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
High Pass and Low Pass Filters
high pass filter use all the time, and you should probably already know it or to use it. But I'm gonna give you a few little tips here. High pass cuts out low end and lets the high pass. I always forget this name. It always confused because we have high cut, low cut high pass until I realized I mean, it's obvious it's in the name but high pass passing the high, letting the high through right. Uh, it's important to keep in mind that when we're using high pass filters to remove things like rumble low in bleeds, pops and stuff like that that a lot of people and abusing this setting is very sharp. High pass. I find that does not lead to an organic or warm sound. Using the right curve, a softer and more transparent curve keeps it organic and warm. Let me show you an example of that actually gonna go back to that other one. Now, this is gonna be harder to hear. Ah, but just so you know, if I go to this the way that the human year perceives sound it be very strange. If something that was so l...
oud, right there just cut off. It just doesn't seem natural to us. So if you have a bunch of elements that have a strong cut, it just doesn't seem natural, especially when they stack on themselves. That's where you get that. Like harsh computer noise, people like sounds like computer music. Usually they're saying it's just it's unnatural, like things they're cutting off, the too sharp there to clean. Because of that, if you go with a lighter curve, it's harder to use in the way like that. I'm still cutting off those frequencies. I mean, that's like a minus six minus 10 db right here. But it's more natural sounding. It's just gonna sound better. If you ever look at analog gear and run a sound through and do a test, which I have, they have really soft slopes, even their high pass knobs. They're very soft because they know, like, you know, just turn up a little bit more to get more cut off later, but it's very natural Sounding. Low pass low pass cuts out to the high end. Let's the low pass through it. It helps remove hiss and unwanted noise. We don't run into this as much if you're working in on a box. But if you're working in a recording situation like my field recordings have a lot of hits or stuff like that, I might use it for that case. But you sparingly, it's generally not all that important. It might be if you silent all the time. That's super hot sometimes, but, uh, yeah, so what I've done is effectively like I eat you everything, even like I might put on a little past filter on my kick, even just to kill any heights that might be trying to come through a little bit is that should not be doing that. I think in general it leads that unnatural sound. It's also when you're talking about only negative 20 decibels coming out from that little peek. It's not really gonna affect anything, but cutting all of it out of everything leads it to kind of his very flat sounding. It can lead it kind of either sharp or just just a natural thing. So I would say if you're going to do it, which I do do it on kicks, especially if it's like a eight await, especially within eight, await recording because those do seem to have a little bit of hissing him. I will do it light. Instead of using this like four times cut off, I'll do the lighter one like I showed before. And that helps. It gives you that quality, but keeps it natural. Yeah, All these tools, the more you get into it, the more you'll realize that less is more. But you got to know exactly how to use it when you use it. And then it's really good. Okay, so there are two main things that we use. Any queuing. There are best approach. We have wide boosts and narrow cuts. So a wide boost. Let me just show book, okay? Oh, yeah, that's loud. So these air narrow cuts. Right? Well, let me give you a wide boost. I'm just gonna turn off. So this is a wide boost on and a narrow cut. Right? Those The two things I think in general you should use You should not use a necessarily. I mean, you could as an effect, but in general, don't use a narrow boost. And there's a reason why it does not sound natural. When you have a narrow boost. It sounds hyped and narrow cuts help with integrating the sound. So, in other words, a narrow cut is like a scalpel to release one problem frequency. Narrow cuts are better at getting rid of trouble frequencies. Ah, wide cut is gonna take out everything right so narrow when you're subtracting wide when you're adding now, the reason why you have it wide when you add is because of harmonics. It's the same thing, like if you cut straight away, it seems unnatural. If you have that one sound, you're bringing out a harmonic and our ears were incredible. Humans are absolutely amazing how we understand frequency and how we understand ratio. And math subconsciously is ridiculous. And a part of that is, if we hear a fundamental frequency, we know that's the loudest and everything else should be a ratio down for that point. Now, if you spike this and it's louder than your fundamental, your ears perceive it as bad sounding just how we work. So if you narrow if you wide boost, you're getting mawr of those harmonics equally to rise up. So it seems more natural and art years make more sense of it.
Class Materials
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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
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