I got inspired by one of Graham Cochrane's post recently.

It was the one about Derek Ali's method of mixing on one crappy mono speaker.

So I fired up one of the Dueling Mixes multitracks and started mixing on my mono Behritone one-driver monitor.

At first I was just going to do the rough levels.

Then my timer went off and I decided that it would be interesting to EQ the mix on my crappy speaker as well.

And then my timer went off again and I ignored it and kept mixing on the Behritone.

It was such a fun challenge to make the mix sound good on this terrible speaker that I just couldn't stop.

Finally, once I had actually mixed most of the song with EQ, compression, reverbs, effects, the works....it was actually sounding really decent through my Behritone.

So I flipped the switch on my monitor controller onto my Yamaha monitors to hear the results...

And it sounded great!

The best part about it was the quick balance in the frequencies I had achieved in a relatively short amount of time.

Instead of debating all of my mix moves as I was working in stereo on nice studio monitors I could easily judge whether I was making the mix better or worse on my Behritone speaker.

Mixing on my Behritone was more of a black and white process. The EQ'ing was either making the mix better or worse. There was no in-between shades of gray.  When you're mixing on nice studio monitors all those boosts in the high-end might not sound that bad to you in the moment so you keep doing them. But on the crappy one-driver speaker it was immediately apparent.

Key Takeaways?

1. Mixing on crappy speakers can reveal a lot of cool things about your mix. Sure, it might not be "as fun" because you're struggling to make things sound good, but the reward for achieving a great sound is absolutely worth the effort.

2. Trying out new things can help you approach things differently and teaches you new methods for overcoming challenging mixes. Even if you don't have a one-driver mono speaker you can still approach your mixes differently.

In fact, for anyone who joins the Dueling Mixes community through my affiliate link: www.audioissues.com/duelingmixes before Friday at midnight will get a bonus video from me called the 3 Ways to Approach Your Mix.

This video shows you three different ways of mixing that you can use if you're just starting out, or want to learn a different approach to mixing to shake things up.

In addition to outlining these 3 methods I also discuss:

• The 2 important meters I always put on my master bus
• The quick 2-plugin method for simple rough mixing to get you excited about your mix immediately
• The one thing you should do in any mix approach for faster mixing

All you need to do is become a Dueling Mixes member here (before Friday night!), then you send me your receipt to bjorgvin@audio-issues.com and I'll set you up with your free video.

P.S.

Remember that the Audio Issues Window Shopping Challenge is still going strong. You have until Tuesday to submit your shopping list!