Many new home studio music makers believe that great mixes come from stacks of plugins and complicated or “advanced” techniques.
My opinion: great mixes come from a few simple steps, applied really well.
For me, 99% of a great mix comes from considered levels and panning, simple EQ, controlled compression, tasteful reverb, and automation.
Honestly, that’s all I do in most of my mixes.
But what about sidechain compression, mid-side processing, dynamic EQ, etc?
Well, they all have their place at certain times and in certain situations. And they can certainly add something when needed. But these are things that can only add a little extra polish when you’ve got a solid foundation in place.
No fancy tricks are going to make a mix sound great if that foundation isn’t there first.
Think of it this way: a mix with solid levels, panning, EQ, compression, reverb, and automation, will sound great without any additional forms of processing.
But a mix that has a complex combination of parallel processing, serial compression, and any other advanced techniques, but lacks the fundamentals, will not!
If I could offer you only one piece of advice for the coming weeks and months it would be this: don’t learn any more complex or advanced techniques.
Instead, focus on getting really good at the fundamentals. Understand the frequency spectrum. Understand how to apply compression well. Understand how to use reverb tastefully.
This will move you far closer to professional-sounding mixes than anything else can.
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