I've been recording and mixing 45 years now and the best advice I ever got in my long studio career was this. Spend as long as it takes to get as great a mix as you can using nothing except faders, trims and panning - nothing else. When it really comes together, you're so much better positioned to accomplish greatness, avoiding multiple common issues, and really hearing what you need and don't need to be ready to print a gorgeous finished mix.

After TEN years of mixing I FINALLY learned what the greats have always talked about - DON’T SOLO ANYTHING unless you’re doing so ONLY to look for extraneous noises on the track. 👉MIX IN CONTEXT.👈 Get a faders-only mix first. Then begin adding EQ and effects WITHOUT SOLOing anything. See if you don’t get better mixes FASTER… but also - notice how you make things sound DIFFERENT than you would have if you used the SOLO button. Test yourself: Do a mix with NO SOLOing. Then SOLO up each instrument and notice how DIFFERENT many of the tracks will sound from how you would have made them sound using SOLOing. Ah-HAH!! 😄. This proves that if you used the SOLO you would have made changes to the tracks that were NOT APPROPRIATE for the recording! BOOM! You’ll never SOLO again! Trust yourself. 😎👍👍

We used to be called balance engineers - and that is the key. You can however use eq to stop instruments/vocals clashing in their frequency range.

The fader is the most important mixing tool. My mixes improved exponentially when I realized how many problems were caused by having the bass drowning everything else out. All I needed to do was get the correct ratio between the bass and the kick just using the faders and the rest just falls into place without having to put seven plugins on every channel. Start with a good static mix before you add a single plugin.

I am still a novice even though I started doing music production 2 yrs ago and this takes me back to when I didn't know any plugins or whatever and it's just the balancing I knew and thought it was good enough to mix. I guess a lot of producers like myself get lost somewhere when we start learning something new and applying them to our work and start to forget about the most basic things. Thank you for this video!

A simple solution that I know but always drift away from. Thanks Joe. Gonna implement this tonight on a mix and get back to basics. For the record though..... A moment is defined by about 90 seconds. LOL

You have given me the answer to the question that I have been asking myself since I started in the world of mixing 3 years ago. Why is it so easy to lose the horizon? Thank you very much for this golden tip!

Great video, Joe. Another super important thing to tie in with balancing is your monitoring level! If you listen at a low volume or high volume, both balances will sound totally different.

Agreed. Always have to gain stage after adding/ changing anything. I’ve seen some producers/ engineers add plugins and then wonder why the mix sounds out of whack. They simply didn’t apply gain +/- after whatever they changed. Or didn’t check if the panning changed. Good video.

I came up with an interesting analogy while talking to my wife. Imagine a Jenga tower, but instead of each block cut straight, each block has a slightly different curve to it. A lot of the pieces don't fit together and need to be shaved down somewhat. But a lot of pieces do fit together and you just gotta find the right spot. You can take the time to focus on each block, shaving each one down to be perfectly straight, but it takes forever and you get a smaller tower. It's better to try to get a piece to fit first, then if it doesn't fit, you know exactly what needs to happen to that block so it will fit

The 'whack a mole' reference is spot on lol I just got done doing this and you end of fighting the mix the entire time! Idk how many times I'll just take the mix back to the stems and start over and most of the time I don't need to add even half of what I had in the mix in the first place. But damn mixing is addictive I love it. Thanks for videos Joe you break things down where it's easy to follow 😊

Your mixing tips and explanations are sooo helpful and you're super likeable, thank you for making these videos! ☺

It is amazing how adjusting the level of one channel can change the whole mix. I try to mix the entire track as a whole...even if I have to listen to it 20 times. Great video!

Since I started using a static mix as part of my process, my mixes have improved - dramatically. Now, I don't mix professionally, I'm purely a home cook. I do this for my own enjoyment. But to my ears, my results are just better when my mix works on its own - before I've fiddled with FX. Great explanation, Joe, thanks.

Great video as always. Enjoyed it very much. To me, proper levels are essentially the same as "Get it right at the source" - your levels are your 'source' when mixing, and when you get that right the rest of the mix process is that much easier. Over the years I've learned that guitarists typically want more guitar, drummers want more drums, singers want more or less vocals (depending on their confidence level) and mix engineers want more plugins 😅 My goal is to get the mix sounding as great as I possibly can with only a few HP EQs to clean up some mud and some verb on the vocal. Once it sounds "finished" with just volume and panning, my next step is to use plugins to make that sound even better because I look at plugins as the icing on the cake - getting it right at the source, levels and panning are the ingredients that make the batter. Throw the icing in the batter and it's not going to look or taste right. And now I'm craving cake 😂

Well during the first listening I thought the main issue were those overly present vocal fx and background vocals that kind of burried everything else, at least to my ears

Man JOE!!! You are inspiring man. I am learning from you, more than what some peers would ever share. Thank You. You are making IMPACT!!!

Don't remember if it was Brauer or Scheps or one of the other heavy hitters who said, "sometimes a fader is the best EQ." Oh how true.

Joe speaks da truth! I started using Izotope's Mix Assistant as the first step in my mix (before even panning). As long as the tracks are recorded well (GIRATS), I'm always amazed at the volumes that get selected by Izotope (Yes, they incorporate the Fletcher Munson curve into their algorithm) and mixing has become easier and, as Joe said, more fun. It's gotten to the point where I can almost predict the volumes ahead of time. And my mixes have sounded so much cleaner and clearer. A really good tool for those, like me, who struggle with hearing the mix like the pros do.

Wow! Great way to dial in your mix. Such wonderful advice. Thank you, Joe :)

I think this is my biggest flaw in my young mixing journey. My static mix isn't right and then I start adding my plugins. Thanks for the reality check Joe!

That was THE main take away from my membership in dueling mixes back in the day. God bless!

Excellent advice Joe - I spend a great deal of time working on relative volumes of all tracks in the mix, and I also will add that much of that levels adjusting is at a very relatively SOFT overall volume - if things sound balanced and powerful at the softer volume (plus my ears are also not getting fatigued) then when I check at a louder volume briefly the mix kicks and things stay balanced - brief louder volume checks are also good to check how the final reverbs / delays / effects and overall EQ etc sound too

Hi Joe, you continue to be the best Music Production teacher online. Keep it up. Thanks so much for this advice.

This is the second time in the last month that a Joe Gilder video has found its way to my queue ABSOLUTELY RELEVANT to the exact point I am in my mix (which, incidentally, is my first mix, and from Joe's Home Studio Corner Mixing course). Just 3 days ago, I came to this same conclusion wondering why a fill at the head and tail of the project wasn't cutting through the way I heard them in my head. I had gone through all the plug-in experiments, and suddenly, a light bulb went off in my head after listening to Joe's original mix of the song: "Wait a minute, it sounds like Joe's balances of the drums are somehow simpatico with each other.... maybe that's my problem!" So I have been spending time rebalancing parts of the mix. To do this, though, and this was the hard part and probably the reason behind the issues, I had to let go of certain pre-conceived ideas I had about how I want my bass and kick to sound overall, which was the hardest decision to make. but I think serves the type of song I'm working with better. Then, last night, I was scrolling through my various youtube mixing channels when I saw this video. Thanks once again, Joe!👍💯

great video Joe.thanks for sharing!

Best mix advice I’ve heard so far! You just got a sub! Cheers!

Keep up the great work, man! Really nice advices. :)

Thanks, Joe

This sorta reminds me doing live sound, which I've been doing for decades, where I don't have alot of extra anything to get a good mix. Less is more because it's all I've got, especially back in the '70's when all I had was a spring reverb in the board, and a tape echo, and an EQ.

Great stuff Brother Joe!

i trust my ear even more now, you've confirmed all my thought on the problem on that mix. i had said it outloud too

Joe, thanks for peeling back all the layers and getting back to brass tacks. Sometimes the simplest solution is the right one. I always forget that because I have such cool toys to “fix” it.

Many times in the past when my mix got out o control, I turned off the global efx button and everything got a whole lot better. I knew what to do from there. Excellent advice.

So true! Great video. Great lesson!

This actually REALLY good advice! Thank you Joe!

Thank you Joe that fabulously reaffirming instruction was JUST what I needed ,honestly I'm right in the thick of it as usual, and that was like Robin Hood hitting the mark true ,Cheers!

Super thank you....really helpful

Thanks for your videos Joe

Good stuff Joe..I always gain stage, and adjust as much as possible to make my plugins do the least work....instead of the most..🤘

This will blow your mind 😂 So I have been making music for 11 years now. Something around 7000 songs (yes, I know) But I never mixed them, and I never used Vocalists. A few years ago I started working on learning mix and spent $3000 in VSTs Hoping my mix would sound good. Still sound horrible. 😢 One of my friends is a Mix Engineer that works for Sony/Universal/Warner. He's basically one of the best mixers in the world. I'm sending him my mixes, and he gives advice. One night a few weeks ago, we sat up on Messenger discussing my music. And he was like: "Your problem isn't the mix, it's the production." I have been producing music for 11 years, so at first I was offended. I asked him what I mean. He told me to mute the lead in my song, and ask me what I heard. - Drums, and bass? "Yes, that's the problem, where is the song?" I have a background from 23 years of playing piano, and usually write all my songs on piano, before I go into the daw. So most of my 7000 songs, are just Bass chords and melody. I have been thinking about that for a good month now. Today, I tried asking ChatGPT what I should search for to figure out how to improve my production skills. "Background music for vocals tutorials" And there's LITERALLY 0 search results for this on KZfaq. However, it hit me, maybe "beat" is the word. So I search "how to make a pop beat" And it's the most basic shit ever. I look in my DAW, and the problem isn't that there is no beat. Because my Mixer is full. But I turned everything low in Volume so I could hear, drums, and vocals. Found this video and it felt like a bitch slap from the universe. 😂😂😂😂😂 Thank you!

My brother works in the music business, and I work in graphic design, but this particular challenge is found in both jobs. Once you fully realize that every change you make in any track is not absolute but relative, you realize that you cannot effectively go into the details, unless your basic ‘design’ is solid. (Relative means that if, for example, I add a cold blue color to a design, other colors around this cold blue color will automatically seem ‘warmer’ than before, even though they have not changed themselves.) If the basic ‘design’ is not (yet) solid and you still try and tweak the details (let’s say the main vocals), you will try to correct the mistakes in the basic setup through the details, which is simply not possible, and usually leads to endless tweaking and unsatisfying results.

Wow. Joe you're killing it right now. What an amazing video and a great thing to address. Who knows how many people this will save? Good shit as always.

Thank you kindly.

Started listening to this video on my phone then stopped. I have to go watch this on my studio setup so I can hear it on my monitors... 😎I

Absolutely. Gain staging has always been very important to me as it lifts or kills a track. Stoked to find myself on the right path with this example. Automating volume through different sections of the track is also huge. Guitar solo not coming through? Turn your rhythm guitars down. It so simple but easily overlooked especially if you're new at this.

as always, thanks (from a new VIP member!)

Thanks Joe. Appreciate the tips.

Thanksssss sir! It helps me alot

Very well described Joe thank you.

very true , I used to make great beats with no plugins , just EQ and levels , some plugins that I used to use was just to glue the instruments . thanks for the video ,Great one

Very interesting. Your demo was surprising and enlightening. Nice job Joe. I'm hoping this is an aha moment for me. Thank You

I forget who I heard say this originally-might’ve been you, or Colt Capperune, or somebody else-“sometimes the fader is your best EQ.” Especially in reference to your example of the bass track, all it needed was to be turned down. Or, you could adjust all the EQ points equally, but again that’s achieving the same result in a less efficient manner. In working with other audio engineers and doing recording sessions with them, I’ve seen firsthand how amazing well-recorded tracks can sound just with some simple balance adjustments to the faders and not much else. When you GIRATS it makes it so much easier to mix this way, which in turn makes the whole process so much simpler. Thanks for another great video!

Great Video Joe...it's all about balance..from tones when tracking to elements in mixing to over all song in Mastering.Point of reference to start helps. I use a short blast of Pink noise at -23 LUFS just as a reset when mixing and it's amazing how your ears will filter eq problems themselves when mixing.But can I add that some of the greats like Prince for example..listen to Purple Rain.Its like someone Hi Passed/Low Cut everything above 120 Hz .

Totally agree Joe. In the vast majority of cases, listen to the overall balance and not individual tracks, or you fall the rabbit hole you describe. Balance is the key. Soloing should only be used after this and to enhance mix and not fix problems. 🎧🎙️🎸🎹🥁

Hi Joe, agreed with your analysis/demo and totally agree on getting the static mix sounding great...but I'd still have added a bit of 8k on that snare 😁

FINALLY ! FINALLY ! Someone who actually KNOWS how to record and mix music ! I've been telling you for decades (6) that if you record in correctly in the first place, the tune mixes itself. I could never understand how you could spend a grand on a top flight ribbon mic., record with it and the first thing you do is reach for that EQ. to 'fix' the track. Did the manufacturer get it wrong ? Didn't the mic. pick up that vocal correctly ? .........or maybe it's....YOU. Spend a year or two like it's 1961 (when I started recording), limit yourself to ONE Mic., ONE track (like we had) and LEARN HOW TO RECORD CORRECTLY. No plugins, no 'stereo', no NUTHIN'. Just you, a mic, a MONO tape machine (or DAW) and friends that can PLAY MUSIC. You'll learn MORE in ONE week of doing this than ANY college course can teach you. Bill P. Studio 'A' nonlinear

Best advice ever Joe! and I´m a fat channel fan!!!!

Excellent advice Joe. Get your levels balanced. Make sure you listen at an appropriate mixing level (83dB). Having an accurate listening environment with proper acoustics and monitors also help in this decision making progress known as mixing 🔊 😇

First, last and always: volume and pan. That is the only thing I do as I am tracking. Once I get to a point where I have everything I need, I do a rough mix that consists of just those things. The only plugins I ever use during this stage are effect ones and it's only when I *know* I want a certain effect present whilst making this. But once I am in mixing mode, then I can "go nuts" ... and even then, I want to be minimal whenever I can, but I am fine with being intensive on crucial elements (whatever those are).

Good video. I usually mix into a limiter. When the limiter comes off before mixdown.. it's perfect

This is why I like Mix Monolith. It is the one plugin I can’t do without. It makes life so much easier to mix when 80% of the leveling is done with the click of a few buttons. It speeds up my static mix substantially and gets me a great result

great video!

It's funny, because when I first started out, I didn't know how to use all the fancy plugins! And my mixes were more balanced 😂. Then, I sabotaged them 😢, by fiddling with plugins 😅. I started to realise this, and then I stumbled onto your video. Thank goodness 🙏.

Wow! Ok awesome demonstration of the level s

I checked everything is good to download.

Yep. Static mix needs to happen first. I get great results that way. At least I believe so 😂Thanks for the video.

Thanks, Joe. Point taken.

To those who might not be familiar, I can tell you, Joe is right. When I first listened to him explain the static mix, and I tried it, I almost didn't believe I had done that mix...almost! No plugins at all, and it sounded almost release -ready, or a least closer than I had ever come to that point. Try it!

this video addresses one thought I'm having let's assume I have mixed the drums and now I'm trying to bring in the bass or guitar. And my thought is "would I end up at different levels, when I start from quiet and making bass/guitar louder, compared to starting louder and making it quieter until I think it fits?". I assume I would be louder when starting from loud and vice versa. So it's a range that I would accept as good, and the more experience one has the smaller this range gets. Right?

How would you approach it if you wanted to employ “creative equalization” in your mix? Example, make a piano sound thin or a vocal sound very mid-rangy. Would you apply EQ FIRST for the “effect” you’re after, and THEN set levels?

It was Depeche Mode song titled "Get the balance right" Daniel Miller said it was difficult to mix this song and hear exact lyrics lol

This video was so inspirational :)

The bass was still too loud for my tastes. I also thought the vocal was now too quiet, but that could have been solved by turning down the bass a bit more. Mind you, I like a loud vocal. Also, a lot of the music I listen to is old school so I don't need a ton of low end. I find that modern rock records have way too much low end for the genre. Imo, it just gets in the way after a point.

If there's a big difference between all the vocal sections should I be chopping them up and gain changing them to be roughly equal throughout the song before attempting a static mix?

I'm a beginner at mixing. My guess: I liked the original mix (I'm watching/listening to your channel to pick up things to try to make it easier for mix engineers). It has a nice, live sound that I want to preserve. I definitely would start with levels before plugins, though that's more of my inexperience with plugins. The main time when I would do plugins before levels is if the performance was bad. After watching the video: I do agree with the sibilance though. The band sounded pretty good already Thanks for the video. I learned a lot.

Good stuff as always. Enjoy your metaphors. The whack-a-mole is a good one, not just for audio, but life in general. I've gotta use that one. One comment... I think at around 10:40 you roughly explain the Fletcher Munson curve exactly the opposite of how I would. You said that maybe the response was flat at a certain volume but then you crank it up and you'll get more low end. It's true that higher volumes give more bass, but at low volumes is when you are far far away from a flat response. Therefore I would change your statement to something like "Higher volumes are the closest you get to a flat response, and when you turn it down you disproportionately lose some of the low end." The meanings are a bit different, although in both statements your points are clear, that (1) volume definitely changes the perceived EQ balance, and (2) the low end is louder at higher volumes.

Joe Gilder, The Best Human On The Planet! 👨‍🚀

Hi Joe! Thanks a lot man :)) I love how you emphasise on simplicity and seeing through the tool/gear smoke. By the way, the website is not working well. After you login some parts are still showing as if you still need to subscribe through email.

That's why gain staging is the key. Usualy i start with every tracks on mute, and start unmuting the bass drum, make it up to a descent volume and unmute the snare, ajust it to the bd to be coherent in volume and i do the same for the rest of the tracks. When i'm done adding plug ins to make every tracks sound good a litle bit of readjustment and automation and i'm ready to master the track !

I got it right!!! Woohoo!!! But when I do get stuck in that plugin-in psycho loop and get frustrated, I delete all the plug-ins and start over and I usually get it fixed with a simpler process.

Why do you run the bass through a bus then out to the main when it's the only track going to the bus? Is there any benefit to doing so or just personal organization?

Good one, Joe! ;-)

I loved the first mix you played, I like that the drums are 'softer' and the Vocal is sort of talking to me. The Bass for me is fine and not a "feature" so leave it... It actually sort of sounds like you mixed it on an Analogue Mixer which I love better than the dry tones of digital. Reminds me of INXS..

bro can you do a full vid on hip mixing and my multiband just working need help

Great Video ❤️ doin the faders is 80% of mixing

I use volume automation on almost every track - even on specific drum channels sometimes! The human brain can only concentrate on so many sounds at once, so I always ask myself, at any given point of a song, what is the most important, second most important, etc. thing that needs to be heard? The answers change as the song progresses, and I use automation to tailor as needed.

When you asked for the problems all i thought was the drums is too low, voice to loud, maybe im getting good at it lol, since i 've started balance my levels on mono everything made more sense to me

When you talk about getting a static mix without plugins. Would you still count the EQ as a plugin? Would you do a static mix without EQ plugins?

I see lots of videos where people say, "get your static mix, then leave the faders alone!" I personally don't use the phrase "static mix." I get an "initial balance" that lets me know on what areas I need to concentrate. But it's inevitable that as I work through a mix, even though I try to volume match with each move, the overall balance will shift, by tone and volume, if even by a small amount. So its not uncommon for me to zero out the busses and re-balance the entire buss mix several times, if not more, and fine-tuning within each buss as necessary. It's amazing how just doing that before reaching for a plugin will correct problems that I'm hearing.

Very good advice, Joe. My method is get the sounds right while tracking or as close as you can with mic choice and placement…..and of course good sources, then I use as few plugins as possible overall. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you must have 5-10+ plugins on every track. If that is the case, that probably means you didn’t get the sources right during tracking

To piggy back off of some of these other great suggestions. Before I do anything else I set all of my levels in mono making sure to be able to hear each instrument clearly in the soundscape.

Thanks. Excellent advice. One caveat (probably goes without saying, but...): each individual track has to sound 'good,' i.e. having been recorded well [that old saying: 'can't fix it in the mix'.........usually.........]

Hi Joe. Great information as always. You are 1000% an expert. But…, I would like to see you make videos about Recording. Not mixing, that seems to be most of your videos, not mastering,not the after the recording stuff. I went through about 2 dozen of your videos and only found 2 on using Studio One to record. You mentioned one time that when you listen to submissions you can tell the order that we recorded it and for us not to get tied up in that last instrument or our favorite instrument. Good advice. So show us the way. I would really like to see do a 3 - 5 part series where you start with drums, use your keyboard midi/controller for bass, keys and synths, grab a vocalist and you she record some backing tracks, then one of you do the lead. Or even both on a duet. Using of course Studio One. That would be great. I’m most likely asking too much. If so please forgive me. Thanks for reading my comment.

Can’t hear this message enough times, so fundamental to what we do

Amen.

Thant you

Joe has always said, (get your static mix together first) always.

Facts I’ve been diving into mixing and 95% off these course I’ve watched run by reputable industry experts have all said all mixing is leveling panning

No wonder I was a pretty good mixer when I was first starting out and didn’t know much about compressors and eq so I didn’t use them much! Volume only first! Sometimes the more we know the worse we get!