using a limiter, checking your track in mono while mixing, etc),

there is no one way to do everything. Which for some people

is scary, that there is so much room for uncertainty. So thats
why Im writing this, because there are things I wish I had
known years ago.
Over the course of recording, mixing and mastering in Ableton
with my last album, I learned a number of things that I didnt
know at the start. These are ten of those most important rules
I came up with based on my own experience.
10. Export All The Tracks In Your Song
Did you know Ableton has an All Tracks option in the Export
menu? Really? Because it took me 6 years to notice that.
When I would export song stems for remixers, I used to solo
each track and export it manually, and it took hours. No need
to do that, youre not a dummy.
If you have effects on the return tracks, choosing this option will
export these as WAV or AIFF files as well. Choose All
Tracks and then hit Export.

Make sure you have at least a few gigs of space on your drive,
as this will get big. Oh, and create a folder with your song

name first (so you dont have these files just floating around).
Since the WAV files take up a lot of space, I usually like to zip
them up with the Ableton .als file I used for mixing / mastering,
and store them somewhere else.
9. Compression Is A Cheap Shortcut

If you just compress everything and call it a day, then you are
shorting yourself by not giving your track the care it needs. You
may also be bringing up frequencies in a track or sound that
muddy up the track by interfering with other sounds.
For example, you may have a synth pad that has a lot of low
frequencies, which will interfere with the bass line, the snare or
vocals in a track.
Pianos also dominate a huge range of the frequency spectrum,
so you have to make decisions on what frequencies to cut and
what to leave in (unless your track is only Piano, where it
accounts for the bass line and the melody and rhythm of your
song).

Each track / instrument / sound in the song should be cared for

and kept in a range where it is effective. Any range where it
isnt needed should be cut (gradually).

How do you do that? With the EQ Eight and sliding the EQ

nodes around, finding the best frequencies of each sound and
boosting them, cutting the unnecessary ones, then constantly
balancing this within the mix, volume-wise.
You Can Ignore The Loudness Wars
The best part about recent trends in music is that there is an
appreciation for subtlety now. In the early to mid 2000s the
loudness wars as the corny term goes, reached their peak.
Everyone wanted to make hard hitting stuff, like electro. There
were too many Sebastians out there.
Everything was brick wall compressed and fighting for ear
attention not just songs fighting with other songs for attention,
but elements within a song fighting against other elements for
attention. The result was kind of abrasive, insistent music that
was the equivalent of a guy spraying himself with too much

cologne or becoming obsessed with building muscle in order to

appear strong and to cover up for some insecurity.
In a way, I think people started to learn that you can have
intensity and power in music without just compressing
everything to hell.
So knowing that, I think it means there are more possibilities for
how your track sounds. I almost feel like the true test of a good
song and its power is in how good its sounds without
compression.
8. All The Power Is In Your Equalizer
Well, not all the power but much of the power of a sound is in
how you treat it with EQ. If its a kick or a snare you might try
boosting the 200hz and balancing an effected (wet) version of
the sounds against the original (dry) sound.

Just because a kick drum is mostly bass doesnt mean you

should boost the sub (below 100hz) frequencies on it. There is
a delicate balance in the bass region, and Ive found that the
hardest-hitting kicks actually are boosted in the higher lows
(200-300hz) and that you can even hear them on nearly bassless iPhone speakers.
7. Imagine Your Song Is A Room

Sound is very much a three dimensional experience, especially

on headphones. We only have two ears and yet we are able to
perceive sound in three dimensions. Close your eyes and you
can hear when something is behind you, in front of you or
however many degrees to the left or right of you and how high
up it is. You can EQ and balance sounds and figuratively
place them somewhere in the four walls of your song.
You can make sounds feel like they are flying over your head, if
youre creative and patient enough.
Where to start? Abletons Filter Delay is a good start to
understanding Mid/Side EQ. The average person is already
attuned to three dimensional listening, just by passively having
heard this done before in music, and so they almost expect this
in music. Placing your sounds and tracks deliberately in
different parts of the track spatially will be what makes people
perk up and comment on how professional your music sounds.
Placing sounds in virtual space requires a mix of EQ
(controlled here with the filter) and delaying sounds by
milliseconds, which you can control in the box next to Time,
under the Delay Time section.

Notice how the delay time on the left channel is at 15 milliseconds and the right is at 30. That small delay makes a
sound feel like it is surrounding you. With the L+R filter you can control how much of the sound is in front of you (in the
center channel).

6. When In Doubt, Turn It Down

Its hard to know something doesnt sound right when you arent
listening closely, when you havent heard or imagined what it
should sound like. Its hard for you to know the flaws in your
mix just like its hard for you to know your personal flaws. And
nobody will tell you, so you have to just try stuff. When you go
through a song, as you EQ a certain track / sound / instrument
against the rest of the elements playing, turn the volume down
incrementally, until it is blended / obscured by other parts of the
track. Then bring it back up until its too prominent. In between
there is your sweet spot. And keep asking yourself Does this
really need to be this loud? as you are mixing. When
mastering you will be compressing the whole track, so be
radical with turning stuff down, if possible.
5. Experimentation Is The Best Policy
If you rely on a tutorial for every single step of learning music, I
think you are both incredibly disciplined (because tutorials are
often boring) and also afraid of experimenting to find out stuff
for yourself. Maybe youre afraid of wasting time or messing
up. Not to get too deep, but if you are afraid to experiment in
the early stages of making music, it will always be a struggle to
experiment. And I know, its a struggle to remember to push
yourself to experiment. With something like music, its easy to
fall into habits of what you are already good at instead of
pushing yourself into unknown territory.
Why should you experiment?

That unknown territory is where so much of the good stuff

comes from. Just try to make a habit of experimenting, with
everything. Not just in the writing / arrangement stages but
throughout the whole track.
Anyway, I think you got the idea.
4. Compress At The End
When your track is balanced, EQd and youve put things in
their own space in the three dimensional room that is your
song, you might find that it sounds so good that you hardly
need much compression. Compression should just give things
a little extra push. In the final stages if you use a site
like LANDR to master your song, then you can choose between
three versions of your track, each compressed slightly more
than the other.

You can Master A Few Tracks For Free on LANDR

3. Consider Keeping It Dynamic

What you might notice when compressing the whole track is

that compression boosts the quieter parts. You have to ask
yourself if you want that, as boosting everything means taking
away the dynamic range of a song. Dynamic range just means
having a variety of loud and quiet parts. The loud parts will
sound more powerful if they follow quitter parts.
If People Want It Louder, Theyll Turn It Up Themselves
Remember that the better your track sounds, the more people
will want to turn up the volume. You dont have to do it for them
by pushing everything up in the mix using compression. If you
entice people with dynamic range, they will take the reigns and
turn it up in their headphones or in their car.
2. Compare Three Mastered Versions In Different
Environments
I recommend having three versions of your song, mastered /
compressed at different levels of intensity, on a playlist or CD.
Spend a week playing each version back to back on different
speakers car speakers, iphone / computer speakers, in a big
room or club, listen to it on different headphones, etc. You
should be listening for the different parts of the song you
balanced, to see if anything sounds too faint or too
overpowering.
1. Test It In Mono
Club sound systems sometimes are hooked up in mono. Does
your track still sound good in mono? Grab the Mono Utility
preset and stick it on the end of your mastering chain, switching
it on and off. Are parts of the track disappearing? It might be

necessary to experiment here to make sure things stay intact.

The biggest rule of thumb is that bass sounds, the sub
frequencies in particular, should be in mono. If they are
separated via stereo delay of some kind, the sound waves can
phase each other out. If you want to avoid confusion, stick the
Mono Utility preset on your kick(s) and your bass sounds /
instruments.