The Best Mixing Advice I Can Give
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- In this video, I share with you one of the most vital pieces of knowledge I have learned in my time mixing and producing music. I wish I had fully understood this concept years ago as it would have saved me hundreds of hours of frustration.
The way your room affects the sound of your music is more important than what equipment you use. Without understanding how your room affects the sound coming from your speakers you will have a very difficult time getting your mix to translate to other systems, studios and venues.
Monitor calibration and acoustic treatment is an expert field, and unfortunately, this leads to most of the information on the topic being overcomplicated, elitist and difficult to apply to your own room. In this video I try to condense the core concepts and give you clear advice which you can apply in your studio when you are ready to invest in monitor calibration. In my opinion, investing in monitor calibration is worth far more than upgrading your equipment - I would prefer a £300 pair of monitors with £250 of calibration (Sonar Works Reference 4) over a £1000 pair without calibration in my room.
The Calibration I Use - Sonarworks Reference 4:
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I wish I had fully understood this concept years ago as it would have saved me hundreds of hours of frustration.I hope it helps you too. I am running a giveaway on my instagram today, be sure to check it out @michael.inthemix :)
You helped me alot bro.
Thanks!!
God bless your soul
Can't you just mix with good quality headphones? That would solve the issue of constructive and destructive wave interference
I'm wondering the same thing about using headphones. Seems like if I get used to mixing with high quality headphones with a flat frequency response, my mixes will stay consistent. What do you think?
Why do you have to turn sonarworks off to export? Thanks
Was replying to my GF but I saw this popped up on my notifications. I clicked right away.
This man has his priorities straight.
She'll understand.
She will thank you
Are you still in a relationship ?
RIP gf lmao 💀😂
i love how you smile anytime you mention mixing. the genuin love you have for mixing is probably what makes you the best mixing teachers on youtube while everyone else are making loops
you're just a good human, giving this information to new producers and helping them without charging them is really nice of you.
He's the best, I know most of what I know because of his channel
I agree, he such a nice guy sharing all that info
Why is your pic the terminator? I keep seeing this everywhere on TH-cam!
@@CarsonHoy oh yeah yeah
Carson Hoy 😂 i always thought it's Wisely Snipes
I always trust 100% in you! I have seen all your videos, your tips to create a studio, your family helping in the construction and all your priceless tips to make an amazing sound, mixing, production, everything. But this video is a rare Gem, I wish I could give you more than 1 like. Thank you!
That is so kind of you to say!
@@inthemix Thank you! I forgot to tell that I used to buy many magazines about HI-FI, how to build a "perfect sound system at home" and it's very hard, but it's like you said, you can make music and enjoy the sound that you are hearing/producing, but to build an amazing sound you need a lot of knowledge and I think I am learning a lot with your videos, keep up the awesome work!
The best mixing advice is stay away from jealous haters
This also helps!
Lol
For real that shit can affect you for days.
@@oinkooink it's a J O K E, man...
I think u can save yourself SO MUCH time=money try fixing a shitty mix because your room sounds bad. In the end the 300€ is well spend (if it really works)! I will give it a try, thanks for sharing your knowledge!
I thought the one advice you were gonna say.... "if you can't afford sound treatment... mix on headphones"
lol, was thinking the same too
You should, though. Just get something on the list for Reference 4 and get the headphone version. Boom. Flat frequency response.
@@RevCQ7 I use “Ollo” HPS S4 mixing headphones as I don’t have enough space for monitors. They are flat out of the box with no electronics or processing required.
@@RevCQ7 yeah I have some studio headphones. I use multiple pairs of shitty ones, too, and still check my car and other speakers
I have shure sm58 mic that ok or i need that mic u show?
Best sales pitch ever, it was a clickbait, I had just finished watching 3 other videos on sonarworks reference. I thought this was something else. You got me!
Straight forward, direct and to the point, in plain English, non-repetitive, loud and clear instruction and explanation on exactly what the video title says. That shouldn’t be as rare as it is. I’m glad I found this channel today.
My mixed improved 10x the day I started using only Headphones, the room where I make music is really bad. Even if headphones only is not optimal, it's still better than mixing in a bad room IMO.
BTW: great video!
Roger & Amen To That! - Sennheiser HD 660S coming up here soon most likely! But off course will use Sonarworks Reference 4 in conjunction found at "Audioz" hehe 👍
i comoletely agree. my mixes have been freaking garbage horrible for 10+ years until i was forced to use headphones and et voila, all of a sudden the mixes are pretty good.
@@tredfxman really like sonarworks 4, got it last week
i did my mix for two weeks now without conclusion coz i keep changing the tweaks and knobs not knowing the room frequency affected my hearing.. im not a fan of headphones but i guess i need to start using them now.. thanks
AKG K702 open back headphones have been a game changer for mixing in my experience. I highly recommend checking them out. Got the Sonarworks SoundID to calibrate them for $99.
Micheal I’m gonna be serious, I’ve been watching your videos now for 2 years and I can’t even imagine where I would be right now without you sharing your knowledge, of course I have seen many channels which provide tips and tricks and so on, but most of those are only going with the trends, they use clickbaits just to gain views even though there tips are absolutely useless for any more advanced musicians. But the way you provide the information is so different, you try to make the most complex information so easy for us to understand. You really have the intention to spread music knowledge... Short, Thank you micheal
That was really lovely to read! I'm thankful that you've been supporting the videos and gaining from them. I'm trying my very best to avoid all clickbait and nonsense!
Your channel is always my go-to when I want to break down and improve my audio workflow.
You consistently put out valuable information through your intuitive presentations and thoughtful voiceover work.
Wonderful content, cheers Michael!
You seem to be the most genuine and true person out there who really wants to help.
I've watched a bunch of your videos and I'm not sure if I've said it before, but you are honestly one of the best youtubers when it comes to production tips and lessons. There's no bull$h!t or flashy ads, you just bestow knowledge in a calm and collected manner which makes it very easy to follow along. I feel like I am actually learning something when I watch one of your videos, and I say that as someone who went to school for post-production. Thanks for being you!
SW is an invaluable tool for mixing for sure. Though keep in mind that the stronger the room node is cancelling out a frequency or boosting it, no software or eq can ever "level that out". A node that causes a dip wil still dip that frequency, no matter how hard you boost it. Which brings on the next problem, the stronger you have to boost a frequency to "correct the room", the more you are physically straining the speaker cone vibrating at that frequency, causing it to distort and play nearby frequencies less clear. SW has a max amount of dB correction to counter this.
Make a video on how to style hair like u
lol
Yes please
India 🇮🇳
😂 😂 😂
Clickbait -He uses too many 3rd party plugins for the wavey swoop
Lol
I've been following you since 1000 subs. You are the most consistently informative and helpful tutor on TH-cam. You take your time to explain, go through all steps within tutorials. If you skip something in the tutorial you have another video already uploaded or soon to follow that goes in depth. Other than being a really good teacher you're very much unbiased and you seem open to many views although you do have preferences. Keep posting bro ❤️
Thank you so much.This will help a lot of beginners producers🙏🙏
Your logo is catchy, good choice 👍🏻
😁😁 👍👍
@@EdokLock thnx
i wish he is my friend in real life. he look really genuine .
I made the mistake of using speakers in an untreated room. The moment I switched to headphones, my mixes went from muddy to super clear on almost every system.
Helps develop proper technique too. I knew much of the theory behind mixing, so finally hearing how things are supposed to sound made things easy.
And this ladies and gentlemen, is why i mix in headphones.
was looking for this
I'm in the process of switching my brain over to mixing with headphones. So many benefits and the monitors are still there for everything else °¬)
And when people listen to your music on speakers it sounds unbalanced
In an ideal situation, you should actually be doing both. Like checking back and forth between headphones and speakers, because headphones don't have the audio leaking behavior L/R wise and therefore this can really mess up your mix when played back on speaker systems, because the panning is totally off.
@@NOPE96 This is exactly what I do, I test it on headphones, cheap earphones, mid size speakers, portable BT speakers and smartphone speakers, just to be sure.
have watched hours worth of your videos, just wanted to finally take the time to say thank you
The kindness within you is inspiring. Thank you for being a compassionate teacher!
I approve of the bonsai tree, 10/10
Yes, it is nice
I used sonarworks for quite some time (about 12-18months or so), but the issue i found with it was this: when SW was enabled and i A/B my track to the refference track they sounded similar, but when i turned SW off, the refference track barely changed because it is mixed THAT well, while my mix could change dramatically. The conclusion was that SW actually made my track sound better than it actually did...in other words, it was rather counterproductive, because not only did i settle for an actually worse sounding mix, but i also started to switch back and forth between SW and non-SW. NOW i have SW disabled all the time because i get better mixes thru my Amphions with no SW. My point is that when it sounds really good on the Amphion One18s the mix sounds good, but that is not allways the case using SW, it feels more like a shot in the dark. Another thing is that you will benefit from SW alot better if you have acoustically treated your room. They even told me that, so this is not a miracleproduct, it can only enhance the experience to a certain point. Also, speakers have different sound and character to them which is a great thing, and this will be further lost using SW. This is just my experience and i wanted to share just to make people aware of possible issues. Ps..you can also add SW globally on your soundcard so you dont have to have it loaded on your masterchannel.
Bruh those those are super expensive
The way you would have to actually test this would be to take the track you mixed & the reference track to different speakers to see how well they translate. The whole point of room correction software is to correct for your room, so yeah, if you turn it off the mix is going to sound very different. You are still playing the mix on your speakers in your room with whatever room nodes you have. It's not going to magically sound flat in your room after you mix w/ it on and then turn it off. And you can't really trust your ears with frequency response; the fact that the reference track sounded like it barely changed could have as much to do with the quality of the mix as anything else.
YES! My life changed since I got Sonarworks. Not only is it amazing now but the fact it can move anywhere is amazing. Sonarworks alongside my Avantone Mixcubes in Mono on a SUPER LOW Volume with no calibration makes life so much easier when Mixing. A Killer Combo I highly recommend and has all the bases covered!
A Japanese producer of film and game scores once advised me to use in-ear headphones. At first I did not take him seriously, in the meanwhile I do not use anything else anymore.
There are now very high quality In Ears on the market offering a perfect balanced frequency spectrum. Unlike headphones, which have to struggle with resonances due to their design, In Ears provide the pure perfect sound and beat every acoustic treated room. They also are not as stressful for the organ Ear compared to headphones. Anyone who has worked 14 hours continuously with headphones, knows what I mean. Just try it out, and I guarantee better mixes
I have heard this from many engineers I trust. Honestly I think I'll have to give it a go. Would you recommend getting custom made ones?
@@inthemix This is usually not necessary. The rubber earpads come in different sizes and are very flexible, and mostly fits one size. But they have fit hermetically. You can feel it if they fit.
This is very true. If you are starting out mind these words:
Put your monitors on monitor stands and get this correction.
You will have a better life and think like Pros do. Basics first, basics first.
This is the best channel for FL studio and general studio knowledge.
It is indeed the best advice I received and explains me why things sound so different.
you just saved the rest of my music career
Excellent! There are few tips that Really means something in the mixing world, but a few of them that is absolutely necessary for me is: 1. Mix (or at least Check in Mono. ) 2. Mix this Mono with Pink Noise. 3 Mix first your volume level with this 4. Mix then your EQ frequencies. 5. Check in Sonarworks Reference 4 and make sure you have a flat curve. 5 Master in Izotope Ozone Yourself! (or if you have to much cash, let a good studio do it. (requires you to know or be in good company with those people) 👍
The peaks and troughs you’re talking about are called standing waves! I learnt this at college! The teacher played a certain frequency and we literally walked across the room and could hear dips or peaks in volume! So cool man! It feels nice to be finally understanding how this stuff works so thanks for the video Michael! 💋
Your videos should be featured at websites that deal with how to speak clearly and effectively. You are a very skilled communicator.
Everywhere I read, on reddit, youtube comments, etc., it's clear to me that people are focusing too much on technicalities of creating music and forget the what's fundamentally important, actually creating good music.
I couldn't agree more! There isn't actually that much technical stuff behind making a soulful, meaningful song and people should simply enjoy it. Monitor calibration is not essential for creating a song, but for mixing and mastering a song for digital distribution, it's a really big helping hand that allows you to just enjoy it and not fuss around for so long :)
Amazing stuff. Thank you!
This awnsers SO MANY of my worries. Thank u
Another thing I've got from your advice is that you cannot control how your listeners' environments will bring out a mix so it's also good to understand that while we can apply all the measures to eliminate a lot of problems, there is always that 0.1% (or more) room for inaccuracy you know, unless we all listen in fine tuned rooms :)... thanks a lot, this has been great insight to what was a vague concept.
I'd never heard of such software. What an awesome tip. great advice as usual, thanks!
I own sonarworks reference studio 4 and it is a game changer!
I use SWR 4, too. It makes wonders. Highly recommend it!
Daaam u improved so many self made mixing engineers (including myself)
Speaking right about the problems i had to fight over years.
I wondering so many times why something in my mix is muddy and at the end of the day when i go for the different audio devices tests the mix sounded so flat!
(Because i cleared to many of these low mid low end frequencies out)
Thanks a lot ❤️
Michael; you are built for this.
May the sound be with you.
I have a lot of problem areas in the low end in my room as well. I remember hearing you talk about Sonarworks before and I've been thinking about looking into it more. This video is exactly what I needed. Thanks man. I agree with you 100% about everything.
It's a really interesting experience trying it out! I just got your notification and need to check out the free plugins video you just made :)
A lot of people disregard room/headphone correction software. Best mix I’ve ever done on headphones was with Sonarworks. And the fact that his clients all noticed the difference has sold me. If you find another way good for you, but next time I get monitors I’m 100% gonna try them with room correction. I think people dislike how it changes the sound, but that’s inevitable with correction - it’s why you want it. Yes it sounds a little comb filtery, it can sound a little strange, but when you A-B it, it almost always translates. There’s a learning curve in accepting the changes it is making, but once you get over it, you get mixes that translate, which is more important that sounding good in the room you are in!
When I watch your content now than before is you became a salesman
Love your vids! Your statement in the video description really resonates with me "In my opinion, investing in monitor calibration is worth far more than upgrading your equipment - I would prefer a £300 pair of monitors with £250 of calibration (Sonar Works Reference 4) over a £1000 pair without calibration in my room."
You sir are a gentleman and a scholar. I just subscribed and am looking forward to the rest of today. Excited to see what all I learn.
I am a beatmaker/songwriter and just sparked a little buzz after a friend let a major label A&R hear a catalog of beats and compositions I put together. I've been doing it since 2008 and have never published, posted, released or submitted anything. It's just alot fun for me and I enjoy making a killer piece of music. I'm self taught and nearly every project is an experiment. All these years I've been creating and mixing in a completely unorthodox way. I've completely created my own sound of hiphop/experimental RnB and have designed a plethora of crazy and awesome sounds. I was told that my mixes are definitely different and are not of the norm at all but they're clean and the sound captured was intriguing. I've been asked to study traditional mixing and mastering and to gain a grasp on it so I know exactly what it is I need to do to incorporate these theories and techniques I developed over the years. They're excited and curious to see what I come up with and so am I. I'm going to embark on this journey with your channel and knowledge you've shared... I've literally sat for hrs upon hrs with dozens and dozens of plugins of all sorts over the years and just explored, experimented and learned how it altered sound. Gain, threshold, ratio, filter, attack, sustain, delay, limiters, dry, wet, reverb, envelops, compression, decay, chorus, flange and everything else was all foreign language to me until about last year. I used all these things in all kinds of different ways and tons of times gbut never actually knew what they were on a technical standpoint. I just knew each one and all there knobs, switches and buttons altered, morphed, enhanced and manipulated sound and time in a bunch of different and little ways. I called reverb "the spacey sound" I called flange "the trippy effect". I just watched your video on the fruity maximus...my brain is fried. Lol Its something i use but never like that and I had absolutely no idea about any of the things you taught and explained before today. There's definitely some gems you shared. I'm hoping you have a mixing with headphones vid. Anyway, I'm done rambling.lol I just want to say thank you a trillion times over. Take care.
Spectrum analysers is a much more cost effective way of mixing. I know you’re against visual mixing but if you have a poor room acoustically it’s super effective for getting things flat and balanced
You are an amazing human being Michael... From the bottom of my heart, I wanna thank you for all the help you freely offer. You do best mate!!! 👊✊ please do keep it up if you do not mind brother.👍
You may be the best TH-cam ever great tutor.. best tutorials.. peace and Thank you
I have this il set this up shortly as like most of us I don't use a studio this is where its super handy. Thanks Michael
I picked this up over the weekend after the recommendation. I knew frequency response was an issue, but wasn't aware there was such an easy fix. I was blown away at how much more quickly I was able to get a mix done. Usually its 4-6 trips to the car and back to tweak things to get it on point but I got it on the first mix (which also was quicker). Made mastering easier too as the mix was so well done. It translated perfectly across several listening devices. Over the moon happy and can't wait to keep trying it out. Thanks.
Your tutorials are really useful, they're so professional and accurate. I'm learning a LOT with them, so thank you very much. Cheers from Argentina.
You are a god amongst men.
This channel is the holy bible of the music producer!🙏🏼
Man, wish I found this vid sooner. Thanks for sharing
This is a very useful tool and even more if you have speakers, mics and stuff. However, this exact problem is also the number one reason why I recommend my subs to mix with headphones when starting, is better than most people think! Keep it up Michael with the great videos
Thank you, you're wise to suggest that, I think headphones are underrated for mixing and you can go a long way with them!
@@inthemix Yeah! Very underrated indeed, but almost just as good if you know the trick. Cheers!
Just using Sonarworks on headphones makes a huge difference, especially mixing at low volumes so the bass gets attenuated.
Im amazed on how I never noticed this. I've seen measurement microphones but I never understood what was their purpose. Just like calibrating headphones, for me it was something I thought wouldn't be that useful, maybe a marketing gimmick. I always had a problem in my room which is because of my desk, there's a reflection of around 130-135hz that it hurts my hears. I'm using the trial for sonarworks but i'm DEFINITELY going to buy the full thing next month when this is over. It made such a huge difference in my room that i'm amazed I never knew about this sooner. I was contemplating buying new monitors and buying new headphones, but just like you say in the description, I would rather get the 250 sonarworks and keep my speakers than to buy a 1000 euros speaker and the room will still sound crap
You have a really good heart. Respect you so much and thank you very much for everything 🙏 God bless you !
u always motivate me! love you so much..ur one of my fav channels..
I like this Guy so Much!
This actually changes everything
Waaao this is so helpful. Thank you so much for this knowledge. Brother. 🙏🏻.
I really trust this man 100% without thinking much 😄😍
Dracula's audio knowledge never ceases to amaze me, I guess he has been around a while.
Absolute game changer!
6:34 paused at a face trying to be as nice as possible while being real as possible lol
thank you for your help man it really helps i mean you are typically the one who makes things easy and clear. I spent all the day viewing your vids and i can tell by far you are the best on yt you're not that kind of guy explaining deep things to make us struggle lol. I say it for me because i am not such a beginner but not a pro and your channel really gives the opportunity to go further you know !
Appreciate your work
I mix in a studio pair of headphones 🤷♂ for me that's the best possible way I found to mix... But still thank you so much for these precious tips! ❤
I'm so grateful to view this video before obtaining my bedroom/home studio. This is amazing information and I will definitely apply this to myself. Thank you so much ^_^
i once saw an ad on youtube about sonarworks before it was popular and started using it right away
These info are priceless! many thanks
I've been using sonarworks for about several months and this software is amazing! My mixes were very very punchy and clear! If you're studying in music school you can get 50% off
Thank u for sharing all these 💎
Always add reverb to sub bass
My secret trick i use in every track😉
This is probably the most crucial advice I could use. I guess I'm wasting more time trying to master my music in these poor conditions in my home studio. I'm struggling atm with this very issue. I know I have mixing issues because of these environment issues, but now I have a clearer understanding on what to do about it. I hope its not going to be too hard for me to set up to my setup at home 😟 Thank you for this very useful information.
This is the only channel on youtube I spend hours with :-) Thankyou so much for the efforts and your humble heart you put through to getting this helpful information to us...The channel of the century !!!
Crazy good advice!! Thanks a lot
Mixing Secrets by Mike Senior goes into this in great detail. Best mixing book i've ever owned! Great video.
Thanks for the tip, I'll have to check it out sometime
I really like your presentation style. You come across as pleasant, relatable and trustworthy, someone who is actually going to give good advice because they care about other people. I find that usually these sorts of videos videos are either a) a bit airlessly slick and glib, b) macho and shouty, c) overpoweringly snarky (ahem, Snake Oil) or d) sort of mumbly and not very engaging. It's great, of course, that so many people are willing to offer their advice for free, and I don't want to overlook that, but I also don't want to ignore the fact that I'll often click on a 'suggested video' link, see that it's one of yours and think, "Oh good, it's this guy." It's nice to know when I'm in good hands.
someone's probably mentioned this, but I'll say again. You can use sonarworks in systemwide mode and that way you can leave it on since it's not in your DAW.
Totally agree. I've been using Reference 4 for six months now and my mixes have improved A TON!!
No doubt that he is one of the honest and humble teacher we can get💖thank you master
My first mix through studio monitors always sound decent, but not through my Sennheisers, and unacceptabe though my phone speakers. Once I get a balanced and separated rendering on my phone, the "last" final mix through the studio monitors sounds even better. What really helps me is to put some distance in time between audits.
Thank you, sir. You are a gentleman and a scholar. I already have the Headphone Edition but until seeing your video I was never quite clear on the actual problem the Speaker Edition was supposed to be solving.
The very idea of identifying the root cause of a problem, instead of the fruitless waste of time and energy in attempting to ameliorate the symptoms of the problem, is the antithesis of everything we hold dear in the west, and can only intensify the frustration, ending in the inevitable swan dive off the local overpass. This accounts for approximately six billion people currently surveilling their local areas, in order to identify the spots of the highest altitude.
As I write this dross and double-check the locks to ensure against unwanted visits from mental health services, I am a-tingle all over as Sonar-works is unpacking. Now there is only one thing that stands between me and eclipsing the fame and fortune of the greats of the past, like the spice girls, Bananarama, Milly Vanilly ETC.
If any of the brothers and sisters in the music community know where I can buy some ethically grown, fair-trade LSD, I would be most grateful.
Thank you for your succinct expert advice Michael, which will hopefully keep me off the bridge for now. If the world had more gentlemen like yourself, I would be annoying the living daylights out with Plasticine horses right now
Excellent advice. Thanks
This is such an important video. Sonarworks saved my life. Mixes translate well now. All the fine eq adjustments i was making in the lows was my room! It's the best advice and wish i knew this when i started. the plugin can be put in the control room on Cubase so you don't have to remember to turn it off.
MY BEST TEACHER EVER... Welcome in Tanzania
I’m totally following your arguments except the reference mix part. Using reference tracks would still help you because if you have a 6db dip in the lower mids then so will the reference track have. All the problems in your room will be the same on the reference tracks so if your song sounds almost exactly as good as Adeles last song then it is good. Do you agree or do you think I'm totally eating grass over here? Anyway, thanks for posting and sharing knowledge!! That's good for all of us song makers ( I hate to use the overly used word producers because everyone who is sitting in their bedroom studio calls themselves producer nowadays, but a producer is so much much more...)!
Well worth the time, this lecture... lol. I'm convinced, makes perfect sense. Buy a sub, buy Sonarworks calibration system. Only about $550 I don't have--but I now have new goals. Thanks.
Thank you so much, we love you.
I got addicted to your videos, like seriously
So basically this is just an ad for sonar works
You're the most honest mp in youtube, I really appreciate your work. Thank you for sharing your information with us :)
watching this video didn’t feel like 14 minutes at all. It was over so suddenly. Great tips thank you for your knowledge!
The best advice, without any dudes. Sonarworks 4 changed EVERYTHING in my way to thinkwhat I am really doing, with full confidence! ;)
Thank you for your honesty and willingness to help others achieve their musical dreams!