This is what happens when a hardcore Batman fan gets told to use their ears one too many times
Although it's just a silly picture from the Desert Museum in Tucson, it did inspire this fun little rant about all the unhelpful advice I see in every audio forum ever...
Question: “How do I get the kick and bass to fit together in the mix?”
Answer: “Use your ears…”
Question: “Ummm…ok, I’ll try that…but how do I add more presence, punch and depth to my vocals so that they cut through like on my favorite mixes?”
Answer: “Use your ears.”
Question: “Right…ok, well. I’m trying to do that but…I guess I’ll try harder LOL! (*Nervous chuckle…*) But do you have any advice on how to make my mixes translate so that my music sounds good everywhere?
Answer: “USE. YOUR. EARS!”
If you’re tired of this nonsense and would like some actual practical advice you can use right away, maybe it’s time to stop asking the unhelpful audio engineers for advice?
I’ve been helping musicians and producers like you make release-worthy music in their home studios since 2009 and there’s more to it than simply “using your ears.”
You also have to “use your tools correctly.”
And the tools you’ll come back to over and over again are these five:
✅ Equalization
✅ Compression
✅ Reverb
✅ Delay
✅ Saturation
So instead of hanging out in audio forums feeling holier-than-thou, I wrote a book instead.
A book filled with practical advice that no commercial studio curmudgeon could come up with because they'd be done writing in three words and nobody would find it very useful.
In case you haven't read it yet, t’s called Step By Step Mixing: How To Create Great Mixes Using Only 5 Plug-ins and it’s the complete guide to creating professional and release-ready mixes using only the five plug-ins you really need.
And if HAVE read it, please feel free to email me to let me know what you think, leave a review on Amazon, or share some music you've released using the mixing techniques you learned.
If you do, you'll be a part of the thousands of musicians and producers I've helped successfully use their newfound mixing skills to release their own records and get paying audio gigs from their home studios.
Don't just take my word for it...here’s what people have actually said about Step By Step Mixing:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Just a week since owning this book and everything in it is a revelation of things kept as a deep dark secret unless you pay a lot of money for them. If you have the ears, application, and this book you can do great things with your music. I only use the cheapest studio one artist software and already being enlightened by the info, and projects I could only imagine in this quality before, are emerging sounding like I have always
wanted.” -Graham Bullard
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “I’m only on pg14 and I can’t believe how much better a mix I was having so many problems with is coming together. Love the clarity and user-friendliness of the tuition.” -George Coutsoudis
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Instantly helped me improve my mixes. It's well worth its price and freed me from the distraction of thinking you may need the latest plug-in effects to improve a mix.” -Al C
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “I’m a singer, songwriter, producer and now after reading this, I’d finally call myself a mix engineer as well. Before reading this I felt like I had a pretty ok understanding of mixing and just needed to fill in the gaps, but after reading this I realized that I didn’t know much at all. I got so much out of this. This is truly a fantastic book for any new, aspiring or even seasoned mix engineers. I’ve always wanted to just sit
next to some pro MEs to see how they did it and I finally feel like I had that chance. Every page is filled with great info and at no point did it ever feel like Björgvin was trying to fill pages. Literally, every page and word was extremely helpful. Keep em coming Björgvin. Great Stuff!” -Tino Grigoriou
So if you've been trying to "use your ears" but you're still scratching your head whenever you open your DAW to mix your music, Step By Step Mixing will show you how to make professional mixes from your home studio using only the five plug-ins you already have.
Once you've mastered these five processors you’ll be ready to “use your ears” to make a killer mix in your home studio, whether you’re working on releases for your band or mixing records for your clients.
Check it out here:
www.StepByStepMixing.com
