Got some great comments and questions from my last post, I mixed through a crappy speaker and all I got was this GREAT mix?!?, and I thought I'd share them with you.

Let's fire them off!

"Does mixing in means to export your mix in mono without
panning?" 

No, it does not and thanks for asking! It means flipping your interface or DAW into mono so that what you're hearing out of your speakers is in mono, not stereo. It helps with all sorts of decisions: EQ separation of instruments, balancing faders, creating depth and even panning believe it or not!

Another subscriber, Gary, had a great thought in regards to the Audio Issues Window Shopping Challenge (deadline to enter is this Tuesday!)

"This is why with my window shopping I wanted an Aurotone 5c (now that they are making them again).  A lot of big hits have been mixed on these speakers.  Switching monitors often is a good way to keep your ears from becoming accustomed  to the song mix, causing mix issues to be overlooked."

Couldn't say it any better myself!

Another reader asked:

"How do you know what's going on in the low and high end? Because this speaker ends at 150 Hz and 16 KHz. Do you also EQ your Low End and hear what happened to the whole Mix or do you change to other speakers for that?"

Great question! That's why I have full range monitors as well. I know that I need to pay attention to the bass using other speakers but mixing on the Mixcube gets me to that point faster because of the black and white character of the speaker. Once I've made it sound as good as possible on the Mixcube I'll flip on my other monitors to finish the job.

Last question of the day came from Shane:

"If it sounds good on crappy speakers it'll sound good on better correct me if I'm wrong."

Absolutely! But....you still need to reference your mix on full-range speakers that have a good bass response, for the aforementioned reasons.

And lastly, because you've spent so much time fighting to make the mix sound good on the Mixcube you can look at the last 20% of your mix-time as a reward. Flip that beast into stereo and enjoy massaging the low-end into place and making those last minute tweaks.

If you're interested in watching me explain some more about the Mixcube and what I did in this month's Dueling Mixes song I just created a brand new video to give you as an additional bonus for signing up.

In the video I tell you:

• How I used serial compression and artificial excitement to get the kick to cut through
• About my Top 3 Favorite Compressors and why my keyboard compressor usually finds its way onto my 2-buss
• The no-brainer compressor that works (almost) every time
• How I use the 3-verb technique to create depth and space in the mix
• The importance of gain structure when you're using "alternative" plug-ins
• My channel strip plug-in I use on the "Most Important Element" of the mix

As soon as you sign up to Dueling Mixes I'll send you this video, along with my video on the 3 Ways to Approach Your Mix.

• The all-faders up approach
• The bottoms up approach
• The top-down method

Just sign up using my affiliate link right here: www.audioissues.com/duelingmixes and send me your receipt to bjorgvin@audio-issues.com and I'll put you on an exclusive list with all of these delicious Dueling Mixes bonuses :)

This promotion ends tomorrow night so if you want to grab the bonuses you need to become a member before the weekend.

Björgvin