What Matters Most in Mastering

The biggest thing that improved my productions wasn't gear and it wasn't even my own skill... it was treating my time in my home studio like real sessions. Today I want to walk through the six things I picked up from recording in professional studios and how to apply every one of them at home. None of this is about taking yourself seriously. It's about taking yourself sincerely. --------------------------------------------------------------- ‼️Download my FREE 6-step Checklist to a PRO Mix: https://www.thebandguide.com/promixchecklist "What Matters Most" Series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDYoTqYB762M In-Depth Mixing Tutorial: https://youtu.be/jSFF8fotNhA Headphones I LOVE: 🎧 Beyerdynamic DT770: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/AWQJgj

Editing is one of the most important parts of music production and the most skipped step in amateur productions. People get caught up in debates about whether editing makes music robotic — but that's thinking about it wrong. Editing is just about reducing distractions so the listener can enjoy the song. In this episode, I break down the editing hierarchy: getting the right take, fixing what's actually wrong, and tightening timing and tuning. Plus the foundational layer underneath all of it that changes how much editing your music actually needs. --------------------------------------------------------------- ‼️Download my FREE 6-step Checklist to a PRO Mix: https://www.thebandguide.com/promixchecklist "What Matters Most" Series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDYoTqYB762M In-Depth Mixing Tutorial: https://youtu.be/jSFF8fotNhA Headphones I LOVE: 🎧 Beyerdynamic DT770: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/AWQJgj

For most home studio musicians, mastering feels like a complete mystery — a black box at the end of the process. In reality it's extremely simple. Today I want to walk through the mastering hierarchy: bringing your song up to commercial loudness, balancing tone, and adding energy. I'll also get into why the whole LUFS conversation confused everybody, and the one layer that matters more than any of it when you're working across a full project. This is part three of the series. --------------------------------------------------------------- ‼️Download my FREE 6-step Checklist to a PRO Mix: https://www.thebandguide.com/promixchecklist Next Level Mastering Challenge: https://www.thebandguide.com/masteringchallenge In-Depth Mixing Tutorial: https://youtu.be/jSFF8fotNhA Headphones I LOVE: 🎧 Beyerdynamic DT770: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/AWQJgj

Mixing can feel completely overwhelming because there are endless options and endless people telling you different ways to do it. But underneath all of that there's just a hierarchy of fundamentals. Today I want to walk through the five stages of that hierarchy plus a bonus tool that a lot of people get way too wrapped up in before they're ready for it. --------------------------------------------------------------- ‼️Download my FREE 6-step Checklist to a PRO Mix: https://www.thebandguide.com/promixchecklist In-Depth Mixing Tutorial: https://youtu.be/jSFF8fotNhA Headphones I LOVE: 🎧 Beyerdynamic DT770: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/AWQJgj

One of the biggest things I see holding home studio musicians back is not knowing what actually matters most when recording. Today I want to walk through the hierarchy — a simple pyramid where the closer something is to the performer, the more it matters. We'll go from performance and source all the way up through mics, mic placement, preamps, and converters. This will change how you record and how you think about every gear upgrade you make. Part two on the mixing hierarchy is coming next week. --------------------------------------------------------------- ‼️Download my FREE 6-step Checklist to a PRO Mix: https://www.thebandguide.com/promixchecklist In-Depth Mixing Tutorial: https://youtu.be/jSFF8fotNhA Headphones I LOVE: 🎧 Beyerdynamic DT770: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/AWQJgj

There's going to be a moment when I hope you sit down, finish a song, and realize you've actually gotten really good at this. But nobody's telling you how to get there because it doesn't make for a flashy YouTube video — there's no trick, no plugin, no magic bullet. It happens slowly, and then it happens all at once. Today I want to break down the mindset shift that made the biggest difference for me across three areas: my productions, my mixing process, and my belief in myself. If you've been feeling stuck or disappointed with your progress, this one's for you. --------------------------------------------------------------- ‼️Download my FREE 6-step Checklist to a PRO Mix: https://www.thebandguide.com/promixchecklist In-Depth Mixing Tutorial: https://youtu.be/jSFF8fotNhA Headphones I LOVE: 🎧 Beyerdynamic DT770: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/AWQJgj

Mixing templates promise to speed up your workflow... but for most home studio musicians, they're actually slowing you down and keeping you from actually getting better at mixing. Today I want to break down the three types of templates (only one is a problem), why downloading a pro's template won't give you their sound, and the leaner, faster workflow I use instead. -------------------------------------------------------------------more---- ‼️Download my FREE 6-step Checklist to a PRO Mix: https://www.thebandguide.com/promixchecklist In-Depth Mixing Tutorial: https://youtu.be/jSFF8fotNhA Headphones I LOVE: 🎧 Beyerdynamic DT770: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/AWQJgj

If you've ever sat down at your session and wondered what else to record, today's episode is for you. I want to walk through how pros actually think about layering tracks — the three concepts you need to understand (frequency spectrum, stereo field, and contrast), the three core techniques (doubling, harmonies, and accents), and real demonstrations from tracks I've produced so you can hear exactly how each layer changes the feel of the song. Think of this one as a mini masterclass. -------------------------------------------------------------------more---- ‼️Download my FREE 6-step Checklist to a PRO Mix: https://www.thebandguide.com/promixchecklist In-Depth Mixing Tutorial: https://youtu.be/jSFF8fotNhA ----more---- Headphones I LOVE: 🎧 Beyerdynamic DT770: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/AWQJgj

Most beginner and intermediate mixers make the same mistake: they rush through the most important step of mixing to start "mixing." In this episode, I break down the three mindset shifts that will immediately improve your mixes: why your static mix IS the mix, why keeping moves that aren't working is silently ruining your sound, and why detaching from the results is the fastest path to getting better ones. --------------------------------------------------------------- ‼️Download my FREE 6-step Checklist to a PRO Mix: https://www.thebandguide.com/promixchecklist In-Depth Mixing Tutorial: https://youtu.be/jSFF8fotNhA --------------------------------------------------------------- Headphones I LOVE: 🎧 Beyerdynamic DT770: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/AWQJgj

I spent years believing that analog gear was the missing piece — that if I could just get my hands on the right console, the right compressor, the right preamp, everything would click. Today I want to break down why that's a myth, what's actually true about analog gear, and the sneaky psychological reasons people who use it sometimes get better results. Spoiler: you can get all of that without spending a cent on gear. --------------------------------------------------------------- Next Level Mastering Challenge: https://www.thebandguide.com/masteringchallenge ‼️Download my FREE 6-step Checklist to a PRO Mix: https://www.thebandguide.com/promixchecklist --------------------------------------------------------------- Headphones I LOVE: 🎧 Beyerdynamic DT770: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/AWQJgj