Why I Made a Free Mixing Tutorial​

Hi all,

I made this free mixing tutorial just for you!

When I started out mixing over 10 years ago I struggled to find a full mix walk through so I could see how exactly engineers were getting their final sounds. I would find little bits and pieces, but never a full tutorial.....

There were plenty of tutorials I could pay for but I did not have much money at the time so I decided to stick with free videos to continue learning how to mix....

When I finally did have enough money to invest in a paid tutorial from a "professional", I was extremely disappointed. When I heard his source tracks, they sounded amazing. Because of this he did not have to do much work to get his tracks sounding good....

My tracks were recorded in my bedroom and of course did not sound great. I needed to learn how to make the best out of tracks I had. Getting your home recordings sounding professional can be a difficult. So at this stage of my carrier I decided to give back a little...

That is why I decided to make a free mixing tutorial for a song that was recorded in my home studio. I released two videos recently (kick and snare) and will be releasing one a week over the next few months.

In this free mixing tutorial I will take you through all my tracks and show you exactly how I mixed this entire song. I will go through all the important elements of this rock mix which include...

Tutorial Guide​

1. Kick Drum - This will included EQ and compression for both my inside and outside kick microphones, as well as my kick sample. I will show you specifically how to get a kick sound that punches hard! Even if it was recorded in your home.

2. Snare Drum - The snare sound is great in this song! I will take you through both the top and bottom snare mic and show you how treat each track. I will also show you how to properly treat a snare reverb.

3. Toms - Toms can be the hardest part of the drum to mix. I will take you though how to properly EQ and compress a Tom drum. I will also show you my trick for getting rid of cymbal bleed in your Tom microphones.

4. Overheads - Overheads should sound crisp and clear! Even if you are using budget microphones. I will show you how to properly treat them. I also take you through how to make a great room sound out of your overheads. This is perfect for someone recording drums in a small room.

5. Hi-hat and Ryde - These instruments sometimes seem to be overlooked in a mix. They should add something! And you will learn how to accomplish that.

6. The Drum Bus - The drum bus should be the overall glue for the kit. But will too much compression it can ruin a mix! You will learn how to treat this bus properly.

7. Synth - There are some cool midi tracks in this song. Some people have no idea how to treat these instruments. I will show you how!

8. Bass Guitar - This song has a killer bass tone in it made up of a mic'd amp and a direct signal. I will show you how you can blend the two sounds.

9. Electric Guitar - There are a number of guitar tracks in this song! Both distorted and clean. You will learn how these instruments should be handled.

10. Vocals - Vocals are the most important part of the mix! You will learn how to put them in the forefront and mix them so they have energy.

11. The Master Bus - I will show you how I added saturation the master bus to give the song an analog feel.

I will leave a link to the first video in this series. I hope that you watch, learn, and continue on your way to making beautiful music!

Musically yours,

Joel Proulx