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RELEASE THE
BEST MIX OF
YOUR LIFE IN
7 DAYS

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 The best songs are built by a team whose members
each specialize in a stage of the production process.
Here’s how to tackle the process if you don’t have a team.

Step 1: Build your song by

focusing on one stage of the
process at a time.

COMPOSER ARRANGER RECORDING

ENGINEER

MASTERING MIX ENGINEER EDITOR

ENGINEER

Step 2: Divide your work periods

into different roles and tackle the song from
that unique perspective.

Step 3: Plan out a release deadline schedule

and stick to it!

Day 1 – Finish recording all layers

Day 2 – Edit drums, comp vocals, tune vocals
Day 3 – Prepare clean mix session multitrack
Day 4 – Import a reference and mix your track
Day 5 – Test your mix with different monitors
Day 6 – Send mix off to mastering
Day 7 – Release your song online with Distrokid

Done is better than perfect. The greatest song

ever written will never be heard if it sits forgotten in
your hard drive.

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Prepare to streamline your mixing workflow

TIME AND PITCH

Do the grunt work first.

There's no fun in mixing if you have to stop to tune a

vocal or quantize the drums. Complete these tasks
before moving on to the Mixing stage.

ORGANIZE YOUR FILES

Process and commit.

Commit to your plugin processing to free up extra CPU.

You can save more space if you group similar
tracks into stems. Great if you have lots of layers.
(Background vocals, strings, guitars)

EXPORT LABELLED FILES

Create a labeled multi track file folder.

Save this folder for your future session. You'll always

have these files if something goes wrong in the future.
Make note of your sample rate / bit depth.

CLEAN SESSION

Start fresh and organized.

Import multi track files into a new session.

Color code and label tracks for clarity.
Group similar tracks for organized session.
Setup any bus routing for your groups.

FOR REFERENCE:
H OM ESTUDIOM IXA CA DEM Y . COM
WWW.ENTREPRISESCANADA.CA
FIND YOUR IDEAL
REFERENCE AND NAIL
YOUR MIX WITHOUT
GETTING DISCOURAGED

STAGE 1:
STRUCTURAL
ELEMENTS
List your song's notable sounds that
you will use as a target for your
reference, and filter out those don’t
meet your requirements.
References can frame your ideal
sound so they don't need to be
'perfect'

STAGE 2: SEARCH
ONLINE
PLAYLISTS
Scan playlists for your genre or
mood to find sounds similar to your
song. You can search for songs of
similar BPM within a playlist on
Spotify’s SORT YOUR MUSIC app

STAGE 3: IMPORT
INTO YOUR DAW
Purchase the song file to be able to
import in into your DAW. This will
allow you to get to closest A/B
Loudness Comparison

STAGE 4:
VOLUME MATCH
Lower the volume of your
reference to match the LUFS
volume of your current mix.
This will avoid a Loudness bias

RECOMMENDATIONS
Select 1 – 3 songs that are similar to your
mix’s target sound.
Each reference doesn’t need to be ‘perfect’.
References can frame your ideal
sound by representing an extreme in some metric.
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 THE FOUNDATION
OF AN EXCELLENT
MIX Mixing is all about bringing out the
emotion of a song. - Michael Brauer

SATISFY THE ARTIST'S VISION

If you're mixing someone else's

song, their vision should be
discussed and understood
before mixing.

WHAT'S THE
FOCUS? Begin to sort the pieces of your
mix by significance.

Define what really makes the

song, and what’s just there for
pizazz.

Pan guitars, and keyboards

to widen the mix with
slight differences
between left and right.

Atmospheric textures
can be hard panned to
further extend the
width of the mix.

Vocals, snare, and kick/bass will

sound best when kept center.
This will ensure they translate
well in stereo and mono playback.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Describe the vision of your song.
(Discuss this with the artist if it’s not your song!)
Use the artist’s vision to map where important instruments
will live in the mix.
Remember: Main focus instruments should stay close to center,
while supporting textures can be panned much wider.

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 1. Keep a Mix Log
Write potential edits in your mix log
Create a list of issues for each section as you listen back to
your mix.

This will prevent you from chasing your tail with hasty mix
decisions that compromise the balance of another section.

2. Mix in Small Chunks

Truth is your ears get tired.
Keeping your ears fresh is a mix
engineer’s top priority.
USE SHORT BREAKS TO DIVIDE UP YOUR WORK PERIODS

20MIN
1 5MIN 20MIN
2 5MIN

3 4
20MIN 5MIN 20MIN 30MIN
RECOMMENDATIONS
Write down what needs to change in your Mix log.
This will help you to be more objective by making a list of tasks
before diving into one specific change that may not make a huge difference.

Divide your work periods into smaller chunks of undivided attention

separated by short breaks.
This will give your ears a chance to rest and remain more effective

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THE SUPER SIMPLE
TOP DOWN
MIXING METHOD
STAGE 1:
BUILD THE
FOUNDATION
Give your tracks a basic
balance with clip gain.

Then adjust your faders and

panning until you're satisfied with
the mix's general balance.
(~20 minutes)

STAGE 2:
TOP DOWN
PROCESSING
To start, add some subtle
compression and saturation to the
mix bus. (1st layer)

Then, process the group busses

(2nd layer) with EQ and
compression before moving on to
individual tracks. (3rd Layer)

AVOID:
HOGGING THE
COMPRESSOR
If one instrument in the group is too loud
the compressor will turn down all other
instruments as well.

A better alternative would be to send the

lead instrument to it’s own compressor,
while keeping the others in the original
group.

STAGE 3:
FINE DETAILS
Orchestrate your mix to move
and sound dynamic using automation for
gain and pan position.

Pro Tip: Automate a gain plugin to

maintain control over your faders while
mixing.

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 3 FOOLPROOF WAYS
TO KNOW WHEN
YOUR MIX IS DONE

1: DOES IT GROOVE?
Does listening to your mix make you wanna
tap your toe or bob your head?

If you can’t vibe with your song, how

can you expect your audience to love
it?

Go back and forth between your

references, and ask yourself what’s
missing.

2: SHOW A FRIEND
Your brain is more critical when you
show your work to another person.

Listen to the song with a friend and

you’ll often find it easier to realize
what sticks out.

3: ENERGY CURVE
Make sure your mix matches
the intensity you intended for each section.

Check the transition between sections.

If the mix is meant to grow, make sure
instruments are added to fill the frequency
spectrum.

Remove layers when the song lowers in

energy.

MIX TRANSLATION
Compromise is the secret to a stereo mix
that also sounds great in mono.

Test your mix away from your monitors

to make sure nothing disappears
or jumps out.
(Test on phone speaker, car, boom box)

Keep instruments panned center

(or close to it) to translate well in mono.

Hard panned layers and textures can create a

wide stereo mix that also sound greats when
collapsed in mono.
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