Mixing Mastering Cheat Sheet (PDF file)

Mixing and Mastering for beginners

Mixing and mastering is a separate skill in itself, requiring years of ear training and countless hours of watching YouTube mixing/mastering tutorials to get to a proficient level. For those who struggle with mixing and mastering, the cheat sheet in this PDF will serve as a guideline for mixing and mastering your tracks. Displaying some of the most important industry-standard settings for your mixing and mastering plugins.

Drum mixing guide

The drum kit is one of the most important and complex elements in modern music production. The drums are the foundation of your track, being the primary rhythmic instrument. With multiple drums and cymbals that span the entire frequency spectrum, drum kits take a huge part of the mix. When EQing your drums always make sure to listen in context. Every drum mix is unique, but there are a few key frequencies to pay attention to for each drum. You can find these specific frequencies within the drum mixing guide.

Vocal mixing formula

Vocals are the most important part of a mix. It’s therefore critically important to get your vocal mix right. A good vocal is 80% recording and 20% mixing. And there is a formula for getting your vocal mixes right. This formula can be found in the vocal mixing formula. Use this formula to ensure your vocals sound crisp and ready.

Compressor cheat sheet

The compressor can seem quite complicated with so many different settings and controls. It is,  however, a very important aspect when it comes to getting your music to sound right. For those who don’t know, a compressor limits the dynamic range of the instrument or tracks it is applied to. In essence, it makes the louder parts quieter in order to create a better balance in sound. Compressors will vary depending on their type and who they are made by but every compressor will generally have the same controls. To help you understand these controls, and their settings we have created a compressor cheat sheet.

Compressor settings

Now you (hopefully) have a basic understanding of how your compressor works and what its controls and settings do, you can apply these settings to the instruments within your track. With the compressor settings table, we have listed the recommended settings for each instrument. It takes some of the guesswork out of your mixes by showing you how to use compression on instruments such as the kick drum, snare drum, toms, overheads, pianos, guitars, and many more.

 

Loudness charts

Loudness relates to mastering. It is the measurement of the perceived loudness of an audio signal during the audio mastering and distribution process. Loudness has to be implemented carefully and skillfully, or it can completely ruin a master. To give you an idea of how loud elements in your mix should be, we have included a loudness chart for the most common instruments within the music.