Whether you’re mixing a song that you've recorded yourself or tracks recorded by someone else, one of the most important steps you can take is to make sure you have a plan in place before you start doing any mixing at all. Instead of opening up all your tracks on your DAW of choice and diving right in, be sure to get a decent idea of what you want the end result to sound like, and decide how you can get there.
Music Production is Not Over When Recording Ends
You could draw comparisons to making a plan in mixing to producing an album – in fact, it should be an extension of the production. Producing is the art of not only getting the “best” sounds, but also getting the “right” sounds for the given project. This extends into the mastering.
So you’ll want to make sure that you have a good idea of the overall sound you want to produce with the final product. The main goal of this is to get you started thinking about how you will choose to mix individual tracks to achieve that end result.
Make Notes
All of this will be for naught if you don’t remember what you set out to do. Taking the time to write down your ideas of how you want to treat individual tracks during the mix is far better than hearing the final master of the song and thinking how much better a track could sound if you had made that one change you thought about but then forgot.
Make Sure You’re Plan is Flexible
All of this is not to say that your plan shouldn’t change as you go. Any person who has worked on recordings for any amount of time knows that often the best things that happen throughout the recording and mixing processes come from accidents, or someone deciding to change things up on the fly.
This is important to remember in your mix, and sometimes you’ll find something that works much better than your original plan. Again, it’s the end goal that you are looking to establish, and sometimes you’ll need to change your path a bit to make sure you get to that goal.
Plan on a Track by Track Level
While you do want to hit that overall goal, there also are a few things you can do as you approach each individual track to make sure you get there. One is to think about how the effects you use will transform the track before you actually apply them.
This is particularly true for tools like EQ and Compression. Both of these are so widely used that they are often applied without really thinking about why they are being used on a track. While you’ll still likely use both tools on many tracks, take the time to think about what you want each to do to improve the track you are working on.
Doing all of these things is a great way to ensure you’ll end up with a great mix every time.
Make Pro Songs
There are 8 unique value-points inside the Sage Audio membership, so let’s go over each one so you can decide if it’s the right fit for you.
1. 50 Free Mastered Songs Per Year
- 50 free mastered songs per year with your own dedicated professional mastering engineer so you can get all your mixes sounding like professional songs.
- You’ll get your own dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer to create custom masters that are specific to you and sound exactly how you want.
- Unlimited revisions with your dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer. As a standard of our service, we are not happy until you are happy with the sound of your masters.
- All masters are delivered as commercial, industry-standard high-resolution 24-bit HD WAV masters so they will sound clean and clear on every platform.
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2. 1-on-1 Mentorship
- The Sage Audio 1:1 Mentorship gives you direct access to us to answer all your questions and receive unlimited advanced mixing feedback directly from us.
- Unlimited direct access to us for in-depth discussions to help you improve your mixes and masters.
- Unlimited advanced mixing feedback with detailed suggestions for improvement.
- Fast communication to answer all your questions and get tailored guidance that’s specific to your needs.
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3. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited mixing feedback so you can improve your mixes quickly.
- This is highly valuable - giving you access to a thriving community of mixing engineers who can provide feedback about what you can improve before sending your mix to be professionally mastered.
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4. Sage Audio University™ (SAU) — (Mixing and Mastering Education Platform)
- SAU is a modern audio engineering education platform that includes in-depth mixing and mastering course curriculums that match the new music industry.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from first-time mixing engineers to advanced engineers. The techniques and concepts taught can be applied to any DAW to create industry-leading mixes without expensive software or plugins - and free plugin alternatives are suggested throughout every course curriculum.
- SAU course curriculums include Start-to-Finish session walkthrough lessons for multiple genres so you can follow along with your preferred genre.
- SAU Certification Document, which can be downloaded and showcased on your website, social channels, and portfolio for as long as you remain a member.
- Get first access to all future SAU course curriculums to continually build and refine your mixing and mastering skills as the industry evolves.
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5. Mixing and Mastering Competitions
- Compete in Mixing Competitions and Mastering Competitions to win prizes and connect with friends and colleagues.
- This is a great collaborative way to improve your skills alongside both aspiring engineers and seasoned industry professionals.
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6. Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers who can provide you with real-world mixing feedback, meaningful discussions, networking, collaborations, and more.
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7. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content, Including:
- 36 multitrack sessions spanning multiple genres for mixing practice.
- 57 un-mastered mixes spanning multiple genres for mastering practice.
- 62 Recommended Free Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 39 Recommended Paid Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 71 Sage Audio custom plugin presets to improve your mixes and masters.
- Sage Audio Membership Badge to showcase on your website, social channels, and portfolio.
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8. 700+ Video Catalog
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into playlists so you can take a deep dive into all aspects of audio engineering with thousands of hours of concise, expertly crafted Sage Audio videos to continually improve your mixing and mastering skills at your own pace.
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