1.

You think your mix is just ‘missing that one little thing’

At one point or another, every producer is guilty of this. You’ve spent a lot of time on your craft,
you’ve even made some decent music. But, when you compare it to the producers you look up to, it
falls a bit short. You start to think “man, if my mix just had that one thing, it would sound great.”

The truth is, your mix isn’t missing one thing. It’s missing a lot of things. This is our brain trying to
solve & simplify a very complex problem that involves a lot of moving parts (EQ, saturation,
compression, sidechain, reverb, gain staging, automation, sound design, layering, etc.) and can’t be
solved by any one tip, technique, strategy or concept.

2. You think you don’t need third-party plugins

I get it. Your DAW’s plugins are super powerful. And yes, you can get 70-80% of the way there using
only your DAW’s plugins. But, this notion that you don’t need to invest in third-party plugins is like a
painter who won’t invest in some high-quality paints, brushes, and canvas. Eventually, if you want to
compete with the best in the world, you’ll want to be using at least some of the same tools.
Fortunately, you don’t need all of them — all you need is a very select group of plugin bundles that
will drastically improve your mixes and masters (assuming, of course, you actually know how to use
them).

3. You think you only need to check your mix on your monitors

If all goes according to plan, the music you make will be heard on every system imaginable: laptop
speakers, car stereos, festival systems, club speakers, iPhones, and even some random gaming
speakers that have somehow survived since the early 90s. How can you possibly make sure that
your music sounds great on all of these different systems? There is actually a correct answer to this.

4. You think it's ok to fully outsource your mastering

The problem with entirely outsourcing your mastering isn’t the cost. It’s the fact that by avoiding
mastering, you’ll never know how your music sounds as a finished product until you get it back from
the engineer. This means, every time you have edits, you are theoretically mixing blind (because you
don’t know how your track will sound once it hits your engineer’s mastering chain). Trust me, there is
a MUCH better way to solve for this.

5. You think you should spend a lot of time mixing in mono

Somewhere, somehow, someone spread the myth that all clubs are in mono. Maybe this was true in
the 70s, 80s, or even the 90s, but it’s 2018. Club systems are in stereo. I’ve played hundreds of
them. I know several artists that have played thousands of them. I (and they) can confirm: clubs are
not in mono. The reality is, 99% of your music will be heard on stereo systems, on headphones, in
car stereos, on laptop and iMac speakers, etc.
Positioning your mix to sound beautiful in stereo should be the absolute focus, mono should be the
after-thought. How to actually execute this can be fairly difficult to grasp at first, but a healthy
understanding of the stereo spectrum, stereo imaging and panning is an outright necessity.

6. You think loudness is just about limiting

Oh, the loudness war. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that loudness is achieved solely through
limiting. Loudness can be achieved in plenty of stages, like mastering, mixing and even in the
composition stage. Certain sounds are inherently tougher to ‘get loud’ when compared to others.
Knowing the difference can save you a lot of wasted energy and effort in the pursuit of making
commercially-loud music.

7. You think you don't need a lot of automation

If you want your mix to move, bounce, groove, vibe, etc — you are going to have to utilize
automation. And lot’s of it. Not just in drawing automation nodes, but in auto-filters, auto-panners,
tremoloes , and responsive effects like sidechain, LFO routing and so much more. Without
automation, our music would be dull, static, and dead. If you want your music to have 'special
moments' as I call them, automation isn't just recommended, it's a necessity.

8. You think you don’t need a reference track

Our ears need to get re-calibrated every once in a while. Mixing without a reference track is a
sure-fire way to get truly lost in your own project. From ear fatigue to terrible mixing decisions,
avoiding a reference track is asking for trouble. Better yet, make sure to never take a break — this
puts your ears through a clinical form of torture and is often the #1 reason why mixes lack proper
gain structure and generally lack a sense of professionalism and commercial viability.