Why Mixing Tips And Tricks Are Never Enough (And Miss The Point Completely)

You want better mixes? Then stop looking for the latest and greatest technique, tip, or trick.

I know it sounds silly coming from a guy who has shared hundreds of tips with the audio world over the past 6 years.

But if you look more closely at what I teach you’ll see that I believe in something more powerful than tricks – mindset and method.

The Problem With Isolated Mixing Tips

Here’s a scenario: you’re at home working on your latest mix and you’re stuck. Things don’t sound great.

So what do you do? You jump on Google or YouTube and you start searching for a tip, trick, or secret that will help you turn your lackluster track into a radio ready mix.

In fact that might be how you found me and my site in the first place. If so, welcome! I’m glad your search brought you here.

But back to the scenario – what if you find some great little tips and tricks to try? How much can they really do for you?

They might give you more air on your vocal, or punch in your drums, or even a fatter bass. And believe me those are all cool things.

But the problem is that these are isolated mixing tips. They might work, and they might not. They have no idea what you are doing with the rest of the mix, nor can they promise to work every time.

It’s like a budding chef being told that salt will make your food taste better. That’s a little trick or tip.

But is it always true? No. Because it has no idea how salty your food already is, or what kind of food should taste salty in the first place.

If you are told salt makes your food taste better and so you go and dump a bottle of salt on your breakfast cereal you’re going to be in for a nasty surprise.

Wrong application.

Even too much salt on your steak will kill the experience.

Wrong amount.

This is what isolated tips are like. They are incomplete at best.

The Power Of Mindset (And Methods)

But I want you to get better mixes. And that’s why I devote most of my energy here to teaching you not just tips and tricks but the right mindset when it comes to mixing.

If you can understand how best to approach mixing then you are empowered.

I’d rather teach you how to cook, then tell you to use salt to make your food taste better.

So I teach you things like limit your options.

I continue to harp on the benefit of using fewer plugins – and focusing on going for the big wins in a mix.

I teach how the way you setup the first 30 minutes of your mix in the digital domain has a huge impact on the sonics of your final track.

And recently I showed you how to harness the power of Parkinson’s law and mix a song in an hour (it’s not about speed, but about focus).

When your mindset about mixing changes – you make smarter decisions and the result is better sounding mixes.

Take those mindsets a step further and develop a method for mixing that you can depend on and that is a powerful ally. I teach an entire course on mixing method that has helped thousands of students world wide get better sounding mixes with their same gear.

A proven method will trump a random trick or tactic any day of the week.

Want Better Mixes? Change Your Mindset

You’re here because you want a better mix. Right?

Then trust me when I say to you, no amount of mixing tips, tricks, or techniques will help you unless you have the proper mindset and method.

Focus on changing the way you approach mixing and developing a step by step method for implementing your approach (i.e. mindset) and you’ll start seeing the results you’re after.

And for those of you who already get this concept, share one thing below you’ve changed in regards to mixing mindset and method that has helped you get results. I’d love to know!