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Do you ever check your mix in mono? This is one of the best approaches to getting things sitting to sit right in the mix is by hitting that mono button.  If your mix sounds wonderful in mono, when you turn off that mono button and go back to stereo it’s going to sound amazing.

Don’t believe me? Give this one a shot. When I first started doing this I would forget that I even turned the mono button on on the master and when I would realize I was amazed at the stereo imaging. It was insane to me that things could sound so wide and perfectly balanced across the stereo spectrum when mixing in mono. What you’re looking for is to balance all of the instruments in mono.

Essentially mixing in mono is like mixing with one speaker. Lots of systems are mono including club systems, some mobile phones, bluetooth speakers and more.  Plus you’ve checked to make sure there are no phase issues in your mix.  When hitting the mono button you are summing both Left and Right signals together,  and each speaker is giving you the same sound. Your overall goal is to get everything balanced and in place and if you can do that while in mono it’s going to sound that much better in stereo. You can add EQ and compression just as if you were mixing in stereo just do not forget to turn off the mono button once you’re ready to export your track!

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What does out out of phase mean? Have you experienced sounds that go missing while listening in mono. In this video we discuss audio phase and why it’s important to understand what this means to your music. Audio phase problems can occur while recording and mixing so it’s very important to pay attention to phase in your mix. Tips and tools that you can use to check for phase problems in your mix are discussed so you can ensure that you do not have audio phase issues.

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In this video, we discuss the noise that the Waves Analog button makes. Watch Out! The Waves Analog feature can create unwanted hiss that you might not hear while working on your music productions. But if not taken care of, once we master your tracks this hiss can become very apparent. Sometimes it may be wanted but if it isn’t it’s something you need to be paying attention to. We run into a lot of clients that send us some mixes and somewhere in their signal chains they might have an analog emulation plug-in that creates unwanted to noise. Be sure to take care of that in the mixing stage before going to mastering.

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I recently had an issue and my waves plug ins we’re not working upon exporting audio out of Ableton after the Waves 12 update. A couple of songs might have sneaked past me right at first, but I caught the issue working on a remix. I wanted to share my story so this does not happen to you.

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Part five of the Ableton Live Tutorial series goes over the export audio window. Exporting audio is crucial to getting your music out of Ableton and onto other devices. There is a slew of options in here so for a beginner navigating to the proper settings can be crucial to getting the desired sound, file size and type, etc. If you find you need a small tutorial on the Ableton Live export audio panel then this video is for you.

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Part three of our Ableton Live Tutorial Series we give you the Ableton Live Arrangement View tutorial. This is your standard workflow for most DAWs and is very common and easy to understand. We go over some workflow tips in this view and how you can transfer your ideas quickly from session view over to the arrangement view. If you missed last weeks video on Ableton Live’s session view be sure to check that one out.

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In this video, Freddie from Distinct Mastering goes over some sound selection tips for producers and gives examples on how to choose sounds that go together. Picking the right sounds in your productions is crucial to getting the quality that you might be lacking. Wondering why some of your sounds might be thin? Music production is all about the selections at the start of the production process and utilizing some of these tips can help make your productions stand out.

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