Learning the keyboard shortcuts of your DAW will give you a major boost in your production workflow and productivity. It can also help keep your creative energies flowing when recording and mixing by not encumbering your ideas with the sometimes clumsy interface of pointing and clicking.
One of the most essential keyboard shortcuts is creating tracks and track groups. Even the simplest pieces of music can end up having dozens of tracks when you add up all of the audio recordings, virtual instruments, effects sends and buses. If you’re clicking your mouse around to create and organize all of these tracks, you’re wasting time. Here are the essential functions worth learning today.
Create a New Track
Plain and simple. Creating a new track is as easy as a keystroke in every major DAW. In most cases, a dialogue box is brought up with the option for you to select the kind of track you want to create.
Shift + Command + N makes new track in Logic Pro and Pro Tools. (The “N” is for new.) Ableton lets your skip the dialogue box by giving you different shortcuts, Control + T (PC) / Command + T (Mac) makes a new audio track, while Shift + Control + T (PC) / Shift + Command + T (Mac) creates a new MIDI track.
Create a New Group
A group is a number of tracks that are linked together. Adjustments made to one track in the group typically affect the other tracks in the group, so that you can adjust a whole section by manipulating just one fader. An example of this is with a drum recording. Typically, the snare, kick and cymbals would all be recording in separate tracks. Once you’re in the mixing phase, it’s much easier to mix the drums as one stem in the mix than having to tweak all three tracks. So you would put the all of the tracks that make up the drums into a group.
To create a group in Pro Tools and the Mac version of Ableton, select the tracks you want to link (shift + click) and the hit Command + G. The PC version of Ableton works with Control + G. Logic Pro unfortunately only allows you to designate groups by clicking in the Mix window.
Though simple, don’t underestimate the effectiveness of learning these two shortcuts by heart. It will cut your mixing and mastering time down significantly and allow the creativity to keep flowing.
So, Why A Membership?
Let’s face it — trying to create professional mixes without the correct knowledge, tools, services, and network is like playing a concert with a broken instrument to an audience of no one.
That’s where the Sage Audio membership comes in — the membership gives you everything you need to create professional mixes consistently.
The membership is the secret to your success — it’s the difference between the 1,929,999,999 of poor-sounding mixes and the .00000002% of mixes that make people say 'WOW!"
There are 7 unique value-points included in your Sage Audio membership.
Let’s go over each one so you can decide if the membership is right for you.
1. Sage Audio University
- SAU Flagship Mixing Course: 23-video in-depth mixing course that reveals the little-known secrets of mixing and matches the needs of the new music industry.
- SAU Flagship Mastering Course: 19-video in-depth modern mastering course that dives into every nuance of making professional-sounding masters.
- SAU Pre-Mastering Course: Concise pre-mastering course that details the latest industry standards for preparing your mixes for mastering.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from budding 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 each course.
- Each SAU course includes 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 and social channels.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
2. Private 1-on-1 Mentorship
- The Sage Audio private 1-on-1 Mentorship gives you direct access to us for advanced mixing feedback, in-depth discussions, and customized guidance that's tailored to your specific needs.
- Unlimited private access to us for advanced mixing feedback, where we provide detailed suggestions for improvement.
- Unlimited private access to us for in-depth discussions to help you improve every aspect of your mixes and masters.
- Customized guidance that’s tailored specifically to your needs.
- Fast communication so you can improve your skills quickly.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
3. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited professional mixing feedback directly from us so you can consistently improve your skills and create professional mixes.
- Mixing feedback is invaluable, and the Sage Audio membership gives you continual direct access to us for real-world feedback so you can improve every aspect of each of your mixes while you're in the process of mixing.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
4. 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 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 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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5. Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers who can provide you with additional real-world mixing feedback, meaningful discussions, networking, collaborations, and more.
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6. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content
- 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.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
7. 800+ Video Catalog
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into categories so you can easily 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 skills at your own pace.
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