How to Mix Your Own Tracks (And Why You Probably Shouldn't) 

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I write my own songs, play all the instruments, mix and master. I mix myself because quite often, I make content decisions while I'm mixing. I might decide to add another instrument, redo a solo Etc . I'm essentially mixing as I'm recording. I can't do that if I send it away...plus, I'm a bit of a control freak :/

I like doing it myself because it's my craft, something very personal, if it sounds bad it sounds bad because of me, but it's still me. If it sounds good it sounds good because of me too. It's all part of the same thing, my art, and my soul is there in every part of the process, with its imperfections. I make electronic music. The way I see it is for example, imagine a painter that leaves the last bits of the painting for someone else to finish it... It's probably not the best example as it's a completely differnt discipline but I mean in terms of having total control of your craft from start to finish. I really enjoy listening to indie artists (not necessarily electronic music) whose mixes don't sound good at all but that becomes a part of what makes them unique, their sound. Perfect all the time is kind of boring, sometimes breaking the rules can produce some very tasty results. I don't think I'm the only one who thinks like this because I've seen some electronic music (not Lo-Fi) songs on youtube with more than 50 million views which could give a pro mixing engineer a heart attack haha. With the kick panned hard left, muddy as hell, reverb all over the place, etc... In the end the listeners don't really care about perfect mixes, they want experiences, they want "the vibe" (I hate that word lol). Anyway, thanks for the great advice as usual Justin!

Yep absolutely huge. You got to stay stoked!

I hear you but I'm so passionate about every process. Thanks for the tips.

I just finished a record a couple weeks ago. I recorded it at home, played all the instruments, and mixed it all myself. I was going to attempt to master it myself as well, but ended up having a guy I’ve worked before do it. Best idea I’ve had in a long time! Well worth the money for the extra set of ears!

Even as a musician you have to perform it and practice your music. So it's the same thing.

Justin's mixing course really helped me mix with more confidence and get the sounds I wanted quicker and better. Best podcast out there!

I never watch a RU-vid tutorial that was you don’t skip through. Everything is 100% laser accurately relevant, helpful and thorough.

Every topic and word in this video is so true. I think this is an essential video for every musician who decided to be a producer/engineer for their own music.

Human psychology is a weird thing. It happened to me to record my voice and hear every breath and syllable in it, and the next day all of this is gone, I don't hear it anymore, suddenly I hear just a voice, usually under level of general mix. Or, recording guitar and "hearing" every time the effort I made to record it. And after some days break I hear a pretty good guitar but played not very precise rhythmically :-). But this is the tricks of the beginners. In time you learn yourself and begin to say "no" to your weird "psyche". And you say, that guitar sounds ok, it's just your psyche playing tricks with you. :-) I think it would help to have a reference person who would give an advice on your stuff. But again, we have our own vision how drums should sound, or how general mix should sound. Because it's a part of our musical concept. I totally agree, some pre-settings in the daw or making recording as a ready sound would help and reduce hours and hours spent on mixing, drums, bass, guitars, etc, etc,. Also once I learned my favourite sound of drums, I know how to reproduce it. Even though the process of finding it was quite "painful". One of the harshest things I learned moving from beginner level is how much I was underestimating volume of each track in the mix. Thank you for your intake. Really appreciate.

After couple years of watching audio education channels, this one made me go "oh... That's new. But he's right, wow". I like how you look at topics from a psychological (or "psycho hygienic") angle. I started producing my own stuff after making music for years and years that never sounded like how I imagined (because I wasn't capable to write it and because I always worked with other engineers who had different visions). I definitely know the "I can't stand the songs anymore" feeling. Had it with every release so far. BUT I also learned so much about me, my vision and how to create music that I would want to listen to. That being said, as I get more confident with recording I start to commit sounds and "produce while recording". And this step feels like a game changer. Not trying to get the cleanest signal "to mix it later" but really getting creative while recording. It feels like the old 4-track days, man! And that's where I come from and what I'm about. And mixing is becoming SO much faster and more fun. Long story short: Great advice!

i came across your video because i had just entered " I lose focus during mixdown" into the searchbar lmao! great and very necessary find my brother. I just got done asking a friend to allow me to record and mix something of his as to 1. give myself a break from myself 2. get to see a new side of this since i wont be the artist rather just the engineer 3. devote my attention to simply engineering so when i go back to my stuff i might get a new perspective and have a little bit fresher ears. Good content man, keep up the truth. Thats really all anyone needs. Thanks

Thank you so much for this. I personally started mixing and mastering my own music because I had a horrible experience working with a former high-school friend who happens to be an amateur/ semi pro sound engineer. I also couldn't afford to outsource a pro engineer. It's my 4th year mixing and mastering my music this year and I got a couple of key lessons from it. 1. A pro sound engineer is a great investment - going pro takes time, possibly years. 2. The music sounds great from day 1 3. You can focus and hone in on marketing and other more important things better. 4. It's less stressful 5. You learn to detach from and to trust others with your work

Maybe I’m crazy but I enjoy mixing my own music. Even if I’m listening to the same song on repeat I’m constantly making little tweaks so to me it sounds fresh. I would recommend having a few tracks to work on so you don’t get burned out

3:33, mastering client here that you’re discussing. I personally love mixing, and have learned a ton making this record. I like the idea of making a recording like a piece of art, and mixing as part of the creative process. A painter doesn’t come up with the idea for a painting, make half of it, and then hire someone to complete it. Since this is my first album, and I’m not a touring musician, I didn’t think I could hire a mix engineer who’d put the level of attention to the project that I would want. I’d be happy to play any of these songs live, I would just have no reason to keep listening to the album again since I’ve heard it so many times 😂.

Thanks so much for this advice and guidance, particularly the affirmation at 18:00 of mixing as you go. I tend to (want to) do this naturally as a one-man band: "well, that's gonna need some EQ," or "some delay is definitely part of this sound" or even "now how am I going to bus these together so I can control 'this' - I should set that up" - cuz I know (generally) how I want it to end up. So just to continue working on it without the distraction, or curiosity, of having to imagine that in place the whole time, I tend to do at least that relatively basic level of 'mix as you go'. But, I was afraid that might be a bad habit. There are other rules of thumb or schools of thought on keep production departmentalized. [I can imagine it can be a bad habit, and there is still some discipline needed not to get side-tracked with mix minutia in the middle of recording/arranging though].

I love listening to my own music, I love all the production part of it and the performing part, as well as working with other people. Mixing other people's stuff teaches me so much always because I like to include these people in the process as much as I can, so we listen to records together and take elements from other songs. Afterwards I take the new stuff and implement this in my own songs. Sometimes I take my songs out for a walk or a drive, because I get good ideas when I am in motion.

I make instrumental music (downtempo, ambient, idm). Started off having another person mix, and although he is a better engineer than I it just never ended up the way I was hoping. Since then I've started mixing my own music. I'm trying to produce 25-50 tracks a year (building a library)....a decent engineer is around $250/track and that would end up being $6k-12k a year in mixing. I just can't justify it...even at half that rate. Also, being able to print stems and alt versions for prospective clients is 100% necessary. However, I definitely burn out on the tracks as you've described when mixing. Whenever I work on a live set these days I just do improvisations because I'm so tired of hearing the songs I've composed.

Great job/info ... thanks for doing this and all the other episodes.

I've been mixing my CD for ages now, learning as I go and getting better, but I'm definitely not as enthusiastic about the project as when I started out just doing everything by ear. So I will indeed try to implement a fast work-flow and try to do everything in less time. Good sound advice (pun intended") !

This episode resonates with me enormously!! Basically describing my life the last 2 years, trying to learn recording, mixing, producing and probably making all the usual "beginner mistakes". I can confirm that I learned more or less everything Justin is talking about the hard way and unfortunately I'm in the same place where I just want to be done with the current project and never listen to it again. However, this experience taught me so much and I'm sure that the next project will be much easier and faster. Thank you, Justin, for this video. I'm sure I'll come back to it to refresh on my past mistakes and what to avoid in the future.

This was very helpful for me! Thank You so much!

Only a part of the way through the vid so far but I think doing just short stuff is good for mixing, like maybe 40 seconds of a couple of riffs which you make specifically for mixing, it's good enough and minimal enough to learn without getting overwhelmed by to much song and you can just throw those riffs away if you never want to hear them again. Also that sending it off to a mastering engineer is a great tip.

I appreciate what you said about when you do all the instruments yourself. I'm doing a songaweek challenge on reddit to improve my songwriting, my recording, and my mixing/mastering. Week 1 was rough, but now at week 18 I've developed a process. My songs have improved each week, and the idea of a 'demo' is the perfect one. Writing in the daw each week gets me the song, and I can't wait to go back and re-record everything at the end of it! The process that I do usually has 2 days of "what the hell am I doing", 2 days of experimenting, 2 days of this is the most amazing thing ever, then I get sick of it, can't handle one more listen thru, post it, hate it for 3 days. And then fall back in love with it. So I understand the idea of not liking it when it comes out, but that will fade! Thanks for the great advice!

I bought an spire studio a couple years ago and use that to write and do demos. I love that it’s super fast set gain and effects and I can just be creative and have a really good sounding demo. After the demo is done I’ll do the final recording in my DAW. That is super efficient for me and I don’t spend a ton of time mixing after the recording. Thanks Justin 🙏

Hi @sonicscoop, you mention at 18:20 that you should record so that it's mix ready. Could you go into more detail about this, for those of use who are new to mixing and don't know how to record things like guitars, bass and vocals so that they're mix ready. Would very much appreciate it, thank you! Amazing, amazing podcasts, I've been listening all day and it's been incredibly educational! Thank you!

I mix my own stuff and it really isn't the best because it makes me obsess over the most trivial nonsense, especially surrounding automation! I wouldn't say I'm good enough yet to mix anything other than demos but when the time comes to release material I will certainly be using professionals to do it, haha!

I play all the instruments and mix everything myself. Especially because I just love mixing. That's why for the current project I thought, I'll mix the sh*t myself and then send it to Colletti, who has to save my a** in mastering. :)

i 100% agree with this, i'm by no means an amateur to mixing, but when it comes to my vocals it's just necessary

I have been going back and forth on this for a bit. I am starting to think I need to be ok with letting a mix engineer do the mix, and then hand that off for mastering. I suspect I will get to finished and released faster..

I wanna do both 🥲

I've written my own music for over 20 years and learning mixing came as a necessity. Also, being an electronic musician (and hip-hop), it is indeed a natural part of the writing process to a certain degree. I could of course outsource, which I do see the value of and probably will in the future. I also very much agree on getting the sound design right or pretty close from the beginning. I'm a beginner guitarist, and recently learned from my friend who's an excellent guitarist and artist, that sound design can often seed the idea for a rock song too.

I agree, it took me 3 days to arrange my first song and 3 months to mix it. I loved the idea but couldn't make it sound right 😂 I think it's ok to mix your tracks if sound design is more important than arrangment in your songs but it requires a lot of experience and learning from scratch can be really frustrating as you said

I love mixing. I really don't mind getting instrumentalists that play better than me to help me produce, but I'm definitely mixing that stuff.

Great perspective thanks for sharing!

I’m coming from the other way. I have a “pagan speed folk” band and after a couple of albums and singles recorded and mixed with someone else I realised I have a way too clear idea of what every detail should sound like, so working with me as a musician was a proper pain for both me and the mixer, and the results were never fully satisfying. So I started doing it myself and though our last album isn’t “perfect” (saying with couple of years of mixing experience since), after hearing it million times I still love listening to it (and indeed I started working as a producer on other projects but still prefer strongly playing live more than anything else). But yes a) reference tracks b) having extra few pairs of ears and c) outsource the mastering, that’s a must... thanks for another great video!

this is such good input, thanks!

I'd be interested to hear your opinion on artists who choose to mix their own work even if they have the budget to have others do it. Mixing has such an impact on the finished product so it makes sense to a degree that if you have a very particular vision of what the final product should sound like and the know how to do it yourself that it can be part of what you as an artist put into the song.

thanks for the advice!!!

Thanks Justin! Please make one about demos, the one you've mentioned, Cheers

I usually dont sant to mix, but my latest track gave me confidence i can do it. I think i want to pay for mastering though. I feel the best part of mixing is editing, once you get that tight the mixing falls into place.

Hi Justin! Thank you for your insights. Do you have a video in your archive that explains the different roles of recorder, producer, mixer, master? Or the ideal workflow? Cheers!

Mea Culpa! 😎

Smart video. Also relevant for the end of the pandemic. Start collaborating, it's better, more happy accidents and life so much easier.

As an electronic music artist, mixing as I go is how I have to attack things. You have to spend much more time making sure all the elements sit well together as you go....or it just sounds like s**t! By the time the track is done, I've heard it the "99 times" and I find it really difficult to separately mix, from an enthusiasm perspective but also objectively. If I had the money, I'd get it mixed by a pro as I think it prevents my tracks reaching the final level of polish and quality. One day....

Yes please. Episode on demos and the importance of working out the details.

Lol i am learning to mix from my old tracks . I Where is the best place to get tracks to practice, Mixing. I tend to try to find unedited tracks of bands I like , such as afi but that is limiting . So where is a good place to get tracks to start testing out mixing skills . I have physics background and this was a hobby for a long time but now 8 am trying to take this to the next step. WHAT GENRES SHOULD I FOCUS ON THAT HELP REINFORCE SPECIFIC FUNDAMENTAL SKILLS. ANY SONG RECOMENDATIONS

is the contest only for us? im in canada

I finish the mix & upload to DistroKid last night and THIS comes out today...

Hey Justin, could sending the mastering engineer stems instead of a stereo file also be a strategy do you think?

I am passionate about production and making my music sound amazing. What if I bought your courses to help with the mixing and mastering process? Would that put me in a better spot?

I mix and master my own music. I'm in school for audio engineering and plan on being a mixing engineer and record my own music on the side.

What's with the 666 hand sign over the one eye?? 👌👁

You mixing for free or something

The reason why you say dont mix it yourself is because your career is on the line if folks learn it.

Your hair is short now, how?

what are u talking bout ppl shouldnt mix they own music yeah right let u ppl do it an making killing ppl mix ur own stuff be ya own boss

My sound is the great sound. I am the great one. Ha ha ha. Such an issue! Be professional. Go get us some hamburgers.

Justin you are such a blessing to the world !