Mixing Disco House Explained
Studio guru Larry Holcombe presents comprehensive video tutorials on mixing Disco House! If your mixes have been sounding muddy, anemic, cluttered, or otherwise not up to snuff, this is the course for you. Larry takes you through a mixing session and demonstrates in detail each technique used, allowing you to see and hear these effective concepts in action. Also, all the individual tracks are included so you can load them into your DAW and follow along! These videos are for those new to mixing Disco House tracks.
Videos
• Gain Staging (12:48) - We introduce the series in this video and also discuss how and why we gain stage the mixdown from the start, ensuring our effects are working in the ?sweet spot.?
• Volume (15:59) - Next up, we create a working balance for the mix, blending sounds appropriately.
• Stereo Image (14:21) - In this video, we create front-back perspective using the stereo image, making some sounds more mono and spreading others out in the stereo field.
• EQ Pt. 1 (15:16) - Discover how filtering the low and high frequencies of our sounds allows us to create a mix that's ?taller? and clearer in the low and high end.
• EQ Pt. 2 (06:12) - This process is continued for the more sustaining sounds in the track to again maximize separation and mix clarity.
• Compression Pt. 1 (11:19) - We move onto increasing front-back perspective and groove by using drum compression with specific attack and release times.
• Compression Pt. 2 (11:30) - Discover how compressing the more sustained sounds in our track again holds things in place and creates separation.
• Additive EQ (13:36) - Next up, we choose certain sounds to focus on in the mix by selectively boosting areas of the frequency range to create separation and mix clarity.
• Saturation (14:36) - Learn how saturation is used to inject as much energy and vibe as possible into our marquee sounds. As another by-product of this process, we're able to musically roll-off transients to make our compression and limiting later down the line more transparent.
• Early Reflections & Reverb (17:20) - We've focused so far on creating space and separation, which allows us to now fill some of that space with a combination of early reflections and reverb. This leads to a bigger mix environment.
• Parallel Compression (13:15) - It's time to hype up the mix with parallel compression. In this case, this allows us to add extra energy and groove to the drums and bass.
• Wrap-Up & Final Thoughts (06:47) - Finally, we take out the stages of processing we've utilized during this video series to outline exactly what each process added to the final result while also comparing the new mixdown to the rough production mix.