Best online resources for learning to mix music

The learning process is a strange thing. Regardless of the skill, ability, or profession in question, learning is all about committing to plenty of practice and trusting that time will pay dividends. This can be difficult in its own way, often requiring years of practice to see significant progress, long and strenuous days marred with frustration – regardless, the same credo usually applies: hard work pays off.

But what if you do not have access to the facilities necessary to actually put in that hard work? What if you are restricted in some way? If you fancy being an amazing solver of jigsaw puzzles, you can simply buy a load of them from you local charity shop, solve one, solve ten, solve fifty, and before you know it you’re powering through jigsaw puzzles in half-an-hour, half-asleep, half-watching-TV. You are an amazing jigsaw solver, and all it took was the practice. However, when a skill requires you to use costly equipment, access special facilities, know certain people, practice becomes a somewhat more elusive notion.

Such is the case with producing and mixing music. It’s a highly complex and onerous skill which, at a professional level, involves the use of high-end gear and fully-equipped studio facilities. Plus, if you’re considering a career in production, you will need to be working with musicians who can provide material for you to practice with. In other words, you can’t just learn this stuff by cracking open a textbook or writing detailed checklists.

Luckily, in the internet age, there are a few great alternatives available to the budding producer. Let’s look at some of the best online resources for learning how to mix and produce music, specifically for those considering a career as a professional mixer.

Mix With The Masters

The majority of professional mixers will tell you that, as a beginner, there’s no better way to learn than putting your head down and getting to work. Being in the room, surrounded by pro mixers, with high-end equipment at your fingertips – there’s nothing more valuable in those early stages.

Mix With The Masters gives you that experience without the prerequisite industry access. With hundreds of webinars and tutorials available, each following professional (often renowned) producers and engineers as they work in the studio, even trainee producers in the most rural locations can have that live in-the-studio learning experience. MWTM allows you access to hundreds of hours of exclusive content from the mixers, engineers and producers behind some of the most acclaimed music in the world. They also offer day and week-long seminars that will give you an invaluable insight into the enigmatic world of music production, exposing you to the many perspectives, philosophies and techniques that have shaped the course of music history and will continue to influence its future.

Waves

Waves is a leading developer and supplier of professional audio plugins and digital audio technologies. They also offer great webinars from industry insiders, production wizards and successful artists who share their knowledge and experience of years of working in the music production industry. Their webinars consist of tutorials on the latest mixing equipment, deconstruction of the mixing process, masterclasses on mixing for particular genres, and much more.

Avid Technology

Avid Technology provides regular webinars focusing on all aspects of the music production industry from appraisals of the latest mixing tech to in-depth interviews with mixing aficionados and renowned music engineers and producers. Avid Technology’s webinar archive offers great insight into the most efficient and innovative ways to create, control and monetize your audio content irrespective of your level of expertise. Avid cater their content to both individual artists and collaborative teams, as well as sell cutting-edge mixing equipment and software.

pureMix

pureMix grants you access to one of the largest communities of music producers and engineers on the internet. Their huge library of videos, tutorials and courses offer an amazing insight into the world of mixing, mastering, recording and producing music. Their experienced team of Grammy winning mentors upload regular mixing tutorials that show you how they mix songs for world-renowned performing artists.

Best online music production courses

As well as the great mixing webinar sites mentioned above, there is a fantastic variety of online production courses available online too. From aspiring artists to veterans of the industry, there are courses designed for every ability and preference. We take a look at some of the most exciting course providers below:

• FaderPro is an online music education platform that specialises in electronic dance music. Working out of Denver, Colorado, their approach is to provide intimate lessons whereby students are immersed in virtual studios with leading producers and mixers.
• Berklee Online is the online branch of Berklee College of Music, one of the world’s leading independent colleges of contemporary music and performing arts. They offer access to Berklee’s celebrated curriculum as well as over 150 courses created and taught by Berklee’s world-renowned faculty and industry specialists.
• Groove3 have been providing great content on music production since they launched in 2003. Their training content and video tutorials are regularly updated and very accessible – they offer flexible purchase options so you only pay for content relevant to you.