Mixing tips,
with receipts.
Short, practical fixes for heavy mixes. Every number is measured on real recordings, level-matched before and after, and we say so when something is maths instead.
Muddy chugs aren't your amp.
In this riff it's 160 Hz piling up every time the palm mutes dig in. Here's how to cut it only when it shows up.
Your compressor might be flattening your chugs.
A slow attack does the opposite of what you'd think: the pick gets through, then the body gets clamped. +3.6 dB of punch, measured.
Thin drums? Compress a copy.
Smash a copy of the drum bus and blend it under the dry kit. The hits stay sharp and the body comes up: +3.2 dB, measured.
Small guitars? Check your pans first.
Two real takes panned hard left and right is where the width in a heavy mix comes from. Stack them in the middle and it collapses.
Where your low string actually lives.
The fundamental of the lowest string in 10 heavy tunings, from E standard (82.4 Hz) to drop A (49.0 Hz). Know it before you cut it.
The heavy mix frequency map.
Six ranges that cause most of the problems in a heavy mix, from the 40 to 60 Hz thump to the 10 kHz air. Starting points, not rules.
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