of speakers now my
23:59studio monitors are very reliable my
24:01headphones are great but still it's good
24:03to bump it in the car maybe listen on
24:05your airpods just give yourself a chance
24:06to hear it in a few different contexts
24:08because you'll catch some broad brush
24:10stroke mistakes if you're making any
24:11like the vocals are just way too loud or
24:13for some reason this Rim shot is just
24:15out of control so listen on multiple
24:16sets of speakers and the fourth and
24:18final tip is to a b your song with
24:20another professional reference so what I
24:22do is I usually go to Spotify I'll find
24:24a song that's similar to the one I'm
24:25listening to so for this I'd probably
24:27look up like maybe Colby collate how do
24:29you say it collate Colby kale maybe a
24:31song like lucky and then what I would do
24:33is I usually just go to iTunes I buy the
24:35song I go back into Ableton I'll make a
24:37new track I'll make sure I select
24:39external output here so it's not going
24:41through our mastering chain and then
24:43I'll drag the song from iTunes into
24:44Ableton I'll mute it and I'll go back
24:46and forth listening to the song I'm
24:48working on and listening to the
24:50reference by pressing solo and listening
24:52through and this way I can hold up what
24:53I'm working on and compare it to the the
24:55best of the best and this is like the
24:56last hoop that I jump through to make
24:58sure that the mix I'm working on is as
25:00good as it could possibly sound now if
25:01you want those last four steps broken
25:03down in way more detail I have another
25:04video that takes you through that whole
25:06process as well as how to upload music
25:08on Spotify and YouTube music and apple
25:10music and all that stuff if you want you
25:12can check that out right here now this
25:13video I just kind of glossed over the
25:15surface I showed you what I do to make
25:17stuff but let's be honest there's a lot
25:18more that goes into mixing than just a
25:2010 20 or 15 minute YouTube video for
25:22those of you who want to go above and
25:24beyond and you want me to Mentor you
25:26through this whole process of
25:27songwriting production mixing and
25:29mastering I have a course to teach you
25:31how to do all those things and I can
25:32walk you through everything step by step
25:34if that sounds interesting to you I'll
25:36include a one hour free training in the
25:37description of the video so if that
25:39sounds like something you're into then
25:40just go ahead and check that out all
25:41that to say you're never going to
25:42improve if you don't actually work on
25:44mixing it is absolutely more than
25:46anything like a muscle the more you mix
25:48the better you're gonna get I guarantee
25:50it like the Men's Warehouse guy you're
25:52gonna like the way you look I guarantee
25:53it you're gonna like the way you mix I I
25:55guarantee it but you're never going to
25:56become a great mixing engineer or a
25:58great mastering engineer a great
25:59producer anything in terms of making
26:01music if you don't make music seriously
26:04like imagine if you were trying to paint
26:05the most realistic portrait ever but you
26:07never actually painted you never touched
26:09the pencil or the paintbrush to the
26:10canvas and you never created anything
26:13well good luck because that's not gonna
26:15work I mean you think it would be
26:17obvious but there's a lot of you guys
26:18who are just going to watch this video
26:19watch all my other videos and you're not
26:21actually going to make any music when
26:23you're so capable of making incredible
26:25music all you need to do is just set
26:26some time aside and give yourself the
26:28permission to be creative I get it some
26:30of you guys have just had a long day at
26:31work you just want to kind of Veg Out
26:33watch a few YouTube videos that's fine
26:35that's a different story but most of you
26:36watching have so much creative potential
26:38in you and I just want to encourage you
26:40to actually set some time aside and to
26:42make some music so all that to be said
26:43stop making excuses and start making
26:46music cheers

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