Approaching a track mixdown

Let’s start by covering the basics and how you could approach mixing down your track. The order of these processes can be quite important to achieve a fast and fluid workflow.

Volume balance

The first thing that is super important and a significant part of mixing down a track is to balance the volume between each element of your track. At this stage, you can identify, for example, whether there is further need for volume automation for certain parts or elements of your track, as well as make sure that you have enough headroom at your Master track’s meter and ensure that each element of your track is audible at all times.

If you are working on a track that you started a fairly long time ago and are revisiting it weeks later to do the final mixdown, it can be a good idea to rebalance the volume mix from scratch. If you are hired to mix someone’s song, and you are being sent the stems of their track, you will need to balance the...