Free Preview: Introduction to Mixing
Lesson 2 from: Mixing Electronic Music In Ableton LiveIsaac Cotec
Free Preview: Introduction to Mixing
Lesson 2 from: Mixing Electronic Music In Ableton LiveIsaac Cotec
Lesson Info
2. Free Preview: Introduction to Mixing
Lessons
Who I Am
04:13 2Free Preview: Introduction to Mixing
05:42 3The Mixing Toolset
07:39 4Reference Makes Perfect
22:26 5Calibrating Your Room
19:28 6Using a Reference Track
08:37 7Preparing Your Mix
08:50 8Understanding Gain Staging
08:46Analog vs Digital Gain Staging
05:12 10Adding Dynamics to your Mix
11:12 11Getting a Balanced Mix
09:55 12What is Loudness?
14:15 13What Is Compression?
05:06 14Compression Parameters
14:08 15Basic Compression Techniques
19:55 16Multiband, Sidechain and Glue Compression Techniques
15:34 17The Golden Rule of Compression
07:29 18Basics of Equalization
06:07 19High Pass and Low Pass Filters
07:09 20Additive and Subtractive EQ
17:23 21Mid-Side EQ
22:36 22Spatialization and Panning
07:26 23Panning In-Depth in Ableton
14:13 24Using Reverb
28:04 25Mixing Recap
03:44Lesson Info
Free Preview: Introduction to Mixing
Let's go into the introduction of mixing. I refer this image a lot all the time. I actually have something like this printed in my studio to remind me where I am in my process. Granted, there is no science to this. I'm not going to pretend to you. I'm not gonna tell you that this is a plus. B equals C because that is not music. We have a huge amount of the human element, but there's definitely an efficient way of thinking about it, of like a guiding light to point you in the right direction. And that's what I spent a while putting together my path of making music. So I'm just going to review these different things different stages and talk about what we're specifically doing. So stage zero concepts in this stage were really thinking about the feel and ideas around our music right before we even make music. Then we move into preproduction, which is when we put together elements for music like getting synth patches together, getting our library all set stuff like that, and then we move i...
nto sketching, and that's when we what I found incredibly useful is to sketch ideas really quickly, just like you would sketch out a little Ah, a little syllabus or a little idea for writing before you wrote an entire book. If you can't just sit down and write, beginning to end an entire book with an intricate story, you need to come up with some concepts first and that sketching, then move over in a composition. It's when you start building out the idea right, and that's arrangement stuff like that. And then you move into mixing, which is what we're gonna be talking about now. Mixing is more about getting the things balance. Reason I bring all this up is to know it's not those things right. We're talking about mixing, and then you move over into mastering, and that is when you take a stereo bounce track and polish it to make it translate to any system. It's important to know the difference between mixing and mastering right mixing is getting all the different elements to fit well together in a balanced mix, so that the drums aren't louder than the melody so on, whereas in mastering is polishing the overall volume level. So it sounds good at a good volume. Comparatively to other music and on other systems, right? Those are very different things. So again, we're looking specifically at mixing today. Mixing is not adding new instruments and parts Really important to know that when I first started, I spent way too much time being in. There was no difference between sketches and mixing to me. I'd be writing a sketch, get my bass part down, my kick going, and then I e que the crap out of the kick. Getting it sounded just right and oh, no. Now the base needs the change. Now change the base. And now I put into Melody and each you that and I'm going back and forth The track as it started went through five tracks before it ended, and I queued and mixed all along the way. I just completely wasted my time. You know, the better you get at this, the more you can mix as you go, because you're just gonna naturally here and just quickly do it. But it's important that you don't really get into a mixing mind of making it all fit. You should stay creative. Crete rioting and then later just mix. And in a way, I like to just kind of bounce down my parts or say its final. It's done. Now. I'm mixing. Mixing is not vocal edits. Same thing like you don't want to be hearing it being like, Oh, I need to re record those vocals. Ideally, you already have that all figured out. Mixing is not changing the composition, same kind of concept, the mixing stages just for blending tracks together in a cohesive, balanced mix. That's really all it is. So mixing is ultimately about translation. Now what do I mean by that? What is translation in your mix? A mix that displays good translation will play back well on any number of sound systems, with all its individual parts being balanced and clear on. If you guys have experienced this, but you have a track you put on your earbuds like you put the track on your phone, put on your earbuds and it sounds totally wonky, like the basis way hot or you put on your computer speakers and you just can't even hear the kick. You can't even hear half the parts that bongo is way too loud. That's what translations about right a part of that means it's kind of a compromise. You know, it's not going to sound perfect on earbuds. If it also sounds perfect on a gigantic function. One system at a festival, it's just not gonna happen because those air two completely different situations. So what we're trying to do is translate our music to a big system to, ah, car speaker to earbuds to anything.
Class Materials
bonus material with purchase
Free Downloads
Ratings and Reviews
Jose Gerardo Rendon Santana
Excellent Course, Isaac Cotec is a great instructor and a great producer. The course is very well organized explaining each important step of the mix. as well as great tips and techniques. He also includes a great deal of support material with the course including an Ableton Live Pack with tons of great presets and tools to put to practice the knowledge acquired in the course.
Ian turner
this is the best thing money can buy in my life. Isaac makes it look easy and the way he teaches makes you understand everything and makes it easy for you as well. its exactly what i wanted to learn in each video! i cant even sleep because another video loads and im like "ohhhh i need it" lol. i thank god for this class being affordable and the real deal.
a Creativelive Student
Isaac covers an amazing amount of material in a clear and concise way. Great intro to mixing with Ableton or review for the intermediate user who wants to solidify their best practices, DAW knowledge as well as gain some production tips.
Student Work
Related Classes
Electronic Music Production