Jeroen Sangers

Combine and massage instrument and vocal recordings to get a cohesive and clear sounding song

Three weeks ago I decided to get into music mixing and today I ‘finished’ my first mix. I put the word ‘finished’ in quotes, since any creative project is never truly finished. There is always more to tweak and polish.

Anyway, for now I am quite happy with the result of this first project, though it is nowhere near a professional level, as you will hear.

Selecting the song

Since I am no musician, I first had to find the music tracks to mix. After looking around a little bit I the perfect multitrack (as a collection of the individual tracks of a song is called) on YouTube.

The Produce like a pro published a review of the Audient iD14 MKII audio interface, which happens to be the audio interface we use for recording the KENSO podcast.

Anyway, they used the interface to record the song Hold On To Me At The End Of The Night by Steve Maggiora and offer the multitrack to their subscribers.

The editing process

Before starting this edit, I had already read and watched quite some material about music editing, so I had a rough idea on the steps involved in this process. I learned about gain staging, drum EQ and compression, how to solve ‘muddy’ mixes and the use of sidechain compression.

Of course, this was all theoretical knowledge, which I had never applied in a real project. And that turned out to be a lot harder than I thought.

My main problem was that my ears are simply not trained to hear the subtle differences in the music. That obliged my to do a lot of work in soloed out tracks, something most expert recommend not doing because it’s better to work on the complete mix.

Anyway, the mix is now at a point where I think it is quite good and, as promised, I will share the results here.

The song

OK, here we go. I could not find any copyright notice in the downloaded files, but the song is available on all platforms, si I assume I am not allowed to publish the final mix here. However, I hope it is fine if I share just a fragment of the song.

This is what the original tracks sound like. I simple added them all together and did not any processing.

And here is my mix:

And finally, this is the same fragment from the final, professionally mixed, release:

As you can notice, I have been able to improve the unprocessed files significantly, but my mix is still less clear and more muddy than the professional mix.

And that is alright, since my goal is to learn and improve over time.

Now let’s find the next song to edit.

For the past four years I have edited a weekly podcast. At first using free online tools, the in GarageBand and lately using Logic Pro.

And the more I edit, the more I like it. At the same time I also realize that I still have a lot to learn.

So I took some courses about voice-over editing, EQ, compressors, limiters. I read quite some manuals and watched many hours of videos on YouTube.

I am now on a point where, if I really want to improve my podcast editing skills, I should start working on other podcasts to oblige myself to get out of my routines and templates.

But that would make podcast editing my main job.

Instead, of that, I decided to start mixing and editing music in my spare time.

Music is fun and cannot be confused with work. And to properly mix music, I will have to learn several new skills (I don’t play any instrument myself and can’t sing), most of which will probably be useless for podcast editing.

But I feel that I will also find things that could improve my podcast editing.

Si this is the plan: once a month I will mix a song and post the before and after tracks here on my site.

Next step: find an interesting song in multitrack format to download.

Going slower can mean more thoughtful and better.

Related: Effectiveness, Invest, Clutter, Reading is digesting

To get the most and best ideas, have group members write down their ideas individually and then evaluate and elaborate these ideas in a group setting.

Related: Invest, Originality

I work from home, so my regular commute from the dining room, where I eat my breakfast, to the office is about four steps. Nine steps if I pass through the kitchen to get me a bottle of water.

I have always thought that not having to waste precious time on a commute was one of the perks of working from home.

But lately I found that there are some benefits that I am missing out on.

Last autumn I experimented with what I call an ‘extended commute’ and really liked it, but I did not make it into a habit. And today I decided that I wanted to try it again.

So what exactly is an ‘extended morning commute’?

Very simple: my extended commute means that I take a detour and instead of walking the shortest route from the dining room to the office I pass through some outside space.

My aim is to walk about 2 kilometres on my detour, but I will allow myself a shorter commute to our patio or balcony in case of rain or lack of time. Of course, I am may also decide to extend my commute even more if I feel like. After all, I am my own boss.

I try to accomplish several things by extending my morning commute. The main benefit is an increase in energy during the morning because I activated my body. Then there are the positive effects of light exposure early in the morning and the clear transition ritual telling my brain exactly when it is time to switch to ‘work mode’.

A final benefit is the opportunity to explore my neighbourhood. I use the eRoutes app to generate three random walking routes with the length I specify and today it already surprised me by passing through a street I haven’t traversed for many years.

A little bit of time pressure when working on your tasks will help reduce attention residue.

Related: Task switching, Multitasking, Intention, Implementation intentions, Singletasking

Messy work environments have no effect on either creativity or executive functions.

Related: Environment, Scatterfocus, Wandering mind, Systems maintenance, Pile email, Eufriction