The Assistant Job: Mix Session Prep
In this DAW video course, production wizard Alberto Rizzo Schettino will walk you through the often-overlooked (but crucial!) process of preparing for a mixing session. Whether you want to be a music producer assistant or just need to prepare your own DAW session for mixing, this DAW video course is for you. This course covers a wide range of topics, including track cleaning and management, effective bus practices, gain staging, channel strip settings, and more. The steps covered in this DAW course will help you make the most of your mixing session and avoid getting mired in unnecessary clutter and other time-wasting issues. These DAW videos are designed for anyone who works with DAW sessions.
Videos
• Introduction (01:57) - Join Alberto as he explains some of the key aspects related to preparing an in-the-box session from end of tracking to mixing. This master class is a great way to learn how to prepare your own work (or others' work) in a way that expedites the mixing phase by addressing the crucial prep phase steps in great detail.
• Importing Audio & Conforming (14:03) - Our first step will be to import audio and handle the main session parameters. Let's talk about the various details that can be easy to overlook in this delicate phase.
• Routing & Bussing (10:02) - It's now time to route the audio tracks to the workflow of our studio and our resident engineer. Alberto discusses bussing, routing, and ways to handle the different tracks of this session.
• Gain Staging Drums/Bass (17:35) - We start gain staging the tracks next. It's important to set the levels right in the session and in our monitoring in order to avoid creeping up the faders and eventually finding ourselves with no headroom.
• Gain Staging Guitars/Keyboards/Vocals (06:33) - Alberto continues to gain stage the session with additional groups: guitars, keyboards, lead, and background vocals.
• Lead Vocals Prep (10:40) - It's now time to concentrate on the lead vocal and its nuances, splitting the different parts and organizing what is easily going to be the most important instrument of the mix.
• Inter-phrase Gain Staging for Lead Vocals (14:22) - Alberto takes the preparation phase to the next level by handling inter-phrase gain for phrases, words, and even syllables sometimes for our lead vocals tracks.
• Mix Bus Prep (05:39) - If you have an idea of what your mix bus is going to be, it's better to set it beforehand, even if you want to keep it bypassed until you reach a certain point in the mixing phase. This will ensure a smooth workflow and no unnecessary distractions, especially when your attention span has been lowered by some hours into the session.
• Channel Strip Prep (05:20) - In the old days of analog consoles, an assistant would set up the desk. Luckily, we don't have to do that exactly the same in the digital era, but this doesn't mean we can't learn from the good ol' days. Preparing channel strips like a virtual analog console will allow you to be fast on your feet and smooth in your workflow without waiting for each track to instantiate, load its default preset, and so on.
• Print Tracks & Final Listen (07:02) - Print tracks are as important as any other step in the session, as most of the time (especially in hybrid studios) you will be printing in real-time. It's also a great way to handle revisions and/or rough mixes, and to listen to the final mix as you are printing. Join Alberto as he concludes the mix prep phase with a final overview of what's been done.