With years of experience in the electronic music world, Will Marshall teaches Ableton mixing better than anyone around. In the following three tips your mixes will take a huge leap forward.
Let’s get started!
1. Sub Bass Techniques | Ableton Mixing Tips
Learn which Sub Bass frequencies will resonate well for the human ear and on large sound systems. Achieve that depth and richness in your productions that makes a big difference.
Take a look at the handy frequency chart that shows the corresponding note to frequency that is useful when picking keys for your tracks. Certain keys aren’t going to lend themselves to very strong sub bass and may leave your track feeling a bit empty on a big system.
Learn why sine waves are the foundation for sub bass production and explore a little around 808 bass sounds used in hip hop, trap, dubstep and other sub genres.
2. Make it Mono | Ableton Mixing Tips
In this mixing tip, Pyramind instructor Will Marshall demonstrates the importance of converting stereo tracks to mono tracks, and the most effective way to do this in Ableton.
Many producers narrow the width of a stereo track instead of making it mono – Will uses examples to show why this can be problematic.
He also discusses general mixing theory regarding stereo, as well as different panning techniques.
3. Bus Compression | Ableton Mixing Tips
Learn the basics of bus compression and why it’s so important especially to use with electronic drums in this Ableton Live video tip by Will Marshall.
Typically the dynamics of even well programmed drums can feel somewhat robotic compared to a live drummer on a kit. This technique will help gel all of those parts together into a cohesive unit.
Using Ableton Live’s built in compressor, Will explains the compressor parameter settings in detail that you will want to start with to achieve this result.
In this drum compression technique, the goal is to the initial transient of the kick and the snare through, then sets the compressor to duck the volume afterward. The faster the drum beat, the faster you want to set the release. This way, the volume pumping effect caused by the compressor will be in time with the beat. Will shows you how to apply compression while still preserving the punchiness of your drums.
Want to learn more from Will? Check out his free DJ course here!
