IT WORKS: Proven to balance & improve a muddy mixdown (all genres)

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

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[@ZackEdwardMusic]

This concept has worked for the 500+ artists that have joined Cosmic…hope it can do the same for you ♥️

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

The good stuff!!!

[@levy_music_ofc]

nice!

[@oliverhoschi6135]

This is absolutely the best advice. If you heard your muddy mix for hours, yours ears don´t hear the muddyness. You need to reset your ears and you do this exactly like shown in the video.

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

Totally agree! 👊❤️

[@Stormbreakerlp1]

This video helped me a lot fixing my mixing errors, thanks man!

[@Chaco_Music]

Great stuff, people forget about the simple way to do things!

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

It’s always the simple things that make the biggest difference!! ♥️👊

[@Clubvibes-j7l]

Fast and Fixable you should be calling your self...Amongst the sea of video and everyone teaching, and then u see same things in other million videos, this one is educating very important things in music production full time...Thank you!

[@emmaromero4041]

Love this video Zack. I will watch it over and over. Super useful. These videos help my work day be bearable as they remind me of the dreams that obtainable beyond these walls. Thank you so much!

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

thanks Emma!! And def one of the good ones to rewatch 😊 drive home the most important tools and techniques!!

[@JoelGarcia-rh5kx]

Absolutely key! Feels like many times we need to go back to basics and it works! Overthinking the mix makes it muddy, this will provide a great reset!

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

Spot on!!! So often we reach for some other tool when we forget to first reach for the fader!!

[@djlokho]

Simplicity at its finest

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

its usually the answer to most problems, right!? If it were only easy to keep things so simple in life (and music) hahaha

[@Michael.Saiyan]

Yeah, this is the video I needed for the past two weeks. It makes sense.

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

♥️ this is a simple, yet powerful one!

[@Nik_Rubin]

That is a very good method! I use it all the time, with slight modifications that make it really easy to get the loudness right as well😁 I’ll show you when we meet 🙃🙌🏻

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

Awesomeeeee!! Yeah this is a good starting point while producing, but typically not enough to get you to a final mix / master. Excited for bootcamp!

[@thanos_k]

I really like the video! Also, I would love to see a video where you talk about stereofield and how to keep the balance between a stereo/mid, so that the song is translating well in any system.

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

Can def do something on this topic!! It’s a good one. Lotta questions come in about mixing for mono and stereo…the strategies, etc! 👊

[@pauliebeatsmusic]

This is great! Its always good to have a solid starting point in volume balancing before you go further into your mix. I would love to see a video on Gain Staging because I believe that to be important as well to get your mix ready for the next step.

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

100%!! healthy signals from the start is always important...can def do something on this in the future!! Adding to the list as we speak!

[@shaunhutchinson4707]

Gain staging mainly stems from the days of analogue recording and mixing, and is more important when dealing with real instruments. Gain staging should still be applied in the digital realm and when producing EDM genres of course, especially if you're using vintage analogue emulation plugins. The reason it was important for analogue recording was because if the signal was too hot, you could physically break expensive equipment, or if the signal was too quiet, depending on the gear you could get a bad signal to noise ratio, and so when you want to turn up the volume at a later stage, that noise floor is going up with it. For digital signals, of course you don't have to worry about clipping a signal with regards to damaging any gear, however it can still distort, and instead of nice saturation harmonics, when the signal exceeds Nyquist frequency, it folds back on itself in the audible spectrum as 'aliasing', and its not nice, especially if the plugin or daw/project doesn't use oversampling. All you need to remember, is that for most daws, the volume fader is the last thing in a signal chain. If a signal leaving your soft synth is already clipping, and its going into an EQ and then a compressor, at each stage that clipping and resulting aliasing will manifest, and because the fader on your mixer is the last stage, turning it down will do nothing. So all you need make sure is that the signal leaving your vst or sampler is less than 0dB and ideally has more than 6-9dB of headroom for further processing, (look at the vst's level meter and make use of the synth's master volume knob), and making sure you do that for each plugin that signal is going through. Also more important when using vintage emulation plugins, as the hardware they are based off typically have a 'signal sweet spot' around -24 to-18dB (again goes back to the singal/noise ratio and noise floor of real hardware and analogue signals), and so if the plugin was modelled properly, the warmth and saturation they are meant to add to the signal, will be at its best/most pleasing/most noticable at that level, which is why said emulation plugin's meters will be in VU instead of dBFS, and they make an obvious note of 0VU on the scale, as 0VU is equal to -18dBFS headroom.

[@iamthrillhouseofficial]

I am 100% going to use this today lol thanks Zack!!!

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

The power of volume!!!

[@donnyle848]

Love this! Absolute free gold here

[@donnyle848]

Also best demonstration of fader down mix on KZbin. PERIOD.

[@danmilesmusic_]

Loved this video, thanks Zack!

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

of courseeee! happy you enjoyed it!

[@jenniesharke8670]

super great tips! thanks for the video!

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

♥️ thanks Jennie!

[@hadlock1234]

An essential part of the mixdown process!!

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

Yuppp!!! 100%

[@kevs9206]

Wow you guys are amazing and thanks.

[@emphatic001]

Surely an eye-opener for many beginner producers and for everyone else too.

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

Happy it helps!! ♥️ With the many plugins and options we have at our disposal…volume and sound selection are still so vital!!!

[@carlosomarmena]

Always on those volume mixers but this is definitely a much nicer way to go about it! Thanks a ton, will be doing this today 🥲

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

You're very welcome!

[@alessandrog5261]

Thanks for the important tips, at what time you should compress, saturate, adding plugins in general where most needed?

[@AirArtStudiosOfficial]

Awesome work my friend

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

Thank you!! 👊♥️

[@sokoiipacocabrera7636]

Great one!

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

❤thank youuuu!

[@ginosettecasi2199]

This is one of the best videos on KZbin thank you guys so much for this ❤️

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

Of course bro!! Always happy to help

[@itsmauisam]

Absolutely loved this Zack! Its allll about volume

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

Alllllll about it!! Hahaha ♥️👊

[@razecmusic8907]

Great video! Definitely clarified this process, thank you!

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

♥️♥️♥️ happy to hear that!

[@kristencooper5835]

Love this system!!! It is such a huge one!!! Thank you, Zack!!!

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

You’re very welcome!!

[@BEBURI]

Great solutions for muddy mix, those tips definitely will help to improve my mixes , Thanks Zack 🙏

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

Beburiiii, you're welcome brother 👊

[@evanmc8]

This was very helpful Zack. Thanks so much for making this video!

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

You’re very welcome!

[@erikbosgra1775]

Great tips 🔥🧡

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

Thanks Erik! 👊

[@GoldMusic30]

Música muito boa também ❤

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

Thank you! 👊♥️

[@angelosmindofone7174]

love this method, super important & can seriously save your mixes! Much love Zack 💪

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

100%!! The fundamentals always take you the furthest!!

[@wworsxx]

Exclusive shit as always! Thank you!

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

Hahaha you’re very welcome ♥️

[@salemrazak1099]

I think this is a really useful tip! I also noticed something i hadn't seen before, which was the 50/50 split pan position's you had on a single channel. Could you please explain in another video how to do that and why? Many thanks in advance. Appreciate the content.

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

Thanks!!! I answer that exact question in this video! Plus way more: kzbin.info/www/bejne/onXdZIGuqbmamLc

[@salemrazak1099]

@@TheCosmicAcademy thanks 😊

[@adhityamarquee547]

amazing

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

thanks Adhitya!

[@TonyOldskool]

Another great video, deffo giving this a try

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

Thanks Tony! Happy it helps...something so simple is legit SO powerful! Combine this with choosing the right sounds (gonna be a topic of a future video) and thats where the real magic happens

[@brandonallen5566]

Thanks so much for this, it’s super helpful! I have a question though. What do you with a mix where certain elements need to be louder or quieter in various parts of the track? Like the importance of elements changes during the course of the song. Is it as simple as volume automation when a new section comes in?

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

Great question...yup you nailed it!! It just comes down to automation when you want to change those levels for other sections of the song. Typically it's easier to loop the loudest section and do the "fader down mix" there because most sounds would only go "lower" from here. If you do a fader down mix in a random quieter section, you will find yourself having to automate up AND down. Things can get away from you pretty quickly. Hope this explanation helps!

[@jayR0191]

I see you have your main bass panned left and right?

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

It’s just the “split stereo pan” option. If you right click the pan section your can switch. Gives you independent pan control over the left and right channel. That’s just the default starting point though. It’s not actually panne♥️

[@jayR0191]

Thanks for the reply never seen it done before I’ve always known the main bass to be in mono

[@benkriegler6832]

❤️

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

Back at ya!! ♥️