I just entered the promise land 2 days ago. The mix I’m currently working on is going to be my first “real” mix. I can’t explain the feelings I’m having rn. The most fun engineering has ever been.
You feel organized, you already know what plug ins you’re gonna have on every track, you already know what your mixbus will basically look like and you know what problems to attack first.
As someone who has struggled a lot but finally enjoys his mixes, my tips: 1. While mixing and producing use a reference that you like and that you're familiar with. You can easily use ear pods etc. Buying expensive monitors for example has the risk that you don't know how mixes should sound on them or that you just don't like their sound. Whatever you use just make sure to reference a lot. 2. Fresh ears are worth more than anything else. Try to do as many breaks as possible, even if you have not developed perfect ears for mixing, coming at a mix with fresh ears will help you a lot. 3. Dont be lazy. Edit everything that bothers you and use as much automation as possible. 4.And of course... Expensive plugins will not improve your mixes at all!
The point you made about fresh ears is such a gem that helps with every single step of the creative process not just mixing. People struggle with sound selection, writing a melody, drum patterns, etc. Often times all it takes is a 5 minute break to come back and go “woah that synth sounds awful I need to find a better one” or “oh wow that note felt out of place, I was expecting it to sound more like this”
I feel like I’ve recently reached that point of just joy and satisfaction with my mixes and i finally feel like i can be a pro. My struggle has just been finding clients that process feels like the complex middle part I just have no clue what to do and its frustrating
this is kind of an endless journey imo. i've been at each of these stages multiple times for different reasons and different topics within and outside of music.
Everything from start to finish is so true. Thanks Jordan, Roelof and PPS, because of you, i am back in the "simple" zone, know what i am doing and why (but still have a lot to learn), stopped to ask to myself thousand of questions... And after years of time spend on UA-cam searching secret tips, i am now moving toward my goals at a much faster pace 🤘
Honestly, as a producer who tries to mix and master my own songs, the only singular thing that matters is sound design and arrangement. If these are locked down and tight, the mix basically mixes itself, there’s nothing complex to it in my opinion. But obviously getting that tight arrangement with good sound design is hard.
I just had this experience with producing beats and it’s mind blowing to hear it put into words. For years you learn technique after technique and feel like all of these things are essential to making a good song. It starts to feel endless complex, but it’s the 80/20 rule. 20% of those techniques yield 80% of the results and music becomes a lot easier when you just focus on that 20%.
When it comes to something new that I'm interested in and want to learn, I usually try to learn as much on my own and give it time. You're never going to get good at something new overnight. For some reason, recording, mixing, etc. has never clicked with me even after all these years.. But you said something that I've forgotten and built a habit out of NOT doing and that is: actually going to someone that knows what the f they are doing (getting professional help.) I think I'm actually going to try and do that, thanks for the reminder 👍🏽
As a musician I have passed through those stages and am happily in that last stage. Still always learning more, but comfortable that I can create what I want. As a producer, I'm drowning in the complex zone.
Great video. After 2-3 years, I'm just starting to get my head above water in the 'complex' stage. I've got a decent grasp of my tools. I'm developing my instincts. I no longer feel like I'm drowning. I signed up for a mixing course that provided tracks for a few dozen songs. I didn't have to worry about the 'recording' piece - I could just focus on mixing. Getting the fundamentals down was the crucial first-step - but getting my reps in on someone else's music really helped to bake the lessons in.
Loved this. Best move I made was getting a decent channel strip that does it all, with a few comp and e.q flavours. Mixing is so much quicker and easier now, less fuss over what to use and less revisions.
I discovered your channel on the peak of my complex stage and im glad I did !!! I bought the SSL EQ and it changed my entire perspective and workflow now 90% of my mixes sounds way better 😂😂 I can approach any plug-in now with a simpler method and it works all the time !!!
I think it's much harder than it used to be to progress beyond the middle stage. Back in the day, people got to work in a studio under an expert engineer and learned what really mattered. They didn't get bogged down in extraneous details. It's not a coincidence that so many of the mixers and producers we revere worked under other producers we revere.
It’s called the Dunning Kruger Curve. And yes, we all go through it. I’ve got such bad ptsd from beating my head against the wall trying to learn mixing that even now, at a level that I can get professional mixes, I still get bad anxiety when I start a mix.
Wow, just recently I've stepped into the last category and found out that mixing can be very simple if production is done the right way. The best part is that I found out that when i was doing purely electronic track so when the sound didn't sounded right i just swapped it out for another. But the same goes for metal, for example, if given Ampsim or IR isn't working just swap it out for another. Cheers
i started on a tascam 2488 portastudio, no idea what a compressor was. Levitated to 100 plugin folders with mediocre results . After getting all that mixing knowledge years later , got tired of watching yt mixing videos and things like that . The other day i found one of my first tascam mixes and 🤯. It sounded not very professional but it was way better in terms of arrangement wise and simplicity. Took me that long to find out i got so into plugins and mixing stuff that totally disregarded completely what really makes a good song.
"Enter the promise land"... "Ignore the noise"...Love it. You always give good advice, Jordan. I can totally relate as well. Keep on doing what you do. I (we) certainly appreciate it.
I love this video. One historical engineer that stuck out to me was Chis Lord Alge. His simple approach made me rethink the road of glass I was headed to. I tell the same to others. I’m at my most simplest state of mind and enjoy doing what I love. I stopped all the noise. Love this!
God this is so true. I think back to my mixes when I got my first "real" plugins and I HAD to use them all. Now? Unless it's a creative effect, EQ, comp, maybe gate/exp. It's satisfying to see only a few plugins on the board and have something sound great.
One of the "hard" things about transitioning from Complex back to Simple is that you assume you must be doing something wrong just because all of a sudden the process seems "easier"; like, "Wait, I can't be almost done with the mix; I've only been working on it for a few days. It usually takes a few weeks!"
I am a little weird. I have been messing with music and electronics and software separately all my life and I am near my 40s (not doing it professionally anymore). I am having a blast learning why the recording hardware does what it does. It’s fun for me to go into the complex stage BUT that is only because I don’t have the pressure of making a mix for money. The mixes I make are of my family and friends having fun. I do buy stuff because I like to learn and then sell it. So my goal is different than many others. BUT. 100% if I did this for income I would definitely simplify to move faster. Good luck to everyone on there journey.
Hey Jordan! Every time I watch one of your videos (which are awesome, by the way-I’ve been following you since your Silverstein mixes), I always have one question. What do you use for video recording and lighting? The quality of your videos is incredible!
I'm not good at mixing. I just like to make music and create. I don't care if it sounds as good as other mixes, it probably never will. As long as it's a heartfelt simple enjoyable track, I am proud of it. I have the same mindset when drawing. Does my art look like a master mangaka drew it and it will sell like hot cakes? No, it probably never will, but I'm proud of where I am:3
Rule of thumb if it sounds good it is good if you know what sounds good that is and what it's supposed to sound like, composer joke Experience really can't be understated for technical matters if you want something perfect, so yes get as close as you can get a tune then get pro feedback
At 1:00 is that the TonePort LINE6? that was what I started on as my first interface/midikeyboard I now use an SSL12 with an alesis V49 that interface was a godsend for learning on having both a keyboard and interface in one was handy for starting out with using an interface in a setup
I'm stuck in the "complex" phase right now. I feel like I know too much but can't actually apply it to get good results. I wish I could go back to the blissful ignorance phase. I have a friend who knows absolutely nothing about mixing but gets much better results than I do simply by blind trial and error. He's been working this way for years and his stuff keeps getting better and better. I doubt he could tell you what the knobs on a compressor do. I imagine he's never EQ'd his reverb. It doesn't matter. Of course, he's learning too. But he's learning by "doing" rather than watching videos. I wonder if that's not a better way to proceed, rather than overstuffing your brain with information. I always bog down in this "complex" phase in everything I try to do and never manage to get past it.
4:15 theres a guy on youtube who swears ultra fast attack is the key to punchy drums. Like an 1176 on its fastest attack is how you get really punchy drums 😂
These pseudo-religious sermons are getting as commonplace and tedious as the "hi-pass everything" and "EQ your reverb" videos 😂I guess Mixing-UA-cam has played itself out, every subject has been covered, in exacting detail, from every angle, a thousand times . . . so now people are doing these sort of navel-gazing philosophical, almost spiritual, sometimes moralistic "Enter the promise land" videos.
I see so many videos from audio professionals but their YT videos sound bad and quiet when there is a standard for loudness. I have to crank up my levels constantly just to hear. Here is -10dB less than should be.
Grab your free Mixing Cheatsheet to learn the go-to starting points for EQ and compression in heavy mixes: hardcoremusicstudio.com/mixcheatsheet
I just entered the promise land 2 days ago. The mix I’m currently working on is going to be my first “real” mix. I can’t explain the feelings I’m having rn. The most fun engineering has ever been.
You feel organized, you already know what plug ins you’re gonna have on every track, you already know what your mixbus will basically look like and you know what problems to attack first.
As someone who has struggled a lot but finally enjoys his mixes, my tips:
1. While mixing and producing use a reference that you like and that you're familiar with. You can easily use ear pods etc. Buying expensive monitors for example has the risk that you don't know how mixes should sound on them or that you just don't like their sound. Whatever you use just make sure to reference a lot.
2. Fresh ears are worth more than anything else. Try to do as many breaks as possible, even if you have not developed perfect ears for mixing, coming at a mix with fresh ears will help you a lot.
3. Dont be lazy. Edit everything that bothers you and use as much automation as possible.
4.And of course... Expensive plugins will not improve your mixes at all!
The point you made about fresh ears is such a gem that helps with every single step of the creative process not just mixing. People struggle with sound selection, writing a melody, drum patterns, etc. Often times all it takes is a 5 minute break to come back and go “woah that synth sounds awful I need to find a better one” or “oh wow that note felt out of place, I was expecting it to sound more like this”
#4 just ain’t true at all man
The thing that killed me for years is not boosting the midrange correctly, the God Particle showed me that
I feel like I’ve recently reached that point of just joy and satisfaction with my mixes and i finally feel like i can be a pro. My struggle has just been finding clients that process feels like the complex middle part I just have no clue what to do and its frustrating
this is kind of an endless journey imo. i've been at each of these stages multiple times for different reasons and different topics within and outside of music.
Everything from start to finish is so true. Thanks Jordan, Roelof and PPS, because of you, i am back in the "simple" zone, know what i am doing and why (but still have a lot to learn), stopped to ask to myself thousand of questions... And after years of time spend on UA-cam searching secret tips, i am now moving toward my goals at a much faster pace 🤘
Honestly, as a producer who tries to mix and master my own songs, the only singular thing that matters is sound design and arrangement. If these are locked down and tight, the mix basically mixes itself, there’s nothing complex to it in my opinion. But obviously getting that tight arrangement with good sound design is hard.
I just had this experience with producing beats and it’s mind blowing to hear it put into words. For years you learn technique after technique and feel like all of these things are essential to making a good song. It starts to feel endless complex, but it’s the 80/20 rule. 20% of those techniques yield 80% of the results and music becomes a lot easier when you just focus on that 20%.
When it comes to something new that I'm interested in and want to learn, I usually try to learn as much on my own and give it time. You're never going to get good at something new overnight. For some reason, recording, mixing, etc. has never clicked with me even after all these years.. But you said something that I've forgotten and built a habit out of NOT doing and that is: actually going to someone that knows what the f they are doing (getting professional help.) I think I'm actually going to try and do that, thanks for the reminder 👍🏽
As a musician I have passed through those stages and am happily in that last stage. Still always learning more, but comfortable that I can create what I want. As a producer, I'm drowning in the complex zone.
Great video. After 2-3 years, I'm just starting to get my head above water in the 'complex' stage. I've got a decent grasp of my tools. I'm developing my instincts. I no longer feel like I'm drowning.
I signed up for a mixing course that provided tracks for a few dozen songs. I didn't have to worry about the 'recording' piece - I could just focus on mixing.
Getting the fundamentals down was the crucial first-step - but getting my reps in on someone else's music really helped to bake the lessons in.
Keep on going man 🤘
Loved this. Best move I made was getting a decent channel strip that does it all, with a few comp and e.q flavours. Mixing is so much quicker and easier now, less fuss over what to use and less revisions.
I discovered your channel on the peak of my complex stage and im glad I did !!! I bought the SSL EQ and it changed my entire perspective and workflow now 90% of my mixes sounds way better 😂😂 I can approach any plug-in now with a simpler method and it works all the time !!!
I think it's much harder than it used to be to progress beyond the middle stage. Back in the day, people got to work in a studio under an expert engineer and learned what really mattered. They didn't get bogged down in extraneous details. It's not a coincidence that so many of the mixers and producers we revere worked under other producers we revere.
It’s called the Dunning Kruger Curve. And yes, we all go through it. I’ve got such bad ptsd from beating my head against the wall trying to learn mixing that even now, at a level that I can get professional mixes, I still get bad anxiety when I start a mix.
Wow, just recently I've stepped into the last category and found out that mixing can be very simple if production is done the right way. The best part is that I found out that when i was doing purely electronic track so when the sound didn't sounded right i just swapped it out for another. But the same goes for metal, for example, if given Ampsim or IR isn't working just swap it out for another. Cheers
Wow you nailed it. Every thing you talked about. I’m intrigued.
i started on a tascam 2488 portastudio, no idea what a compressor was. Levitated to 100 plugin folders with mediocre results . After getting all that mixing knowledge years later , got tired of watching yt mixing videos and things like that . The other day i found one of my first tascam mixes and 🤯. It sounded not very professional but it was way better in terms of arrangement wise and simplicity. Took me that long to find out i got so into plugins and mixing stuff that totally disregarded completely what really makes a good song.
"Enter the promise land"... "Ignore the noise"...Love it. You always give good advice, Jordan. I can totally relate as well. Keep on doing what you do. I (we) certainly appreciate it.
4:13 such a nice way of saying “don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.” 😂😂
I love this video. One historical engineer that stuck out to me was Chis Lord Alge. His simple approach made me rethink the road of glass I was headed to. I tell the same to others. I’m at my most simplest state of mind and enjoy doing what I love. I stopped all the noise. Love this!
Man, your channel is golden. Keep up the amazing work!!! Sooooo useful.
God this is so true. I think back to my mixes when I got my first "real" plugins and I HAD to use them all. Now? Unless it's a creative effect, EQ, comp, maybe gate/exp. It's satisfying to see only a few plugins on the board and have something sound great.
Before the internet my go to guide for information was the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Guide...not for recording specifically, but had valuable info.
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.
One of the "hard" things about transitioning from Complex back to Simple is that you assume you must be doing something wrong just because all of a sudden the process seems "easier"; like, "Wait, I can't be almost done with the mix; I've only been working on it for a few days. It usually takes a few weeks!"
You're right, I recognize myself in everything you say. At the moment, I am at the stage of 5:10 in your video... LOL
I am a little weird. I have been messing with music and electronics and software separately all my life and I am near my 40s (not doing it professionally anymore). I am having a blast learning why the recording hardware does what it does. It’s fun for me to go into the complex stage BUT that is only because I don’t have the pressure of making a mix for money. The mixes I make are of my family and friends having fun. I do buy stuff because I like to learn and then sell it.
So my goal is different than many others. BUT. 100% if I did this for income I would definitely simplify to move faster.
Good luck to everyone on there journey.
Hey Jordan! Every time I watch one of your videos (which are awesome, by the way-I’ve been following you since your Silverstein mixes), I always have one question. What do you use for video recording and lighting? The quality of your videos is incredible!
I'm not good at mixing. I just like to make music and create. I don't care if it sounds as good as other mixes, it probably never will. As long as it's a heartfelt simple enjoyable track, I am proud of it.
I have the same mindset when drawing. Does my art look like a master mangaka drew it and it will sell like hot cakes? No, it probably never will, but I'm proud of where I am:3
Rule of thumb if it sounds good it is good if you know what sounds good that is and what it's supposed to sound like, composer joke
Experience really can't be understated for technical matters if you want something perfect, so yes get as close as you can get a tune then get pro feedback
Dude, this is exactly bingo!
thanks bro keep on!
this is the video i was waiting for "
At 1:00 is that the TonePort LINE6? that was what I started on as my first interface/midikeyboard I now use an SSL12 with an alesis V49 that interface was a godsend for learning on having both a keyboard and interface in one was handy for starting out with using an interface in a setup
I spotted that too!
I'm stuck in the "complex" phase right now. I feel like I know too much but can't actually apply it to get good results. I wish I could go back to the blissful ignorance phase. I have a friend who knows absolutely nothing about mixing but gets much better results than I do simply by blind trial and error. He's been working this way for years and his stuff keeps getting better and better. I doubt he could tell you what the knobs on a compressor do. I imagine he's never EQ'd his reverb. It doesn't matter. Of course, he's learning too. But he's learning by "doing" rather than watching videos. I wonder if that's not a better way to proceed, rather than overstuffing your brain with information. I always bog down in this "complex" phase in everything I try to do and never manage to get past it.
100% fact ❤🔥
Mannn, this is soo true, in my case anyway. Just finally left the complex stage. Took me 5 years
great stuff!
Dunning-Kruger effect?
Great video!
4:15 theres a guy on youtube who swears ultra fast attack is the key to punchy drums. Like an 1176 on its fastest attack is how you get really punchy drums 😂
This so freaking True !!!
Great video.
Thanks. I feel like I'm at the end of the complexity stage
This concept is closely related to the Dunning Kruger Effect, look it up.
Pareto principle
👍
🙏
These pseudo-religious sermons are getting as commonplace and tedious as the "hi-pass everything" and "EQ your reverb" videos 😂I guess Mixing-UA-cam has played itself out, every subject has been covered, in exacting detail, from every angle, a thousand times . . . so now people are doing these sort of navel-gazing philosophical, almost spiritual, sometimes moralistic "Enter the promise land" videos.
sounds like you need to update your algo, these videos are quite useful for some. Esoteric discussion is necessary for any worthwhile endeavor.
I'm the 700th like :3c
I see so many videos from audio professionals but their YT videos sound bad and quiet when there is a standard for loudness. I have to crank up my levels constantly just to hear. Here is -10dB less than should be.
why is your voice so quiet? the youtube ad was much louder, been watching you for a while and it's the first time it happened, I think
I didn't like the video
Why?
Ooh, guess what, nobody cares!
I went in for mixing advise and got life stories for the first 7 minutes