If you’re reading this post, congratulations! In the past 3 weeks we wrote rhythm and lead guitar, bass parts, maybe even keyboard parts and programmed drums. Last week we worked on recording our track, and now we get to the final week which is all about mixing and getting your song out into the world - this is exciting!
I want to talk about some of the trials and tribulations I’ve faced when mixing my own song, and some tips I’ve gathered over the past couple of decades of mixing music.
Let’s Get To Mixing
First thing’s first. We’d all love to mix on a board like you see above. If you get the opportunity, I suggest you take it, because these boards sound incredible. But for what it’s worth, I think you could get a totally shippable song out the door by spending a couple hundred bucks. We live in a time where tools are cheaper than they’ve ever been, and it’s more on the talent of the musician or engineer to really make a song shine.
Currently I’m using Pro Tools Artist. The subscription is around ten dollars a month, with a load of plugins and virtual instruments that’d be perfect for nearly any song. If I was on a desert island, and could only take 3 effects with me, they’d be EQ, compression and delay. To me, everything else is just extra, as I can get SO much done with just these 3 plugins.
Most tracks could do well from some tasteful EQ and compression. But before we get to that, let’s take a step back and see what’s ultimately important first - levels and panning. You could get 40-50% of the way through a mix with level setting and panning alone. Once you’ve gotten to a place where you’re happy, then you can start using EQ to make cuts (always better than boosting frequencies) to make holes for the instruments. Sometimes you might notice a track sounds odd when it’s solo’d out on its own, but in the context of a mix, totally works. See which instruments are competing for space, and try messing with EQ to make space for each and every one. The mix is like a puzzle that you’re putting together. Some things enhance one another (i.e. the kick drum and bass guitar), while others are more percussive, and others still are used to add energy to the track through compression.
With delay and panning you’re using all the available space horizontally that’s available to you to make things sound wide, and have a tail. Effective use of delay and even reverb can help tie a song together, and put it in the same virtual “room” as one another.
After you’ve mixed your tracks, it’s worth trying to put something on the stereo mix bus or get the track sent to mastering. At this point, many online distribution services also offer mastering, where you’ll choose an overall EQ for the entire track, and a loudness that you’re happy with.
I know I just wrote a handful of paragraphs quickly explaining mixing from a thousand foot view, but here’s another super helpful tip - take breaks often and don’t let your ears get too fatigued. It might be helpful to let a song sit for a night and come back to it with fresh ears the next day.
It helps to have mixing monitors, headphones, and a bunch of other speakers you can listen to your mix on so you can tell if it translates well. For me, I was using my Blue Sky monitoring speakers, my iMac, a HomePod, a UE UltraBoom, and of course, my car to check if everything was sounding great.
What you’ll want to do is bounce the song often, listen to it on all these different mediums, and adjust accordingly. It’s rare that your first mix will be your final mix, and that’s OK.
It’s hard to give specific mix tips, because every song is different, but just reach out to me in Discord, on Twitter, or even by replying to the weekly newsletter, and I’ll be more than happy to answer your recording and mixing questions.
Getting Your Song Out Into The World
When your song is mixed and mastered, it’s now time for the most exciting part - getting people to listen to it! Before you upload it, send your mixed/mastered version to a couple of close friends and family, and see if they have any concrete feedback they can give you.
Once you’re entirely happy, I’d suggest uploading your song in two different ways. The first is uploading it to BandCamp. The site is a great resource for musicians, you can upload whatever you like for free, and BandCamp only takes a small cut of profits when you sell your actual song. You can check out their website here.
If you want your song to be on streaming services, I suggest DistroKid. You can use my link if you’d like to sign up, and if you do, you’ll get a percentage off your yearly bill. The cool thing about DistroKid is that they make it extremely easy to upload your songs, artwork, and all the other nitty gritty details, and get your song out into the world. They’ll upload it to Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, and so many other sites. I’ve seen so many of these sites come and go over the past decade, but DistroKid is still around, and adding new and helpful features all the time.
You Made It!
Four weeks, just one short month, and you have a song. The best thing about this challenge, is that once you get one song under your belt, and experience how exciting it is to release something out into the world, you’re likely to want to keep doing it again and again.
I hope you had fun hanging out with me over this month, writing, recording and mixing your song. If you ever have any questions about the process or guitar in general, reach out to me! I’m @ChasingSound everywhere.