I have studied and practiced music mixing and mastering for 4 years before I became a music engineer for 5 years now. A lot of articles has been circulating around the internet that you don’t have to seek professional help as long as you got the right software and equipment with you. But this my friends is definitely a false hope. In order to become an expert in a particular field, you must study it first just like what I did. Music mixing and mastering is not as easy as you think especially of you are aiming to produce a top quality of music because if you are just experimenting, a lot of issues may arise. A lot of novice mixers would often face issues regarding the volume of the bass. Because of their goal to make the song sound good in a club, they would often make the bass sound too loud. That is where the problems begin because they failed to realize that the sound systems in a club is already designed to make any song sound loud. What happens when you play a loud song in a club? Well you just imagine how much damage it can cause to the eardrums but party goers would be distracted with your music instead of enjoying it. The purpose of mixing a song is to make it sound good not loud. Some people hate using a mono because sometimes it would mysteriously just disappear. The reason behind is that you are using the widening effects of a stereo too much that it would make the signal disappear in a mono. In order to solve this problem, you should check you piece in a mono since almost all DAWs include a mono switch. It is important that you can check and detect problems earlier so that you can fix it as soon as possible. Setting the frequencies high is one of the ways in polishing your mix and make it sound with good quality. In order to achieve this, subtractive EQing is the answer. In order to make something stand out, the space on the other tracks should be carved out. Make sure that when you do all of this, you must rest your ears in order to have a much sensitive hearing skills. If you are not so sure about what you are doing, then don’t hesitate to ask for help. It’s always better to have an expert give you some ideas and advice than to have your newly mixed piece go to waste. You should let some mixing professionals help you especially if you are a beginner in this field. It’s better to pay a few dollars as long as you are sure about the outcome of your hard worked song. But if you really think that you can pull it off on your own, then I suggest that you do some research and load yourself up with a lot of advices from the experts. After all, you will never learn if you don’t try. ...read more