If I record my vocals on a microphone but the rest of my instruments are midi. How do I make my vocals sound like it's a part of the song and not recorded in my bedroom? There's a distinct difference in the sound. That makes my vocals stick out instead of sit in the mix.

I just bought a new iMac. How do I transfer my 3rd party plugins to my new Mac?

Hey guys, So I’m watching the 4 hour mixing a song from start to finish master class and noticed something that has haunted me for time. So I’m around 46 minutes in and Rob is working with the snare. The snare is peaking around -1.7, but the drum bus itself is only peaking at -11.7. How is this even possible?? Am I having a dumb moment in life right now? Whenever I’ve worked with busses, it’s the total opposite. They accumulate all the seperate channel volumes and usually come out louder than the individual channels. For example, I had a drum bus once where non of my instruments were peaking any more than -10 but the bus itself was still clipping due to them all adding up. So how has Rob managed this? TIA ☝🏽🖤

Here’s the best mixing tip I can give you: Progress = Work + Reflection There's no way to get better at mixing if you just watch videos and learn mixing tips. You need to actually do the work and finish hundreds of tracks if you want to become a true pro. But there's another part to the equation, and that's reflection—because work alone isn't enough. Yes, you need to do a lot of work. But if you just work away in a vacuum and you don't reflect on the work that you did a year ago, two years ago, three years ago... then you're never actually going to learn. I remember one time I set myself a challenge to finish a hundred mixes over the span of several months. When I listen back now, a lot of those mixes sound really similar because I was just churning them out. I didn't take enough time to actually listen to them, reflect, and decide how I needed to improve. In comparison, I've had single mixes that I've learned a TON from because I shared them with a bunch of people and got feedback. And I've had mixes where another mix engineer has mixed the same track and I was able to carefully compare the differences. I learned so much from those single mixes because I was able to reflect more accurately. I was able to more easily identify where my weaknesses were and where I needed to improve. So don't forget—you need to put in the work, but you also need to take time to reflect and analyze your past work. Only then can you identify how to actually improve. — I originally posted this idea as a video on our Instagram account. if you're not already following us, you can check it out here. We're starting to post a lot more frequently and have some exciting videos coming up. Have a great week, Rob

If instruments should sit around -15 and drums around -10 (as Jake teaches it), what should Vocals sit around when gain Staging?