About This Course

As a beginner, mixing your tracks can seem like an endless process. In this course, Elliot goes back to basics in Ableton Live to help you understand how to approach your mixes. He breaks down his approach into 6 main elements to consider when starting, along with some helpful tips on using templates to speed up your production process.

Overall, understanding these basic mixing principals will get you one step closer to creating professional sounding tracks.

You will learn how to:

• Balance the levels in your track with gain staging. 
• Use panning to widen the stereo field. 
• Use subtractive and additive EQ. 
• Set up send/return channels. 
• Use reverb and delay to add depth. 
• Work out pre-delay timings. 
• Use a compressor and limiter.  
• Use side-chain compression. 
• Work with templates and audio effect racks.

Lessons: 

1. Mixing Basics

Elliot runs through his notes, going over getting familiar with your DAW and the 6 main elements of your mix: Balance, Frequency, Panning, Dynamics, Dimension + Interest.

2. Getting your Levels Right :

Elliot and Dylan go over the first step to mixing - balancing. The key to a good mix is starting off with getting your levels right. Dylan demonstrates this by using Ableton’s Utility for gain staging, as well as using the Levels plug-in for metering. They also discuss panning, and understanding how to use it within the context of your style of music.

3. Using Templates :

Templates are important for getting your foundation right and speeding up your workflow. Elliot uses a template both for the overall project, as well as each channel, which has a different chain of audio effects. He goes through each plug-in he uses in his chain from EQing, to compression and limiting.

4. Creating Dimension in Your Mix : 

Reverb and delay are essential tools when adding depth and dimension to your mix. Elliot demonstrates how he uses different sized reverbs on his auxiliary channels, as well as delays and distortion.

5. Recap :

Dylan and Elliot recap the main things they covered in this webinar: Gain staging, using EQ to shape a sound, using reverb and delay for depth, as well as  in the time of your BPM and finally, mixing within a ‘frame’.

6. Live Q&A :

• Do you use compression on all channels? 
• Have you been professionally trained to produce? What is your advice on going into more detailed courses like these?