A huge mistake people make with mixing is to tackle the problem in the wrong way. So before we dive into the exciting world of mixdowns, we need to understand what mixing music really is. We will also set up Ableton and learn about Audio stems - Ben knows only too well how important it is to get your project and stems set up in a way that keeps your workflow and your creativity flowing.

You’ll learn to understand peak vs RMS and headroom, along with the dangers of digital clipping. This knowledge will then be used to create a balanced and loud mix. One of the hardest parts of mixing is to get that big fat, forward sound! Saturation and understanding volume is at the core of this. We dive into the crazy world of perceived loudness, looking at various ways to achieve that volume you hear on your favourite songs.

Here we focus on how to use panning to create the stereo image and reverb to create a sound stage and depth to your music. Every detail from understanding the difference between mono and stereo, to creating wide yet transparent mixes. We’ll look at clinical and classic techniques like creating a room mic for achieving consistency within our sounds.

We’ll do a deep dive into Ableton’s EQ 8, looking at how every area of this EQ works. There’s no magic way of using an EQ to get the same result every time. The reality is, every sound is different! Once you know how to read the sounds, hear them for what they are, only then can we hope to get the job done. We will be applying this thinking in a practical way with all of sounds.

In this module, you’ll get to know Ableton’s compressor. We’ll be looking in detail on how to compress drums, basslines, vocals, synths and EFX, as well as how compression can be used to mould our sounds around one another. In this module Ben aims to not only give you confidence in what each control is doing and how they can be adjusted to reach your desired effect but also the confidence in what is genuinely happening.

In this lesson, we’ll be learning the dark arts of bussing multiple channels into groups, to allow us to control and shape large sonic sections of our songs. So far we have been carving and shaping are sounds to fit together, now we are going to glue them, push them until the come to life. Ben will show you a bunch of his top parallel tricks, techniques that he uses every day as a professional mixing engineer.

Now this is where thing get scary - but you just need to understand what mastering is. Here Ben is going to walk you through his master chain. You’ll learn to get the final steps of perceived loudness just right. Ben will give you confidence in pushing your tracks to the limits whilst still remaining clean, punchy and wide.