Specialist Courses :

Advanced Mixing & Mastering

Four days of practical demonstrations and real-world examples to improve your mixing and mastering skills.

LSS / Courses / Mixing and Mastering

This course answers all the usual questions about achieving loudness without sacrificing dynamics, getting clarity, definition, space , punch... and as you would expect we demonstrate many tools and techniques for various styles of music.

But beyond all this, the course highlights the importance of the mixing process in the realisation of the critical and commercial potential of a song.

How is this different from other courses?

This course is unique in how it will help you identify problems you didn't know you had and offer practical solutions for any musical style and every skill level.

Over the years we have found that the most common problem for self-taught engineers is throwing time and resources at the wrong problem, in other words ‘asking all the wrong questions’.

Sound engineering courses are often limited to theory and equipment rather than the process. Here we focus on the mindset that drives your decisions; mix by mix, one sound at a time: why would you use certain equipment, why this reverb instead of that one, why there, and how is that going to affect other decisions later.

Course Level

This course is not for beginners: you should have at the very least one year of experience producing and mixing with your software of choice (Logic, Pro Tools, Ableton, Cubase, FL studio, Reason, Reaper, etc).

CHOOSE this course if…

If you have been mixing music for a couple of years or more, and want to understand where is the difference between your work and that of the engineers that mixed and mastered your favourite records.
If you’d like to hear the difference between software emulation and analogue equipment, and when does it matter.
If you are interested in a career as a professional mixing or mastering engineer, and want to know more about how to get started, getting clients, what to charge, etc.
If you are a songwriter and a producer, to understand how your choices can help the mix (or make it impossible).
If you want to understand how your mix affects the final mastering.
If you want to go beyond the 'classic' school of mixing and mastering and want to learn about the techniques developed in the last few years by the most innovative engineers (for example, stem mastering).
If you want to understand the difference between doing your own mastering, using services like LANDR, and using a professional mastering studio - and what are the reasons why sometimes you may choose one or the other.
If you are thinking about investing on equipment and room treatment - get some impartial advice before you over-spend!!!

DO NOT choose this course if…

...If you are not sure about auxiliary sends, or if you use compressors without knowing exactly what every button and knob does.
THESE THINGS ARE NOT EXPLAINED in this course. You would probably benefit more from a course in music production, where mixing and mastering are also explained at a level which you will find more useful. If in doubt, get in touch and we can discuss alternative options including one-to-one sessions.
...If you are expecting to get practical time alone in the studio, to try all the equipment.
If this is what you want you'd be better off approaching a good recording studio and hiring it for a day, with the local engineer providing support and explanations; in fact, this is something you can still choose to do at the end of the course, since the studio we use is available for commercial bookings. But having access to countless studio toys will only make sense after you have developed the critical ear to appreciate what are you doing with this equipment.
...If you are hoping to kill two birds with a stone and come out of the course with one of your tracks professionally mixed/mastered while also learning how to do it yourself.
There is a big difference between demonstrating what could be done to a track and actually doing the work at a professional level; while it’s very likely that we'll bring your session to an ’80% there’ to demonstrate what can be done, we wouldn’t be doing anyone a favour to spend a full day to finish the job, because in the end we would only have demonstrated the techniques that apply to this particular track. Once again you'd be better off using your money to pay for a session in the best studio you can think of, and ask to be allowed to attend that session. The purpose of this course is to give you the tools to approach any project in any style, not to mention that often the best engineers are not very good at explaining what they’re doing.

Course Content

Click on each day to expand

DAY 1

Before and After mastering analysis.
Direct comparisons of mastering from the best studios in the world.
What is the mastering engineer really doing that you couldn’t do yourself?
Critical listening.
Ear training exercise.
Stem Mastering
Practical mastering sessions.

DAY 2

Mix comparisons (different mixes from the same sessions).
How a professional mixing engineer approaches every project.
How composition, performance, and production can make a mix easy or impossible.
Modern 'aggressive' mixing techniques, how far can you go to 'fix it in the mix'?

DAY 3

Mix templates and workflow, the real difference between professionals and amateurs.
The five elements of a mix.
Tools and techniques to achieve your goals: using harmonic distortion, frequency-conscious processing, phase tricks…
Modern mixing techniques: sub-grouping, stem mixing, analogue summing, parallel processing

DAY 4

Specific techniques for mixing different styles of music (electronic music, acoustic, etc).
Mixing bass and drums (practical demonstration).
Mixing vocals (practical demonstration).
Suggestions for working with headphones and room treatment.
Final Q & A session.

Your Music

While we provide many examples from real-world productions and commercially released music, you are encouraged to bring your own projects, multi-track sessions, stems, mixes to master.

Equipment

The main software used for this course is Logic X, although some demonstrations could also be made in Ableton or ProTools. The fact of the matter is that the techniques we discuss are not specific to any software.

Occasionally we will demonstrate specific software plugins, when no other product offers the same features, and all the usual products will be used (Waves, Universal Audio, Slate Digital, SoundToys, FabFilter, etc… the list is too long). And to put all this in perspective, we also have some quite a collection of seriously expensive analog equipment which you can hear in direct comparison with the software emulations.

After the course

On completion of this course you will get a certificate from London School of Sound and one-year access to online notes with links to all the equipment discussed during the sessions, and links to websites and communities where you can find collaborators and clients, and lots more.

Testimonials

This course has given me the skills I needed to see my productions through from beginning to end.

Aaron J Pillette
It's like I never really understood what to do with effects. Everything makes sense now.

Michel Radzi
It's amazing when you're shown the way... It's not really about the fancy toys, it changes how you listen to sound.

Shaun Gordon
I thought I knew what EQ does and how to use it… I was wrong. I’d recommend this course to anyone.

Lucia Keller

Next Courses

course code	SU-550
course name	Mixing and Mastering Advanced
start dates	12 April 2022
duration	4 days, 10.30am to 5.30pm
course fee	£ 1250
reserve a place	12 April 2022 By clicking on the payment button you also agree to the terms & conditions. Please do not hesitate to contact our office if you have any questions regarding this course of for payment details. BitCoin & PayPal accepted here.

Course Details

code	SU-550
name	Mixing and Mastering
duration	four days intensive
frequency	Tuesday to Friday, 10.30am-5.30pm
level	advanced

Frequently Asked

Is there a minimum age for this course?
Yes, 18 years old.

Do you provide accommodation for students?
No, we recommend you search online for the best deals.
See below for the location of this particular course and use Google Maps to check for travel distance and times.

I don't have a lot of experience with any software but I still want to learn about mixing and mastering, can I join this course anyway?
No, but we can recommend other courses which can give you the knowledge you are looking for - email mixing@londonschoolofsound.co.uk to know more.

Will I get a Certificate at the end?
Yes, you will get a Certificate of Completion.

Course Location

All lectures take place at The Dairy, a recording studio located at 43-45 Tunstall Rd, Brixton, London SW9 8BZ (approximately 3 minutes walk from Brixton tube station)