I was so happy to come across this blog earlier in the week. Here we’ve got a skilled musician who’s doing some mixes and hitting a wall. (Mixing is essentially just mashing together all the individual tracks you recorded—vocals, bass, guitar, and so on—into a single track you can play from iTunes or wherever.) He then finds a practical training tool he really likes (our very own hearEQ!), gives it a go, and comes back with significantly better mixes. Success!

Besides the kind words about our app, this was exciting for a second reason. It’s exactly what we’re going for with both hearEQ and the soon-to-be-released app “Waay: Music theory that matters” (UPDATE: It’s now released!). These apps are about practical skills—learning stuff you can immediately and effectively apply to your art. And mixing? That’s definitely an art. Just like learning guitar technique or how to write music, there’s lots of theory to it, but at the end of the day mixing is about bringing to life a sound you envision. Do you want a song to sound warm and open, like it’s being played in a big old, concert hall; or do you want something searing, urgent, and raw? So much of this is in the mix.

If you’re interested in mixing, go on over to Xeno’s blog and take a listen to his “before and after” samples to hear what building your mixing skills can do. (And if you want a primer to EQing, you can check out our hearEQ video too.)