What is the best way to improve mixing and mastering skills?

[SeeSawRedemption]

Are there shortcuts or a fast-track process of rapidly improving mixing and mastering skills for music? I want to be able to do some gigs on Fiverr for passive income. Any tips and hints?

 

[Beef juice]

You should focus on one genre of music. Don’t try to do it all - stick with the genre you love and learn all the intricacies and idiosyncrasies. People will feel more confident in trusting you with their music if you specialize in their genre.

Finally, don't attempt to mix boring songs. If you can tell that the artist's music is not up to standard, it's best to kindly decline their offer or, at the very least, refer them to a different engineer who may be better suited to help them. Only take on clients who submit music that you are excited to work with and believe will benefit from your particular expertise.

 

[Nyikadzino]

There is no shortcut to improving your mixing and mastering skills for music. It takes time and practice to hone your skills and become proficient. I also don't think you are serious about music production because no one does music because they want to make a few coins on Fiverr. You are better off just doing the music thing as a hobby.

 

[MadMax]

Consider room treatment and buying better speakers or headphones if you are tight on budget.

 

[Nugatti]

Not to take advise from 90 percent of people on the internet.

 

[Hardbody]

Stop over processing everything.

 

[Hardbody]

Less can be more and volume is a much more important tool. Automation isn't scary, just tedious.

 

[Edward van Persie]

Knowing the basics of gain staging and equalization can go a long way in helping you produce better mixes and masters as a beginner.

 

[Ttembo]

Cut the frequencies you don't want before boosting the ones you do want.

 

[Romeo]

Trust your ears more than theory, and there are multiple ways to get the same results.

 

[Pangolin]

Stop over processing everything.

Agreed.

Newbies often overuse compression.

 

[Benzorghini]

Gold in = gold out.

 

[AngryPigeons]

Don't throw a reverb on everything. Group multiple things to a single reverb so they share it on a common send channel. An added benefit is you don't strain your personal computer as much with 20 reverb effect plug-ins. BTW, back in the day of analog consoles when you had 1 or 2 external reverbs patched in the aux tracks and that was it.

 

[Diouf]

Gain staging.

 

[CuteAsDucks]

To make the recording process as clean a possible without unwanted noise and to edit out all the unwanted sound with earphones on, before starting the mix.

 

[Jerry]

Learn static mixing.

 

[Widzo]

Mix in mono (i.e., mono compatibility).

 

[Babushka]

Listen for the ugly frequencies and cut them, don't boost (much). Also gain staging.

 

[fatBatman]

You should not master to -14 LUFS, master louder than that.

 

[Nero]

Don't mix the sound of your room. Listen on various speakers in different rooms what you have done and compare your results to other peoples music.