Hey a,
This is the email you've been waiting for.
But I have to warn you – what I'm about to share might contradict everything you've heard about mixing and mastering electronic music.
Before I dive in, there's something you have to know: I've worked as a professional mixing and mastering engineer for over 15 years. My clients range from underground talent and niche labels to major label artists with tens of millions of streams.
I'm not sharing theory. I'm sharing what I've learned from thousands of sessions.
Here's the hard truth most amateur producers get completely wrong:
They think the sound of a professional track is 80% mixing and mastering.
In fact, the opposite is true.
80% of the sonic result comes from everything that happened before mixing and mastering. Composition, arrangement, and most importantly, sound design are what make a track sound great.
Mixing and mastering is the 20% "icing on the cake" – an enhancement of what's already there.
Relying on your mix to save your production is like trying to make a gourmet meal by drowning microwave food in expensive sauce. You better don't try to impress your in-laws with that.
One dangerous piece of advice you've probably heard on YouTube is the "mix-while-producing" myth.
The promise: When you mix as you go, you end up with a great-sounding track. Separating the phases isn't necessary in electronic music.
This misleading advice is the reason I get so many overprocessed, weak-sounding tracks for mastering.
Often, when I load one of these tracks into my mastering DAW, I can tell which type of YouTube tutorial the artist has watched just by looking at the waveform. When I hit play, it simply confirms my suspicion:
Instead of actually going the extra mile with sound design and sample selection, they've slapped on a ton of mixing effects (often without knowing what exactly they do) and hoped for the best.
Don't get me wrong, the "mix-while-producing" philosophy isn't inherently wrong. But it assumes you're already quite experienced and know exactly what you're doing.
Giving this advice to a beginner or intermediate producer is like handing a teenager the keys to a Lamborghini after they've had two driving lessons. They might make it around the block, but not without scratches.
So why am I so strict about having a separate mixing phase?
The truth is, it makes you work harder in the phases before.
You get the essential elements right from the beginning. Your composition, sound design, and arrangement support each other, and the mix becomes an enhancement rather than emergency heart surgery for your production.
Here's how I approach mixing:
First, I focus my energy on what matters most. While my ears are still fresh, I work on the elements that make or break a track.
This is unique for every song, but you can ask yourself: "Which elements make up the heart and soul of this track?"
In Techno, that's often a lead synth, a kick, and a bass line or rumble. Maybe one pad or atmosphere as well.
I work hard on getting these essential elements right in the first 30 minutes of mixing. From there, it's a walk in the park to fit the other elements around these centerpieces.
Our coaching members are often surprised when they watch myself and the other coaches mix something.
"Wow, I never thought your channels would look that empty" is a phrase I often hear.
Here's the truth most amateurs refuse to accept:
The pros never don't do the basics. In fact, we almost exclusively focus on a few essential moves and only use complex processing when a difficult problem needs to be solved.
Mixing is not about showing off. No one cares which tools you used or what complex mid-side-multiband-whatever technique you've employed.
It either sounds great or it doesn't.
The truth is: Mixing is more about critical listening and applying taste than it is about technical details and complex workflows.
So here's my 80/20 approach to mixing electronic music:
1. Focus on the essentials first. Identify the 3-5 elements that define your track's character. Get these right before touching anything else. This means proper levels, EQ, and if necessary, compression. Nothing fancy – just solid fundamentals.
2. Change your mixing mindset. Instead of "fixing errors," try to listen from a positive state of mind. Ask yourself "where's the beauty in each sound and how can I enhance it?"
3. Fix problems at the source. If you hear actual problems that need fixing, double check your sound-design and sample selection. If a synth cutoff filter is too steep, you can't fix it by boosting an EQ afterwards.
4. Learn how to gain-stage but don't obsess over it. Proper gain staging is the unsexy secret behind professional mixes. You don't have to get it right to the point of a decibel but make sure to keep your levels in check.
This applies to the signal you send into and out of every processor, but also to your session overall. A healthy headroom prevents you from a squashed-sounding, distorted mix.
On top of that, I'll give you three bonus pro-tips that have helped our coaching members more than anything else when it comes to mixing:
Pro-tip #1: Test your mix under pressure. When you're close to finalizing your mix, start pushing it into a limiter on your master channel to see how it performs.
If you can't reach contemporary levels of loudness without ugly artifacts, chances are you need to change something in your mix.
Pro-tip #2: Use reference tracks not as blueprints but as boundaries. In the late stage of the mixing process, it's a great idea to work with reference tracks. But instead of chasing after their sound, use them to explore the boundaries of where you want your sound to be.
One reference might be especially bright, so you don't want to go beyond that. Another one might be very bass-heavy which also gives you an essential point of reference.
Pro-tip #3: Commit to one monitoring system. Decide which one pair of speakers or headphones is your main critical listening tool and spend 95% of your time working on music using exactly that.
You need to learn how this system translates and you won't get there by constantly switching your listening environment.
If you've followed the previous emails in this series and built a strong workflow from ideation through finalization, your mix will fall into place almost automatically.
Remember: Great mixing can't save a poor production, but poor mixing can absolutely ruin a great production.
Tomorrow, I'll tackle what many call the "dark art" of mastering and tell you exactly why you should or shouldn't work with an external mastering engineer.
My answer to that will probably surprise you.
Your music matters. Let's make it count.
Philip
PS: Want your mixes to finally sound as good as your reference tracks? In our 1:1 coaching program you'll get personalized feedback on your mixes and detailed walkthroughs of how we would approach your specific productions. Book your free 60-minute discovery call here and I will personally answer all of your questions.
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