It’s a process that many artists take for granted, but the mixing process can be as creatively imperative as writing that killer hook, chord structure or beat. Mixing requires both patience and attention to detail. It’s where you shape your track from a collection of overlaid stems into a coalescence of sonic splendour. Synths need to pump, guitars need to scream, beats need to be fat, and vocals need to be crystalclear, and all of this frequency-honing is done during the mix stage.
Though some artists tend to be self-sufficient, mixing as they go, training yourself to be a focused expert in this process, while keeping to a reined-in budget isn’t an impossible task. Firstly, getting a grip on how EQ-works, and how detailed plugins can give you an exploded view of every facet of the sound in question, is vital. Learning about EQ, as well as the re-tuning, effect-selection, harmonic balancing and overall stereo-positioning of each stem can be easily done with a budget approach too.