@Jay Walker About a year ago I tried to count how many videos are in that course. Not finished counting yet 😂

oooh congrats! Only listened to the first couple so far but sounding great!

Hey @Zach Broberg only feedback from me would be that when it loads up on my screen...the music is off the bottom, I have to scroll down to even see it - but nearly half the screen is the header image, and there is loads of room around your bio. I've attached a screen shot of what loads for me - no music, 80% empty space! I'd cut down on the size of the header, and put the music above your bio section, then people could see it all at first glance.

@Peter Sauleda Hi Peter, a few things that really stand out to me: 1 - It sounds really heavily compressed .so I'd back on up that a LOT, or just remove whatever is squashing it completely for now. 2 - It starts pretty big, so there's nowhere for it to go so it doesn't feel like it builds much...so I'd completely replace that opening section with something much lighter - hinting at/introducing the main idea...more atmospheric and restrained at lot less happening musically. 3 - It sounds cluttered and unclear to me - I'd try to just have a main idea, a clear bassline and rhythm. Make sure the rhythms are tight and the tracks are aligned really well. The bass and drums seem bit buried, which could be the high levels of compression...but it sounds very treble-heavy to me, I think arrangement-wise you need to make each of those layers clearer, and build each of them up more. Double instruments up at the octave to make them beefy. Trailer music needs to be very direct, and speak clearly. (EDIT: I think actually there may be really deep drums that are too loud and bassy, that are ringing out and nuking the actual bass, putting the mix out of balance, and triggering the over-compression possibly too. It sounds treble-heavy because the low drums are taking up all the space down there and drowning out any bass instruments....I *think*..it's a bit hard to tell. But I'd try easing up on those deep drums, seeing if they can cut off faster, and maybe cutting some really low end on them...see if that helps.)

@Luka Razov The right way is what works in the context of your project - there are not standard settings that will work in every situation. It's always flexible. Templates will set up the routing for you - but as soon as you put music in there, things like compression and reverb setting are up to you. There is no "right way" apart from learning the tools, and gradually building experience of how to use them. Your example in another post of using reverb after compressors - it's not normal to do that, that's just one option that will give a certain sound. Putting the compression first will make a different sound, that may or may not be want you want there. No right or wrong, just sounds and your decisions and taste will define which ones you use. Experience and understanding the tools will allow you to decide what effect you want and how to achieve it - there's no short cut, Someone could give you plugin settings that work for your track now...but they won't work on your next track - and you won't know why. Learning is time consuming and frustrating, but it is the way to the result you want. There are no settings proven to work for you to start with!

@Luka Razov There really are no best practices that work for 80% of the time and pro composers always use...it's just not how it works. What they have learned is how to fix problems. That usually comes from figuring out what is wrong in your mix and looking for tutorials on that problem - and you might need to try a few solutions before you find the one that works for you. But in terms of practical advice I'd say 90% comes from the writing, choices of sounds and the arrangement. No plugins will make fix bad choices there. Alex's trailer music courses really show this process well and are well worth it - there's no better ones I could recommend. You might be surprised at how often there is not a lot done at this stage - that the writing and arranging does almost all the work. Learning to use the automation in your DAW helps a lot to manage this in individual tracks. Compression and eq are the two effects to really do deep dives on. For mixing Dynamic EQ takes it up a level. I'd recommend Joël Dollié's channel for a lot of very good advice on orchestral mixing : https://www.youtube.com/@Jo%C3%ABlDolli%C3%A9 And Alex's courses - and as you notice below, Alex says there's not much advice we can give without hearing the music..there are too many variables to give any general advice.

Hi @Leah Murphy if you written songs and piano compositions....I for one am ready to call you a composer!

@Leah Murphy just don't tell the composer police about the inconsistency and you'll be fine 😎