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So we’ve reached the end of a month long mixing video tutorial marathon where I pumped out 31 mixing tips in 31 days straight! From mixing philosophy to tricks and hacks, this round of 5 Minutes To A Better Mix was a good one!

Third Time’s A Charm

And you know where that leaves us don’t you? With 3 rounds of this video series, that brings us to a grand total of 93 video tutorials. That’s about 8 hours of practical mixing training, at your disposal, ready to help you get better results in YOUR studio with YOUR gear. In fact, I’ve made it super easy for you to access all of those videos. I recently updated the 5 Minutes To A Better Mix page so you can see all 93 videos at a glance and dive right in!

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Part 31 of 31 – So here’s the question you might be asking: How do I know when my mix is finished? Well today’s video was made just for you. There’s one last thing you have to do.

Your Lasting Impressions

In order to finish your  mix well you have to do something most of us are horrible at: sit on your hands. Literally. You need to give your mix one final listen through without actually changing anything in the mix. All the while take note of your lasting impressions, as these are most telling.

Part 30 of 31 – Looking for a more consistent, upfront, bass response in your mix? Or perhaps you simply don’t have enough low end at all? A multiband compressor can help.

Compress Just The Low End

With the power of a multiband compressor, you can easily process only the bottom end of your mix, giving you a more even response, tighter bass, and over all fatter sound. It’s a great tool, especially if EQ alone isn’t cutting it.

Part 29 of 31 – At the end of your mix you want to check your EQ balance against a pro track.How is the top end? How is the bottom end? A quick EQ check with a reference can go a long way.

The Painful Reference Process

Yes it’s painful to bring in a reference mix at this point, but you must do it. If you want to deliver a better mix, then bring in a pro track to reference. But here’s what you listen for: the top end clarity and bottom end weight.

Part 28 of 31 – As you near the end of your mix, one of the best things you can do is reverse mix it. This simple little move will tell you a lot about your volume balance between kick, snare, and vocals.

What Do You Hear Down There?

If you take your monitors and turn them all the way down and then bring them up in volume ever so slowly, what is the first thing you hear? Ideally it should be vocal, snare, and kick drum. What’s that you say? You haven’t tried this little trick?! Today’s your day!

Part 27 of 31 – When it comes to random tracks like percussion and delay returns, the question arrises: where do I pan them? Lately I’ve been finding these panning pockets in my mixes that work quite well.

In Between LCR

If you’re like me, you employ what’s called LCR panning. While not only giving you a wide and clear mix with plenty of separation, it also opens up some pockets in between the 3 panning points for some final supplemental tracks.

Part 26 of 31 – Background vocals, when mixed well, can really enhance just about any song. The trick is getting them to sit just right in the mix and not take over the lead vocal.

The Lonely Low Pass Filter

It seems we audio people talk about the infamous high pass filter a lot. When his poor little cousin, the low pass filter, gets left out of conversation. In reality, this little EQ curve can do wonders for sitting a bunch of vocals back in the mix a tad and freeing up space.

Part 25 of 31 – Are your stereo delays getting lost among all your other tracks? Feel like your delay and reverbs are taking away from any sense of clarity or space? Try a mono vocal delay.

One Specific Delay Location

The beauty of a mono vocal delay is that it’s fixed. It can echo and repeat for eternity, but only in one specific location in the stereo spectrum. This keeps all your clarity and mix separation in tact, but still gives you some ambience and effects to play with.

Part 24 of 31 – Looking for a vocal ambience that is wetter than a delay can give you, but less washy than a reverb? Why not try to combine the two effects and create a perfect blend?

The Best Of Both Worlds

This tip (like many tips) isn’t for all situations, but sometimes a mix calls for a specific aesthetic that can only be accomplished with some vocal delay run into a reverb. The combination is really cool and worth trying out.

Part 23 of 31 – When it comes to getting professional sounding vocals and harmonies, it pays to do a little bit of simple editing. The tighter your vocals are, the better they will sound in the mix.

No Time Stretching Needed

But lest you think that the only way to tighten up vocals and harmonies is some time compression or stretching plugin like Vocalign, I want to show you how fast and easy this process can be. With just a few basic edits in your DAW you can turn an OK vocal performance into a super tight one.