I got this watch from my wife a while ago as a present.

The face is a really cool design of Iceland so I obviously wore it with all my Icelandic pride.

(As an aside...Iceland's been in the news lately. I'm still proud of my people, less so of the pissants in Parliament...)

Anyways...this watch had a nice black leather band so I only wore it for nice occasions (and never, ever with anything brown).

When the band finally broke we replaced the black leather strap with a olive strap made of denim.

Now, with just a small change, all of a sudden my fancy black watch had become something else entirely. A cool little custom watch that I could wear all the time.

I'm a pretty casual guy so my wardrobe consists of mostly jeans, t-shirts and casual button-up shirts. Not something you'll always want to wear a fancy watch with.

But a cool looking casual watch?

You bet. So just with this small modification I took something that only had one small purpose and transformed it into my favorite and most common accessory.

Now...what the hell does that have to do with audio?

This isn't "Boring Fashion Issues" or "Quotidian Couture Issues."

This is Audio Issues and that brings me to how some very small changes in your mixes make the most difference.

Sometimes you just need to do a couple tweaks here and there to take your mix from good to great.

Take EQ for instance.

The smallest EQ tweak that does the most amount of work for you is EQ'ing your master bus. It can make an incredible difference if you're struggling with an overall problem.

Say your mix sounds great overall but it's just a little bit too harsh when you turn up your speakers. A dB or two on the master bus can help you soften it up. Instead of going through each instrument and cutting the harshness out with 24+ EQ plug-ins you simply tame the high-mids with one EQ.

One Small Change. One Big Difference.

The same is true when you think about EQ'ing your tracks. A couple dBs here and there on your instruments are sometimes better than drastic boosts and sweeping cuts. 

So next time you're struggling with EQ'ing or mixing in general just think about what small changes you can make that make a big difference.

For some more tips on making a huge difference in the improvement of your mixes check out EQ Strategies - The Ultimate Guide to EQ. 

Here's what Richard Wheeler had to say about my tutorial package recently:

Just wanted to say how informative your ebook is, it's really helped me with my bass guitar, drums, vocals and rock guitars.

Making room in the mix with EQ and giving everything a space has got a whole lot simpler thanks to you. 

Great job!

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