I started Audio Issues back in 2009 as a way of remembering all of the audio engineering topics I was learning in school. I was an amateur back then just like you, trying to remember all the jargon my professors threw at me. I never realized that my writing would go on to help thousands of home studio musicians and mixing engineers all over the world.

My mixing techniques have helped countless real-life musicians gain the confidence and skills to make professional mixes they can be proud of. They've used their mixing skills to successfully release their own records as well as learned to use their new-found mixing skills to get paying jobs from their home studios.

But let me tell you, I've come a long way since the beginning...there was a time I had no idea how to mix my songs.

I used to suck at mixing. I wanted it to be fun and cool but it was just intimidating.

I didn't know any better so I kept randomly slapping plug-ins on every track, and shrugging my shoulders because I couldn't figure out how anything worked.

My mixes sounded boomy in the low-end, the drums sounded boxy and my overall mix balance was always either too harsh or too muddy.

Put simply, my mixes sounded unprofessional and amateurish.

The reason why was simple. I had no plan of action, and no concrete steps to make my mixes sound like I wanted.

My guitars kept getting in the way of the vocal and my bass guitar always clashed with my kick drum. I didn't know how to create separation between any of my instruments! Every time I used an EQ I had no idea how much (or where!) I should boost or cut to make my mix sound better.

If EQ was hard, compression was "Expert Level Difficulty!"

Every time I tried to compress my drums and bass to make them tighter, I'd end up with a squashed drum sound and a weak low-end.

I was never really sure what all the buttons on the compressor did, and I certainly didn't know how to use them to create tight mixes like I heard from expert engineers. 

Balancing the dynamics of the song without squashing and over-compressing each instrument was foreign to me.

Sure, presets were handy to start with, but I usually got lost trying to tweak them to suit my mix.

If I finally got a good mix using EQ and compression, I'd derail the entire thing again when I added reverb and delay.

I'd end up with way too much reverb, making my mixes sound weak and washed out. Then, when I'd return to the mix the next day I'd overcompensate for my mistakes and end up with a mix that sounded two-dimensional and flat.

I honestly didn't understand what to listen for in a mix so I kept randomly putting plug-ins on tracks, tweaking presets that didn't fit, and selecting inappropriate effects that weren't suitable for the song.

You probably share same problems I used to have.

Once you're done recording, you have to make all those tracks fit together to sound like the song you hear in your head.

However, all you get is a muddy mix where the drums take over the bass in the low-end, the guitars sound thin and your vocals are buried underneath the instruments.

Because of that, you can't create a clean mix where you can hear all the instruments clearly.

Even worse, if you finally get a decent sound in the studio it'll still sound bad in your car. No matter what you do, you can't get your mix to sound the same anywhere.

Let's not forget about the time it takes to mix a whole song. Even if you've gotten so good at mixing that your songs sound good across the board, you might still waste a lot of time tweaking the final mix instead of knowing when it's good enough to release.

I understand exactly what you're going through.

As you already know, I've been there.

Luckily for you, I've come a long way since then, Today my band mates, clients and music friends compliment me on how clean and clear my mixes sound.

They love the fact that they can hear each instrument in the mix.

My kick drum doesn't clash with the bass guitar anymore. Instead, they work together like a well-oiled rhythm machine, keeping the mix clean but thick in the low-end.

Even the guitar player and the vocalist have stopped fighting about which instrument should be louder because they can hear themselves equally.

Today, when I add compression to a track, I know exactly how to add punch without squashing the sound. 

I'm not scared of tweaking the settings anymore. I know what buttons to push to make my mixes tight and loud. My drums pack a punch when I need them to hit hard, but they can also lay back if the genre demands it.

I've learned to compress each instrument so you can hear everything clearly without the tracks sounding lifeless.

Once I've balanced my mix with EQ and tightened it up with compression I now love experimenting with different reverbs and delays to create space and depth.

Instead of randomly selecting the wrong reverbs I now have a system in place that helps me choose the best way to add the right space to a mix.

Throughout the years I've amassed a huge bag of tricks for using reverb and delay to create depth in my mixes, without them ever feeling too washed out.

Lastly, I spent a lot of time experimenting with different saturation plug-ins to get the best results. Not every saturation plug-in fits with every track, so through trial and error I discovered when and where to use the right style of saturation to bring my mixes to the next level.

Put simply: I'm proud of the mixes I release today. I can clearly hear the improvements I've made throughout the years, but the best part is:

Now, musicians and bands love my mixes enough to pay for them!

But here's a secret: If you're smart, you learn to do it yourself. That way you save money because you don't need to hire anybody else. You'll already have the knowledge needed to crank out professional mixes. Knowledge that may even get you paying gigs as you show your mixes to other musicians.

If you want to get to that level, it's clear as day what you need to do to improve your mixes.

Newsflash: it's not buying another expensive plug-in (as much fun as they are to play with...)

Nope. It's learning how to use the tools you already have to get a great mix.

When you know how to use the tools you already have, you not only save money from all those plug-ins you won't need to buy, or the mixing engineer you don't need to hire, but you also save time by knowing exactly how to transform your demos into professional, quality mixes that jump out of your speakers.

When you know instinctively how to get rid of muddiness and a flabby low-end you'll crank out mixes much faster than if you were playing with a new plug-in every day.

​You'll feel like a virtuoso musician that can jam with everybody in any genre, except in this case, you'll be mixing those musicians together to make them sound amazing.

And with enough songs in your portfolio you'll start getting paid work from bands that like your mixes enough to hire you.

At that point it pays to work fast. The better you understand how these five mixing processors work, the faster you'll transform their rough recordings into polished mixes.

I don't tell you this just to get your hopes up. I tell you this because I know you can achieve this too.

It's exactly how I started getting paid, and there's no reason you can't do the same.

Even if audio isn't your main job right now you still need to know how to make good mixes, even if it's just in your spare time.

Throughout the years, after countless hours of trial and error, I finally know what I'm doing and it always comes back to the basic five processors you already have in your audio software.

Because I've dedicated myself to helping musicians and engineers like yourself how to make a bigger impact with their music, I want to teach you everything I've learned since the beginning.

That way you can avoid my mistakes AND use my shortcuts to get impressive mixes you can be proud to release.

• How to use accurate monitoring to make your mixes translate to every speaker.
• The importance of slight automation tweaks to bring out the best in each track.
• How to check your mixes on multiple systems and what to look out for so that they translate everywhere. I walk you through my process of checking the final mix on three different monitoring systems and the notes I take to make my mix sound the same on each one.
• How to fix mix translation issues when your mix sounds like it has a blanket over it.
• A simple way to bring the snare back into the mix when it sounds glued on top.
• How to use a shelving EQ to get rid of vocal muddiness.
• How to make your keyboards sound smooth by eliminating honkiness and EQ'ing them to fit better in the context of the mix.
• How to make your mixes sound exciting without excessive tweaks.
• What to think about when you can only mix on headphones.
• How to know when to quit and call your mix FINISHED!