5 Articles That Radically Changed The Way I Mix

I’ve been scouring the Internet for articles on mixing for over a decade. This practice has singlehandedly turned my idle bathroom time into a engaging, educational experience. And while many articles leave something to be desired, occasionally I stumble upon a gem.

The following articles have inspired me to drastically alter my workflow, reexamine things I thought I knew, and reconsider dozens of pointless purchases. I hope you find them as helpful as I do.

1. A Fresh Approach To Equalization: The Tom Bates Way

Struggling to achieve clarity and definition in your mixes? This one’s for you. Dave Moulton breaks down subtractive EQ and shows you how to incorporate it into your mixing workflow. Over the years, I’ve heard countless top-tier engineers (Tony Maserati, Bob Power, and George Massenburg…to name a few) swear by this technique. I love it so much, I even wrote an article about it!

2. How To Set Up A Room

Renowned acoustician Ethan Winer shares practical advice on how to set up your studio for the most accurate sound. I revisit this article every time I set up a new listening room. Ethan’s other articles on acoustics are excellent as well.

3. Digital EQ Fact & Myth

Eric dispels a common EQ misconception with cold, hard data. This article has saved me a lot of money!

4. The SOS Guide to Mix Bus Compression

The most comprehensive article on mix bus compression I’ve seen (Justin Colletti’s is a close second, as well as Michael Brauer’s interview in Tape Op). If you’ve ever struggled to set up a mix bus compressor (or wondered if you should be using one), this article is a must-read!

5. Secrets Of The Mix Engineers: Andy Wallace

There are a lot of gems in this interview with legendary mixer Andy Wallace. His minimalist approach to using outboard gear (he rarely reaches beyond his SSL) inspired me to purge most of my plugins. It’s one of the main reasons I only use one EQ and compressor today.

Image credit: Flickr user G. DAWSON, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic License