Mine's been quite simple but extremly useful.
Try to low pass/high pass any frequences in your tracks with EQ that you can't properly hear/feel.

I know that some people advice against this in some cases but in 99% of the time it adds up and really cleans up your mix since sub frequencies often seem to be a problem for me.

 

Last edited: Sep 3, 2022

Two advices that go hand in hand.
1) Use contrasts! Make something brighter and something else darker, something closer and something else further. Don't be afraid to pan things either. Don't make all the sounds feel the same.
2) Slightly unbalanced mixes are all the fun! Instead of chasing the mathematically perfect spectrum distribution, emphasize one or two of the elements to add emotion to the track. Also if you want, for example, your track to feel brighter, instead of upping the highs on a master, make the leading sound brighter and high percussion a bit louder.
These two ideas probably gave me the most out of all the advices I read or heard. The third one is "Orientate yourself more on what your hear and your personal taste than on what meters show you".
Oh, and another one would be "Train your ears!", but that goes without saying.

 

Don't touch anything without a clear purpose.

It makes things so much simpler in the end, though it took some time to get used to sitting back and figuring out what really needs to be done, if anything. Whenever i feel like doing something "just because" i look at this video for (de)motivation:

 

I feel like this is the best advice for beginners but the worst for everyone beyond.
Beginners need to get the basics done so they can't afford to fuck around whilst everyone else needs to constantly leave their comfort zone in order to develop their skillset.

Best advice I got: Just do it, don't overthink it or watch more Youtube videos.

 

"Focus on making a good song. A crap song cannot be fixed by good mixing, but a good song will always be a good song"

 

I see your point, but i look at it from the perspective or getting to know the tools and tracks so well you know what to do without randomly pushing buttons or doing things just because you're used to it. You can still get out of the comfort zone and whatnot, but the idea comes before the action.

 

"Use your ears, bro"

 

I used to (and still do) like to layer instruments that all sit in a similar range. Piano, organ, synth pads, guitars. All battling against a vocal in the same midrange. I'd sit there with a very patient engineer who would try and help me until one day he gave me this advice.
"You know we could take four of those instruments away and improve the mix immediately"
I was sceptical, but he was right. Instant clarity and nothing lost.
I should have trusted him. He engineered the Beatles "All You Need Is Love" session.
Here is Martin Benge, the engineer in question with some random dude.

 

Last edited: Sep 4, 2022

My own advices, do as much as necessary (whatever it takes), but as less as possible and stick to the intention of the artist, or rather emphasize it.

 

You can make it louder later. I have also read all the mixing articles on the Izotope website, and to paraphrase; I should buy Neutron. All 92 articles concur.

 

this is NOT the best mixing advice, it's just my dumb way of thinking about things sometimes- I'm trying to build a song like some sort of sculptor. there is the part where I add a bunch of rock/marble/clay (....you get the idea) to form the idea then I chisel that down to get it more detailed, step back and rinse and repeat or I'm done.

In the refine part the mixing advice about enhancing is true. I'm doing things that either make the sound sit better in the mix or to try and highlight what's interesting about it. so putting a huge black hole style infinite reverb on a synth isn't really to that goal, but if I'm in the "let's add shit to see what sticks" phase then I'd be losing out by not trying weird stuff that radically alters the sound.

although maybe I should open a studio where I just take peoples mixes, put them through a ton of different 100%wet reverbs and hand them back. "it's the new sound today the kids love it, trust me!"

 

If possible, fix eq with cuts, not boosts. And make all your moves smaller than you think they need to be until you've lived with it a little.

And that new goodizer plugin is bullshit. Tomorrow you'll realize it sucks.

 

hahaha I was going to see if there was a thread about "times you've embarrassed yourself" that had some good stories. it doesn't sound like this is what happened to you, but I could see myself saying,"nah bro trust me, we can make these 20 layers fit in here just gotta use some panning. and I mean no offense but I've never heard of 'the beagles' so that's cool you like dogs but time to twist that pan pot." then years later in the middle of the night waking up and thinking ohhhhh he said the BEATLES.

as a side note I've seen a lot of advice here mirroed by the house of Kush guys YouTube channel. lots of good more philosophical advice on there, and you should all listen to it anyway just cause his voice is so damn sexy.

 

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Last edited: Jun 4, 2024

The best advice I ever got was from an engineer when he said "Get your ****ing hand off my ****ing desk".

 

Last edited: Sep 4, 2022

"Less is more"
"No rules"
Try to sound good from start, don't need to put 20 plugins on every channel.
Mixing = VOLUME and EQ. <----Yes, all you need!!

 

"every plugin is a distortion plugin if you use it wrong enough"

 

The best mixing advice that you ever got ?

Me on 2022 will be answer : Don't forget to rest while mixing. Because ears can deceive you.......

 

The last one was giving to me by Machine Girl's mixing engineer and it's pretty simple and meaningful to me, it goes along the lines of: "mixing is a creative process, don't get too caught up"

 

"Don't screw it!"