Want to start mixing music professionally, or even mixing your friends’ bands? Here’s the Mix Engineer Starter Pack with some tips.
Although there are a few overlapping aspects, mixing has specific areas of focus when compared to recording or music production. To get you started, we’ll cover the basics from software and audio interfaces to metering and monitoring.
The Mix Engineer Starter Pack: Choosing Software
Rather than purely relying on creative features like software instruments, a mix engineer requires editing features for maintaining and enhancing digital audio files. For this purpose, Steinberg Cubase is an excellent choice, with a range of useful tools for mixing.
With its 64-bit float audio processing engine and features like AudioWarp and VariAudio, you can take on mixing projects of any genre. What’s more, with Dolby Atmos compatibility, you can upgrade your setup for immersive mixing at a later stage.
Meanwhile, to add character to your sounds, the UAD Native plug-in bundles have a range of classic compressors, EQs, and effects. This expands your options from the stock processing plug-ins within your DAW.
The Mix Engineer Starter Pack: Monitoring
Whether you prefer mixing on headphones or studio monitors (or both), it’s a good idea to research the different options available. When it comes to monitors, a 6.5-inch 2-way design like the A7V from Adam Audio gets you into the realm of more analytical speakers that are still fun to work with.
In addition, the A7V also has extensive DSP and calibration features such as different voicing modes and compatibility with Sonarworks to optimize the speakers for untreated acoustic spaces.
Equally with headphones, open-back designs like the Sennheiser HD 650 are popular for mixing because they deliver consistent results. Also, you can try using them with a dedicated headphone preamp for even greater dynamics and accuracy.
The Mix Engineer Starter Pack: Audio Interfaces
When mixing, you want to be confident that whatever you’re hearing on your monitors or headphones is going to translate onto streaming platforms and wherever else the music is going.
While the info accompanying most budget audio interfaces will almost always impress upon you about the amazing quality of the preamp technology, this is not really a requisite for mixing music.
Instead, a mixing engineer is more concerned with the quality of the DA conversion stage inside the device, as this is what is playing back the audio from your DAW. For this reason, RME audio interfaces are the best choice when you want to enter the world of more professional digital converters.
The Mix Engineer Starter Pack: DAW Controllers
The first thing you’ll have to adjust to when you start mixing projects for clients is deadlines. Gone are the days of leisurely tinkering in your home studio and welcome to the reality of same-day mix revisions.
With these increased demands, a mouse and some keyboard shortcuts may no longer suffice. So to help you streamline your DAW workflow, there are controllers to help you with automation and quick access to DAW operations like the ICON range.
Meanwhile, there are software controllers like the Softube Console 1 series that even give you analogue-style control of your plug-ins, for a faster smoother workflow.
The Mix Engineer Starter Pack: Metering
No matter what format you are mixing for, accurate metering is a useful tool to help you adhere to the various loudness standards throughout the industry, as each platform tends to have its own guidelines, from Spotify to Netflix.
As a beginner, Metering can also help you gauge the difference between apparent loudness and true loudness, especially with the aid of a handheld SPL meter.
Rather than leaving it solely up to AI-assisted plug-ins, using metering on your favourite reference tracks can help you develop a sense of balancing the elements in your mix.
*Note: In the Mix Engineer Starter Pack, percentage discounts may vary according to your region and currency conversion rates on the day of purchase. Displayed percentage discounts are guidelines only.
