When you get to the mixing stage of your music production project there are a few basic things you will need for making a good mix. Sometimes it can be easy to feel that mixing music needs to be complicated when it does not. I will show you the 5 most important things you need so you can begin to mix good music.

MIXING music for home studio musicians

Mixing your music tracks is where a lot of the time is spent after recording. I can not express enough how important it is to keep things simple and have a solid idea of how you want the song to sound. Here are the five ingredients to a good mix.

1.  Start With A Plan

Having a plan of the song in your mind will help during the mixing process. Try and think about what parts need to stand out and what parts need to be in the background. Have a good idea of how you want the song to song when it is mixed. You may already have made decisions about this during the recording process but now is the time to bring it to the front of your mind so it can dictate your mixing work flow.

2. LEVEL ADJUSTMENT

Getting your levels right is important. When you are mixing music tracks the level of each track will determin the loudness of that track compared to the rest of the tracks in the mix. You can change the volume of a track using faders in most popular DAW applications and most of them have a dedicated mixing window. Make sure none of the tracks peek into the red and keep an eye on your levels during the entire mixing process.

3. Compression

Compression allows you to adjust the location of the sound is in the music landscape at any given time and is important to help get different tracks sounding good together.

4. EQ (EQUALIZER)

This allows you to changes the amount of frequency output on any given track and is good to reduce unwanted frequency conflicts between tracks. You can keep in simple by adjusting the high, mid and low frequencies but this can can be more advanced if necessary. Only adjust the EQ if it is really necessary.

5. Effects

Yes it is exciting to play around with different effects and they can be used to enhance your music tracks but try and keep things simple and only use effects that will compliment your song. Refer to point one about starting with a plan to decide what effect you need because you may not need any at all. Some things you may need to consider are reverberation, delay and other sound altering effects.

TRAINING RESOURCES FOR LEARNING HOW TO MIX MUSIC

When you you need a helping hand to get started with mixing music I recommend you take these highly beneficial courses aimed at making you a better music producer by improving your music mixing skill and learning the techniques for mixing music.

- Mixing Music - Learn how to mix a Pop Rock Song like a Pro!
- Mixing for Music Producers