This week, we’re diving into editing and mixing—two core techniques in audio production. These skills are essential for creating sonic art, music, podcasts, film sound, theater sound, and more.
Audio production involves everything from recording and composing to editing, mixing, and preparing sound for distribution.
Whether you’re in a studio or working digitally with a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), these tools help bring your sound ideas to life.
Every project starts with an idea. It could be:
From there, you gather or create sounds through:
🎙️ Recording | 🎛️ Synthesizing | 🖥️ Coding | 🎼 Composing
Editing shapes your sounds creatively and technically:
Mixing balances all the sound elements in your project:
🎚️ Key Mixing Adjustments:
🔹 Creative Mixing: Enhances artistic choices.
🔹 Technical Mixing: Ensures a polished, cohesive sound.
The final polish! This step preps your mix for distribution, ensuring it sounds consistent across different listening environments:
Mastering focuses on volume consistency, clarity, and balance across multiple projects.
This is where you share your work with the world! Whether it’s an:
📀 Album | 🎬 Film Score | 🎙️ Podcast | 🎨 Sound Installation
These steps don’t always happen in a neat order—sometimes they overlap!
In professional projects, different people handle each stage:
🎛️ But for now, you’re learning to do it all! Mastering these skills will help you create and present your work professionally, no matter your future direction.
🎧 Open your DAW and start experimenting! Try:
✅ Editing a sound file—cut, move, and clean it up.
✅ Adjusting volume and panning to balance sounds.
✅ Applying basic EQ and reverb to enhance clarity.
You are at a different point in your sonic art practice, and regardless of where you want to go in the future, for the time being, you need to learn how to get really good at creating and then preparing your creations (through the processes outlined above) for presentation.