Today, I’m going to share my list of what I consider the 12 fundamentals of achieving a

professional sound.

Those 12 fundamentals are:

1. Gain Structure
2. Saturation
3. Subtractive EQ
4. Compression
5. Sidechain
6. Additive EQ
7. Reverb
8. Effects
9. Limiting
10. Layering
11. Referencing
12. Mastering

But before we dive in, I want to be clear that without the proper framework, even these
fundamentals will take you YEARS to master. But by booking your goal-setting strategy
call with an instructor, you can shave years off this process and work your way to mastery
quickly and – most importantly – confidently.

So let's run through the list...

Gain Structure is the art of volume, and man is it important. In fact, in my opinion,
it’s THE most important mixing tool at your disposal. And hey, even Porter Robinson
agrees.

In a Reddit AMA, he said “Getting the relative volume levels of each instrument correct is a
more important task than EQing. New producers often prefer a sound after it's been EQed
and in many cases, it's only because the levels have changed.”

There is so much inside of gain structure (beyond setting your volume). And an absolutely
awesome place to start is simply by anchoring your kick drum. Next time you start a mix,
anchor your kick between -6 or -10 dBs, and once it’s set, you never touch that again.

That means that if you want to raise the volume of your kick, you lower everything else, you
don’t just blindly raise the kick drum, and then have to raise everything else, and end up
with no headroom.

Saturation is the #1 most underrated mixing tool. In short, saturation adds harmonic
frequencies both above and below your source sound.

But, it’s important to note that achieving a full, analog and warm-sounding mix has
everything to do with proper use of saturation because saturation plugins are emulating
analog equipment.
That means that the plugins you use here really, really, really matter…the right plugins and
flavors of saturation will help you achieve that full, analog and warm-sounding mix.

Just Google 'Hyperbits saturation' and the first blog post that comes up will give you 20 of
my favorite saturation plugins.

Subtractive EQ is significantly more important than additive EQ. A lot of professional

And while hard to grasp at first, this means that if you want the vocal to cut through, try
removing frequencies from other instruments before boosting the vocal itself.

Boosting everything will result in a mix that lacks headroom and struggles to balance
competing sounds because everything fights for the same space.

Understanding the art of EQ and how to make room for multiple sounds is an absolute
necessity in making professional music.

Compression will decrease your dynamic range by helping remove the transient
peaks of your instruments.

Overall, it can create a perceivably louder mix, tighten up live performances and help glue
sounds together. But, it’s also one of the most overused techniques on this list.

Sidechain has exploded into the electronic dance music world as an effect, even
though it was originally meant to be a mixing tool.

Understanding that difference (sidechain as a mixing tool vs. sidechain as a pumping

And btw — you can sidechain against anything in your mix to help create additional room
(you aren’t limited to only your kick drum).

You can sidechain against your vocal, leads, synths, instruments, and hell — you can even
sidechain some of your effects (like reverbs and delays) to get them out of the way of
sounds you want listeners to focus on.

Additive EQ speaks to the reality that digital EQs and analog-emulated EQs are very
different from each other.

This means that the way you create color in your mixes can drastically vary simply based
on the type of EQ you use. After all, do you want a clean, digital sound? Or, do you want a
dirty, analog sound?

The answer depends on who you are as a producer, and the end result you are trying to
create, but the implementation of additive EQ is a lot harder in practice.
 Reverb is my favorite mixing tool because it means translating your mix into a real-
world environment. Think about it.

Reverb exists everywhere. It’s literally in every room you’ve ever spent time in, every
gymnasium, every amphitheater, every bar, every club, every classroom...every space you’ve
ever been in, even where you sit right now.

You can’t avoid it. And that means that the absence of reverb is actually highly artificial.
Your mix will sound extremely unnatural by NOT putting reverb in your mix.

This makes reverb an absolute necessity and the way you use the various reverbs available
to you (rooms, plates, halls, chambers, springs) matters. For now, here’s a quick rundown:

• Rooms: a cohesive gel for almost everything in your mix

Effects can be a real love-hate thing for mixing engineers. They provide a lot of
potential polish, gloss, and movement to mixes that would otherwise sound dull and flat.

But, at the same time, effects can cause huge problems in your mix. Oftentimes, artists do
just that: sloppy reverbs and delays, overly dramatic tremolos, auto-panners bouncing
around the entire stereo spectrum…things get messy in a hurry.

Treating and processing your effects with extreme detail can single-handedly clean up your
track, liven up your mix and provide the much-needed polish, movement, and energy that
most amateur mixes lack.

Limiting is often thought of as a mastering-only tool. But in reality, the purposes of

Did you know that a lot of professional mixing engineers use limiting to flatten sub-bass
layers? Also, did you know that limiting can be the best way to flatten out transient peaks
(which in turn, will help maximize your headroom)?

Layering isn’t traditionally thought of as a mixing tool, but man, can it help with
mixing.

A lot of times, poor sound choices can be layered with great sound choices and still result
in a beautiful finished product. Plus, layering has two major components: layering to sound
unique and layering to sound full, huge, and warm.

This distinction is critical when it comes to utilizing layering in your mixes. But just like
effects, layering can create a ton of problems that require everything from saturation, EQ,
reverb, compression, and various other effects in order to be fixed.

READ HERE – Layering Music: 20 Ways to Layer Sounds

Next, listen to those tracks everywhere. On every sound system that you possibly

can.

Then, when you sit down to make music, treat your reference playlist as a bible — your
music isn’t done until the gain structure, coloration, loudness, and energy of your music
match at least a few of your references.

This is a lot easier said than done, but it’s surely some of the best advice I was ever given.

Mastering can be difficult, but it isn’t nearly as hard as you might think.

That said, slapping an Ozone preset onto your music will do substantially more damage
than good.

You need to learn why you are applying things like the Sonnox Inflator, EQ matching, and
limiting to your mastering processing chain. Once you learn why... you’ll see that mastering
is simply a way to accentuate what you already have.

Mastering is kind of like becoming rich, it just amplifies who you already are. If you were a

jerk before getting rich, you’ll be even more of a jerk with a lot of money.

Masters are exactly the same — if your mix is sub-par, mastering will showcase that even
more. But, if your mix is beautiful, polished, and balanced, you'll be set up to reap the
benefits, because mastering will amplify your awesome mixdown.