How to Finish Your Mixes - A Step By Step Guide (and a comic strip!)

Published: Thu, 05/16/19

It's one thing to start a bunch of mixes, but it's quite another thing to actually create a portfolio of finished mixes.

Today I wanted to help you get more confident about finishing your mixes so you can be proud to release your music to the world, whether you're looking to promote your own music or get clients interested in hiring you.

Get a Good Mix Going

Before you're ready to start the finishing and finalization process, you want to be happy with how your mix is sounding so far.

That means using processors like:

EQ
Compression
Reverb
Delay
Saturation

and other effects to get your mix grooving. Once you're happy with your mix, move onto the next step.

Use a Reference Mix

The first thing you want to do in the finalization process is make sure your mix compares to other commercial releases in your genre. Find songs that you like the sound of that sound similar to the music you're working on and compare your mix to the commercial release.

Your mix might sound a little quieter because it hasn't been mastered yet. However, you can still use that reference mix as an excellent goal to strive toward.

If you love the sound of someone else's mix and you can get your mix close to sounding like it, that's a huge confidence booster!

Make Sure Your Mix Translates to Every Speaker

Now, all you need to do is listen to it on multiple speaker systems and change what jumps out at you as different. If the bass is really muddy on a certain speaker then try to EQ the bass so that it still sounds powerful on your studio monitors while staying clean on the muddy speaker.

Personally, my mix translation process is as follows, as documented much more extensively inside Step By Step Mixing:

Rough Mix

I mix in mono on my Behringer Behritone Mixcube, mostly following the steps I’ve given you in the previous chapters. The Mixcube is a terrible speaker that has no low-end or highs. It has only one driver and sounds pretty terrible. However, if I can make my mix sound halfway decent on this speaker I know I’m getting somewhere.

Multiple Speaker Check

I flip my mix over to my Yamaha HS-5s and do another round of tweaking. This is usually a rebalancing effort on EQ but I also flip my mix out of mono at this point. Now I can hear the stereo spectrum pretty well. If I get a “whoa! That mix really opens up even though it wasn’t sounding bad before” I know I’m on the right track. I’ll spend some time on reverb, delays and other effects.

Then I listen to my mix on my Focal CMS50s that are coupled with a subwoofer. Now I can really hear all the little things in the mix, as well as all the low-end that’s present. Usually, this requires me to tweak the drums, kick, bass and other low-end instruments.

How My Dog Helps Me Finish My Mixes

Once I feel my mix is done I bounce it and upload it to Dropbox. I take the dog for a walk and listen to my mix multiple times on earbuds, making mental notes of what needs to be changed.

Honestly, I think my dog Buckley knows my mix workflow better than myself, as portrayed here in the first ever Audio Issues comic strip:

He'll be lying on the rug in the back of the studio as I'm doing my mix checks.

Then, as soon as I'm bouncing it to Dropbox and getting ready to go on a walk, Buckey's one step ahead of me. He'll jump to his feet and twist around chasing his tail in excitement.

He knows what's coming.

That's how I finish a mix, and even if you don't have a dog to keep you company, you can still follow the steps to make your mixes translate.

Get Feedback

Once I’ve done my revisions I usually get feedback from my studio partner before sending it to the client.

If the client has any feedback I change the mix accordingly and send him the final mix.

Notice how many different pairs of both speakers and individual ears the mix goes through before it’s done?

You don’t want to rely on one single monitor set up in one room to make your final mix decisions. You want to make sure your mix translates well everywhere the mix will be listened to.

Make Pro, Radio-Ready Mixes With Step By Step Mixing.

If you're struggling to get your mixes to sound professional and can't figure out how to get the balance right for that polished sound, here's all you need:

The 2nd edition of Step By Step Mixing will teach you to mix a song from start to finish so you end up with mixes that translate well to any speaker system, from your club's PA to your dad's Bluetooth speaker.

If you're hoping to learn:

New tricks for balancing a mix
Techniques to speed up your workflow
A fool-proof step by step mixing method
Easy EQ and compression techniques for any instrument

that build on your existing techniques, whether you're a beginner or more advanced, then Step By Step Mixing is guaranteed to get you there...or I will refund every penny.

Don't Look for Techniques All Over the Internet

Villermö is a recent Step By Step Mixing customer and he told me that he loved the idea that he could find all the information that was scattered over the internet in one concise, organized and ready package.

He wanted to know how to get better mixes but didn't want to waste time jumping from one article to another. Instead, he grabbed Step By Step Mixing and got all he needed to know in one affordable package.

Use Step By Step Mixing to Help Your Band

Jared is another customer who recently purchased Step By Step Mixing to help his band find the best way to mix the songs they’ve played together for years. He is trying to gain the most useful knowledge possible to know exactly how his mixes should sound. He has tried many other videos, but based on my other videos and emails he thought the way I passed on the information was “down to earth, but in an informative way.”

Join Jared and thousands of others that have learned the Step By Step Mixing Method right here.

P.S.

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