The 1 dB Rule

Published: Fri, 10/18/19

I made brownies. The recipe said to cook for 22 - 25 minutes.

A minute can make a big difference, but I started with 22 minutes to get a reference point.

They were delicious, naturally.

The next week I made brownies again. We discovered that making thin brownies makes them better so we craved them again.

This time I thought, let's see the difference in consistency when I set it for 23 minutes.

They were delicious again. A little less chewy and just a minute better.

The next time I make brownies, what do you think I'm going to do?

That's right. I'll set the oven for 24 minutes.

I do the same when I'm mixing, except instead of minutes, I do dBs.

Does the kick sit better if it's one dB louder? If so, I keep going, a dB at a time until it's sticking out too much.

Then I move on up the mix. I find a good general balance and then massage everything together one dB at a time.

Spend a little extra time on balancing your faders, and maybe you won't need to spend so much time with the rest of your mix.

And when it's time to put your plug-ins on and start your processing, you know which five plug-ins you should start with:

EQ
Compression
Reverb
Delay
Saturation

And if you have any issues with any of those plug-ins, head on over and take my Mixing With 5 Plug-ins course. In just a few hours you'll learn exactly how to make awesome mixes using only the five most important plug-ins you already have in your DAW.

Even More Mixing Techniques than Ever Before

I've added all the relevant chapters from the Step By Step Mixing book to each course module so now it has even more content that you can access from both your computer and your smartphone. As soon as you join you'll have access to both the videos and the written materials. That way you'll get an even deeper understanding of how you can use these processors to create mixes you can be proud of.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Maybe this is the weekend you'll end up mastering those five processors to make kick-ass mixes?

Check out all the details about the course right here: