Top 5 Differences Between Pro & Beginner Mixes

[@benjamin.kelley]

Biggest difference is a good performance, proper micing and recording techniques (not even the best equipment), and experience based off experimentation both for producer and performers alike.

[@Weechoo]

These are deep thoughts. Thanks, they are valuable! It took me 20+ years to figure these things out. They might sound like some basic stuff for beginners but I don't think they are. Quite the opposite. At some point when we face a plateau we start thinking about "What am I doing wrong?". That's when going through the things you mentioned start making a difference.

[@versus.dustin]

Thanks for the tips!

[@karolscovers1651]

Great vid! Thanks!

[@lisan_al-ghaib]

Big facts

[@officialWWM]

I disagree. Guitars, strings, picks etc don’t matter. They are tiny things. It’s very easy to overthink all this stuff. At the end of the day, mixing is just eq, compression, balance and effects. You make choices based on what you like. The one thing that really matters is performance. Despite what a lot of people think, you can’t fix performance errors, out of tune guitars, bad singing etc. More time taken during recording will result in less time taken during mixing.

[@matttaylor1449]

I only partially agree, as for the musician all those things like strings, pics, etc do matter for the comfort of the performance. Yeah they have minimal impact on SOUND, the part we mixers care about, but to get the best performance out of a musician they need to FEEL good performing. As a guitarist myself I have spent more money on guitar gear and setting up my rig then I have on fancy plugins. The gear is whatever when it comes to the mix, as I capture the DI too. But having a monitoring sound that I use every day to play guitar and am comfortable with and responds to my personal playing style is makes a night and day difference to my tracking performance. I reamp the DI later if it needs it.

[@NormanTiner]

Super basic tips we should all already know. 1. Start with a good source. 2. Deal with mud. 3. Don't EQ too much. 4. Know your tools. 5. Don't overthink.

[@jrgroberts]

No

[@davejohnsonmusic]

The biggest difference is automation.

[@officialWWM]

It’s “A” difference but not necessarily the biggest.