Music Production and Mixing Tips for Beginner Producers | Inside The Mix
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© 2026 Music Production and Mixing Tips for Beginner Producers | Inside The Mix
Description
How do you make your mixes sound professional as a beginner? What’s the real difference between mixing and mastering? And do you actually need expensive gear to produce great music at home?
Inside The Mix is the podcast for beginner and early-career music producers, as well as hobbyist musicians, who want clear, practical answers to the most common questions in music production and mixing music. Each episode breaks down real-world techniques used in audio engineering, helping you improve clarity, balance, and confidence in your mixes — even in a home studio.
You’ll learn how to:
- Make your mixes sound professional as a beginner without overcomplicating your workflow
- Fix common problems like muddy mixes, weak low-end, and poor translation
- Understand the difference between mixing and mastering — and when you really need each
- Build a reliable production process using tools you already own
Hosted by Marc Matthews, Inside The Mix goes beyond generic beginner tutorials. Expect insightful interviews with industry-leading engineers and producers, listener-focused round-table critiques, and practical coaching designed to accelerate your progress. Past guests include Grammy Award-winning professionals such as Dom Morley (Adele) and Mike Exeter (Black Sabbath).
👉 Start with audience favourite:
Episode #175 – What’s the Secret to Mixing Without Muddiness? Achieving Clarity and Dynamics in a Mix
Subscribe, follow, and explore Inside The Mix to grow from beginner to confident producer — one mix at a time.
233 Episodes
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Clearer mixes don’t come from buying more plugins, they come from making better decisions. In this episode of Inside The Mix, Marc Matthews sits down with returning guest Tim Benson (Aisle9) to show beginner and intermediate producers how to get clearer mixes using arrangement, sound selection, and simple processing choices that actually translate. This episode is for independent producers struggling with muddy, crowded mixes that fall apart on headphones, Bluetooth speakers, or in the car. M...
Free synth plugins can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re staring at an empty patch and just want results. In this episode of Inside The Mix, Marc Matthews walks beginner and intermediate producers through a practical Surge XT tutorial, showing how to design mix-ready high strings from an init patch using this powerful free synth plugin. Surge XT is a free, open-source synthesizer packed with features, but more options don’t always mean better results. Marc focuses on what actually mat...
Null testing is one of the fastest ways to prove what actually changes in a mix. In this episode of Inside The Mix, Marc Matthews sits down with mastering engineer Eric Mitchell to explain what a null test is, how phase cancellation works, and how producers can use null testing to stop guessing and start making confident decisions. Built for beginner to intermediate music producers, this conversation answers common questions like: What is a null test in audio? Do similar plugins really sound ...
Logic Pro workflow tips can dramatically speed up music production, and in this episode of Inside The Mix, Marc Matthews breaks down seven practical Logic Pro tweaks that remove friction and help producers finish more music, faster. Designed for beginner to intermediate Logic Pro users, this episode tackles a common frustration: slow sessions that kill creativity. Marc explains why workflow, not plugins, CPU power, or inspiration, is usually the real bottleneck in Logic Pro music production. ...
A single Spotify comment sparked a bigger question: Does networking actually help musicians, or are you on your own? In this episode, Marc breaks down networking tips for beginners who want real results without feeling fake, awkward, or salesy. If you’ve ever wondered how to network as a beginner, or asked yourself “what is not an example of professional networking?”, this conversation offers a clear, no-cringe reset you can use immediately. We start by reframing what professional networking ...
Year-end victory laps are more fun when they belong to all of us. We gathered standout wins from the Inside the Mix community and stitched them into a guided tour of what real progress looks like in music: narrative albums released one single at a time, a premiere on a tastemaking YouTube channel, the first vinyl in decades, live shows rebooted, and a charity compilation that rallied more than 56 artists and topped Bandcamp charts. We kick off with Year of the Fall’s Love on a Dying Planet, ...
A single take can now become a gospel run, a country croon, or even a convincing female lead, and it happens in seconds. Justin and Rich of the Face Your Ears podcast unpack how AI jumped from pitch correction to “auto-sing,” the cost breakthroughs behind engines like DeepSeek, and what tools such as ACE Studio mean when 80-plus virtual singers sit inside your DAW. It’s a fascinating leap for producers and a gut-check for vocalists whose instrument is their body. They talk through real use c...
If your mixes keep fighting you, the problem likely started before the DAW ever opened. In this podcast takeover, Mike Indovina (Master Your Mix) digs into a source‑first mindset with London engineer and mixer Will Purton (RAK Studios), unpacking the practical decisions that make recording faster, mixing smoother, and translation far more reliable. From choosing the right instrument and tuning it properly to mic selection, placement, and preamp saturation, they explore how each link in the si...
What if the best mix isn’t the cleanest, but the truest? In this podcast takeover, Lij Shaw (Recording Studio Rockstars) dives into a standout conversation with engineer, songwriter, and producer-in-the-making Abby Griffin to explore how “being the weird girl” can be a creative superpower, and why the moments you capture now may matter more than perfection later. From choir training and vocal anatomy to tape love and AI stems, Abby brings a sharp, generous lens to making music that feels aliv...
What does it really take to go from invisible intern to trusted, Grammy-winning mastering engineer? The Sound Discussion Podcast sit down with Dan Millice to unpack the habits, choices, and honest work that shaped his journey, from cleaning bathrooms and taking cheques to the bank at MasterDisc, to building a client list one late-night venue at a time, to mastering records for artists across genres and continents. Dan explains why he chose to specialise in mastering and why he ultimately mov...
What if the fastest way to a better mix is caring more about the human, the song, and the signal path than the plugin chain? We pulled seven moments from our 2025 conversations that changed how we write, record, mix, and master, and stitched them into one practical, heart-first guide you can use on your next session. We start where great records begin: with the singer. Rich Bozic, a professional vocal coach, shares why physical comfort is essential for sound design, encompassing layers, a ca...
Ready to trade plugin FOMO and meter anxiety for moves that actually make your tracks better? Marc pulls seven stand-out moments from a huge year of conversations with producers, engineers and artists to help you finish faster, mix with confidence and stay creatively sharp. We kick off with a surprising angle on depth: shaping contrast with bit depth instead of defaulting to saturation. You’ll hear how assigning different resolutions to drums, pads, and leads can create three-dimensional mix...
Stop counting playlist streams and start building momentum where it matters. Marc Matthews and Tim Benson unpack a year of wins and lessons that took monthly listeners from modest to meaningful, and the theme is simple. When you optimise for saves, repeats and fast post-release engagement, Spotify’s algorithm does the heavy lifting. That means Radio, Discover Weekly, and personalised mixes begin to surface your music beyond your immediate circle—and the compounding effect beats a single playl...
Ever twist a saturation knob and wonder if you’re hearing compression, distortion, or something in between? In this episode of Inside The Mix, Marc Matthews puts that question to the test with a clean, scientific setup, a 440 Hz sine wave, the Softube Saturation Knob, and Wave Observer, a free oscilloscope plugin by Press Play. By placing Wave Observer last in the signal chain, Marc visually shows how your waveform changes as you dial in saturation, how rounded peaks flatten, harmonics stack ...
Tired of guessing what kind of podcast content actually helps you make better music and grow as a producer or artist? In this special listener-driven episode of Inside The Mix, host Marc Matthews flips the script — and puts you in charge of shaping the show’s next chapter. Marc is designing the 2026 Inside The Mix editorial calendar, and your feedback will decide what the podcast covers next: from mixing workflows, DAW productivity systems, and plugin deep dives, to music marketing strategies...
Staring at a blank DAW is exhausting; staring at a mapped-out arrangement from a reference track is energising. Marc walks through a clear, repeatable reference track arrangement blueprint workflow that turns a single reference track into a full song structure, so you can stop looping and start finishing. From matching tempo and key to placing eight-bar markers, Marc shows how to label intros, verses, breakdowns, builds, and drops, then use that structure to guide creative choices without fee...
What if a better‑translating mix starts before you touch a single channel plugin? I put top‑down mixing under the microscope and share a candid, first‑hand evaluation: what worked, what didn’t, and how a few smart moves on the mix bus reshaped the entire project in less time and with fewer plugins. Rather than a tutorial, this is a field report packed with practical takeaways you can try on your next session. I begin by setting a clear vision using references—one in the same key for tonal an...
What does a true wall of sound feel like when the vocal still breathes? We sit down with vocalist‑producer Jay Cali (DRUMxWAVE) and mixer‑producer Brian Skeel to unpack the craft behind Severed, big drums, widescreen synths, supportive guitars, and why clarity starts with a shared vision before a single plug‑in loads. We trace the journey from demo to master, beginning with an hour of alignment on emotion, references, and the “mountaintop” vocal image that sets every downstream choice. Brian...
Free plugins often get overlooked in the endless pursuit of premium software, but professional producers know that some of the most powerful tools cost absolutely nothing. In this illuminating conversation, Marc Matthews and Tim Benson (Aisle9) unpack their go-to free plugins that consistently deliver exceptional results across various production scenarios. The discussion begins with TAL Chorus LX, Tim's top recommendation for achieving that classic Juno-style chorus effect. While many produ...
Have you ever felt stuck in an endless cycle of tweaking, adjusting, and second-guessing your music production decisions? Producer John Kunkel (aka John Grand) reveals the counterintuitive truth that many of us miss: working smarter, not harder, is often the key to finishing more tracks and creating better music. John shares his game-changing approach to using reference tracks as structural blueprints rather than just mixing guides. By importing a track you love and mapping out its arrangeme...
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