The Default Library
Majors / Music / Music Production / Specialization

Mixing & Mastering

Finishing records for real: preparing a session, mixing drums, bass, guitars and vocals, making the mix hold up on every speaker, and mastering and delivering it, with working checklists for each stage.

A specialization inside Music Production, part of Music. It builds on that route and goes deeper into one craft.

For: producers and bands mixing their own records, Sound Engineering and Music Production students heading for the mix chair, and anyone who has a finished recording that doesn't yet sound finished.

Shaped by the mixing and mastering courses of Berklee Online, Point Blank and SAE, the working methods in Mike Senior's Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio, Bobby Owsinski's Mixing Engineer's Handbook and Bob Katz's Mastering Audio, and the AES recommendations on loudness and delivery. Practise on free multitracks: every piece points to sessions you can download and mix.

8readings
2.1 hoursof reading
2stages
2 reads · 6 deep dives
Not started
Start the path
Stage 1

Part 1 · Building the mix

5 readings · 1.4 hours
  1. 01Deep diveInteractiveQuiz16 min

    Mixing & Signal Processing: Making Room for Every Sound

    The tools themselves: equalisation, compression, space and balance.
  2. 02Deep diveInteractiveQuiz17 min

    Session Prep, Gain Staging & Mix Workflow: Fifteen Minutes That Decide the Next Ten Hours

    Organising the session, setting levels and the order a mix is built in.
  3. 03Deep diveInteractiveQuiz17 min

    Mixing Drums: Every Mic Hears the Same Hit, a Little Late

    Kick, snare, toms, overheads and rooms: phase, punch and the drum bus.
  4. 04Deep diveInteractiveQuiz15 min

    Mixing Bass & Guitars: Sharing the Bottom, Widening the Middle

    Bass and kick sharing the low end; guitars that are big without burying the singer.
  5. 05Deep diveInteractiveQuiz16 min

    Mixing Vocals: The Voice Everyone Listens To

    Editing, tuning, compressing and placing the voice everyone listens to.
Stage 2

Part 2 · Finishing and releasing it

3 readings · 44 min
  1. 06Deep diveInteractiveQuiz16 min

    Finishing the Mix: Space, Automation & Translation

    Depth, width, automation and checking the mix on every speaker before you call it done.
  2. 07ReadInteractiveQuiz14 min

    Mastering & Loudness: The Last Ears Before the World

    What mastering is for, loudness and streaming normalisation.
  3. 08ReadInteractiveQuiz14 min

    Mastering in Practice: The Last Listen Before the World Hears It

    The mastering chain, sequencing an album and delivering files that pass.

Study it in depth, for free

These pieces give you the intuition. To learn the major properly, these are the courses and texts universities use, free to read or audit, and the standard textbooks if you want to own one. Links checked November 2026.

The whole major, free: No university publishes a free mixing-and-mastering course end to end, so the best free route is MIT OCW 21M.380 Recording Techniques and Audio Production for the principles, Sound On Sound's technique articles below for each stage, and real sessions from the Mixing Secrets free multitrack library to practise every piece on (read the terms beside each download).

Free courses and texts

  1. Mixing Secrets Free Multitrack Download Library · Cambridge Music Technology (Mike Senior) · hundreds of real multitrack sessions, searchable by genre and instrument, free for mixing practice; Parts 1 and 2
  2. Music and Technology: Recording Techniques and Audio Production · MIT OCW 21M.380 · microphones, consoles, mixing and mastering with lecture notes; Parts 1 and 2
  3. Gain Staging in Your DAW Software · Sound On Sound · levels, plug-in operating level and headroom; Part 1 session prep
  4. Phase Demystified · Sound On Sound · polarity, delay between microphones and the null test; Part 1 drums and bass
  5. Vocal Mix Prep and Mixing Pop Vocals · Mike Senior, Sound On Sound · comping, clip gain, de-essing and effect rides; Part 1 vocals
  6. Level Practices, Part 2 · Bob Katz, Digido · calibrated monitoring levels and the K-System; Parts 1 and 2
  7. More Pro Tools Mastering Tips · Sound On Sound · gain matching, album loudness and the limiter last (useful in any DAW); Part 2 mastering
  8. How to Balance the Side Times for Vinyl · Scott Hull, Masterdisk · side length, level and bass on a record; Part 2 delivery
  9. Loudness Normalization · Spotify for Artists · the published playback target and true-peak advice; Part 2

The standard textbooks

  • Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio (Mike Senior) · the home-studio mixing course, written around the free multitracks above; Part 1
  • The Mixing Engineer's Handbook (Bobby Owsinski) · workflow, the elements of a mix and starting settings by instrument; Part 1
  • Mixing Audio: Concepts, Practices and Tools (Roey Izhaki) · depth, width, automation and every processor in detail; Parts 1 and 2
  • Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science (Bob Katz) · the standard mastering text: monitoring, dynamics, loudness and delivery; Part 2
  • The Mastering Engineer's Handbook (Bobby Owsinski) · a practical companion on chains, sequencing and formats; Part 2
Next path →

Project Management

Getting things built on time and on budget with other people: scoping, estimating, scheduling, agile and plan-driven methods, risk and cost, and leading a team through it.