I know it's not great to mix with your eyes.

But sometimes you have to mix quickly.

When you want to get a good static mix done quickly but you have too many tracks in your song, here's a trick I love using.

Mixing in the Arrangement Window

I simply set all my faders to a little bit below unity gain before I flip over to the arrangement window and mix the song from in there.

In case you haven't done this before, let me explain the benefits of doing it this way.

Seeing the Waveforms Helps

Seeing the waveforms on the tracks as you scroll up and down the arrangement window is incredibly useful.

• You can tell what tracks will be playing next so you can be ahead of the mix, knowing exactly which fader you need to work on before the track starts playing.
• Using the inspector window makes it easy to simply click on the track and raise or lower the volume of the fader to where you think it sounds good.

Of course, some instruments might get lost during the first pass but it’s a quick and easy way to get a good static mix going.

Once you've done that you can start simplifying the mix even further with groups and busses like I've mentioned countless times before.

So try that approach the next time you're firing up your next mixing session.

It might save you a lot of time.

If you're looking for a step by step mixing method that helps you transform your home studio demos from muddy mixes into pro-sounding songs, remember that I'm doing an exclusive mix course bundle for a very few select people until tomorrow on:

• Quick Mixing, Mastering and Editing
• Mixing With 5 Plug-ins