Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio Multitracks

[Sourabh Doherty]

Wellby recognising and committing to practising in our weakest areas, we are focused on exactly where we need to improve and can target those areas by repeatedly going over and over our chosen weak spot until we get the result we are after.

Practising at the peak of our ability and then adding a new task that is just outside our skill level and repeating it is the best way to structure your intentional practice sessions. By doing this, that 15 or 30 min practise session really accelerates our skillset as a mixer or musician.

Looking for places to download free multitrack files? Are you bored with the ones you have, or do you fancy trying your hand with some different styles of music? Whatever you need them for I'm going to offer my top picks for the best multi-track download websites. Hi, I'm Sara Carter from simply mixing .com, where each week I bring you simple, practical advice to help you get better at mixing. And in this video I'm going to list my favourite multitrack resources where you can download hundreds of multitrack files to build up your mixing skills or to showcase your talents to prospective clients and get your home studio business started.

Now, be sure to stick around until the end, because after I've shared with you the best free resources, I'm going to share with you my recommendations for the best paid resources that not only offer you multitrack files, but also great tuition and the best support.

If you're new to the channel, then please consider subscribing. I post a new video every week to help you get better at mixing and by subscribing, you inspire me to keep making more. Now, first things first, what are multitracks? I just want to ensure that we know exactly what we're referring to when we say "multitracks". To put it simply, multitracks are the individual recorded elements of a song that can be stereo or mono files of a recording session.

So, in a rock session, this would be all the individual drum shells and the cymbals, the bass DI and mic, each guitar and each vocal track. It's important to note that multitracks differ from stems. I hear the term stems being used all the time to refer to multitracks and that's just wrong. Stems are stereo bounces of pre-mixed instrument groups. So for example, a drum stem would be the stereo track of the entire kit. The guitar stem would be a mix down of all the guitars.

Stems are great for consolidating instrument groups like drums or the bass or all the guitars in large sessions to make it easier to manage. But they're not so great to use to practice our mixing skills. This is because a mix engineer has already committed to the stem all their signal processing, like their EQ choices, dynamics and the effects. And that leaves us with not much left to do other than balance the levels. So now we're both on the same page.

The first site to go to for free multitracks is called Cambridge Music Technology, and it was started by a guy called Mike Senior. Now, he wrote a book. He's written two books, actually, but he wrote this one called Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio. You get it.

This site is like an additional resource to the book. Mike's been part of the well-known Sound on Sound magazine team for many years and has written a couple of books, and this sister site has got hundreds of multitrack files from lots of different genres of music. So you can take your pick. You get a wide variety of recording qualities here as well. You get tracks that have been recorded in your typical small home studio, so smaller spaces and cheaper mics.

And then you get tracks that have been recorded in larger facilities. So it's a real mixed bag and great material to use for training. My next recommendation is the Telefunken Live From The Lab website.

Telefunken are a well-established microphone manufacturer and it runs recording sessions only using Telefunken mics. Each session is tracked live and the multitracks are made available for free. And there's a wide range of genres again to download from, much like Mike Senior's site but the difference here is that most of these sessions are recorded with the band or musicians all playing live together. So you get to deal with problems that come along with any live recording. So, typically that would be mic bleed, which is no bad thing, it's a great skill to learn how to deal with. The recordings are all fantastically recorded, no surprise there and they are a joy to mix.

So they are my recommendations for getting hold of the best free multitracks and the links to the websites i've just mentioned can be found in the description below where you'll be able to access literally hundreds of multitracks to sink your teeth into and really dive deep and immerse yourself in all kinds of mixing styles that will challenge you and keep you busy for ages.

Now, Warren is the real deal. He's a multi platinum producer who has heaps of free recording and mixing tutorials on his YouTube channel, which has a massive following and if you visit his site, you can download free multitracks, some free samples and a couple of exclusive mixing tutorials. However, by joining the Produce Like a Pro Academy, you get a full set of mutitracks every month to mix,

Warren's mix breakdown video and access to an absolutely amazing community who are incredibly supportive and helpful. The best thing about being a member are the Friday feedback sessions where Warren listens to your mix live and then gives you direct feedback, which I think is absolutely invaluable.

The next paid website [now sadly closed since making the video] I recommend is Dueling Mixes by Graham Cochrane and Joe Gilder. Both Joe and Graham are well known on YouTube for their mixing tutorials, and this membership site pits them against each other to mix the same song with very different results.

Members vote on their favorite mix. They win prizes and have a very supportive online community. You get access to the group's back catalogue of notes tracks, which is absolutely massive. My third pick is puremix.net. Puremix is a paid membership site that has mixing and recording tutorials from loads of Big-Name producers and mixers people like Andrew Scheps, Greg Wells, Chris Lord-Alge, as well as the site's founder member and Grammy Award winning producer Fab Dupont.

Now, this site does offer multi tracks, but they're usually quite short, quite small section of the song, particularly because the songs tend to be from major artists, but they're still great use of practice. They occasionally have mix competitions where you can win some awesome prizes. Personally, I just love watching the mix videos. It's like you're sitting in on a session with some of the biggest names in the business and the insights, I find them to be really inspiring.

And if there are any multi-track sites out there that I've missed and you like to share them with the YouTube community, then pop them in the comments below this video. Finally, don't forget to click the button on screen now to subscribe to the channel and then click the bell to get notified every time I release a new video.

MULTITRACK LIBRARY: -mt.com/ms-mtk.htm This book is one of the best books I read when I just in school just learning how to mix. It will help guide small-studio engineers to get the understanding they need to create radio-ready music. This book leads you through each step of the mixing process. Also, the author has over 100+ multitrack sessions you can use along with the book to practice the ideas you learn in the book.

Sean Divine specializes in music production, mixing & mastering, sound design and education in the audio community. Get More InfoADSR SoundsElectronicGet your sound design and production skills up to scratch faster with hours of in-depth music production video courses. Master music production fundamentals, sound design, music theory and your favourite production software.Get More InfoMasteringThe Mastering ShowPodcastThis is one of the only purely mastering related podcasts I have found. He produces a great resource for people curious about mastering and how to begin mastering your own music if you want.

Telefunken provides these multitracks as way to promote their microphones, but it is an incredible resource for FREE high-quality multi-tracks recorded live by top musicians. What more could you ask for? I have really enjoyed mixing these tracks in my spare time.Get More InfoCambridge Mixing Multi-TracksWebsiteThe author of the book Mixing Secrets, Mike Senior, is also the person that hosts these multi-tracks for educational purposes. Many of the tracks also have a Mix Rescue article from the Sound on Sound website that you use to help guide you as you mix the song and face each songs unique challenges.Get More InfoThe Indie Musician ResourcesThere are 5 spheres of knowledge and skills that go into making and releasing a song successfully. What do you want to develop?

I'd like to keep all of this free to use for educational purposes, but the practical reality is that generating and maintaining such resources involves an ever-increasing amount of unpaid work on my part, and I've long since reached the limit of what I can do on my own. Which is why I'm asking you, the users of the Cambridge Music Technology site, to support my ongoing development work directly through Patreon. If I've helped you improve your production skills, then please help me continue expanding these educational resources for other up-and-coming musicians and engineers.

Your contribution allows me to dedicate more time to creating new educational resources specifically for users of small studios -- hands-on tutorial videos, podcasts, audio examples, and online articles. Your financial support also allows me to enlist professional help for live on-session video shoots and ongoing web development. More contributions will mean more new videos, faster growth of the multitrack and mic-position libraries, more powerful and responsive hosting, and a better learning resource for students and teachers. Every dollar counts!

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