Take Your Mixes and Production to the Next Level with Mixing EDM

Mix engineer Matthew Weiss has mixed records for producers like Space Cowboy (Lady Gaga, Nadia Oh!), !llmind & the Dance, Dizzee Rascal, the Symphony and more. After years of honing his craft, he's handed us a heap of tangible approaches and techniques for perfecting the mix of our dance tracks.

The "Mixing EDM" course is broken up into two parts. In the first part we watch Matthew take a track from raw stems to finished mix. We see how he pre-treats vocals, gets a feel for the producer's intentions, negotiates the transition between the song's sections and then makes the record's climax (the drop) as exciting and full as possible.

The second part of the course contains workshops covering what Matt believes are four important aspects of nailing a great sounding EDM mix: contrast, stereo width, transitions and getting a great kick drum sound. These concepts are illustrated with multiple records in addition to “Clouds,” the main song featured in the walkthrough.

This course is about grasping the "why" as well as the "how" of mixing EDM. When the mixing concepts and ideologies are firmly grasped, the specific techniques become self-evident. There's also a bonus section on mixing drum & bass opposed to big room EDM.

Here are three tangible takeaways to wet your appetite for the wealth of audio knowledge in this course:

1. To conserve the natural dynamics of a vocal and keep it feeling natural, automate the levels before applying compression.

2. To draw the listener's attention to the main melodies in your sections, be mindful of what elements are playing the lead role, what elements are playing the supporting role and how you can use the stereo field to your advantage.

3. For maximum impact from your kick drums, make sure your multiple kick layers are phase coherent with each other. You can use plugins like Auto-Align or the Waves InPhase plugin to make sure of this.

Special thanks to Dan Comerchero. Make this course your own at Mixingedm.com.