Tips for artists · 4 min read

How to give feedback on a mix

Notes that get you the sound you want, in fewer rounds.

Getting your mix back is exciting, and often confusing. You know something isn’t right, but you can’t say what. Here’s how to turn that feeling into notes that actually help.

Listen properly first

Listen a few times, on different things: good headphones, your phone, a car if you can. Leave a gap of a day if you can. Your first listen is mostly excitement.

Be specific

"Make it better" is hard to act on. "The vocal is too quiet in the second verse" is easy. Say where it happens. Give a time, like 1:42, and say what you hear.

The Mix Room is designed for this. You can leave a note at the exact moment in the song, so we know precisely what you mean.

Describe the feeling

If you don’t know the technical words, that’s fine. Say "it sounds muffled", "it feels too sharp", "the beat feels too big" or "I want more air". We can translate that.

Use a reference

Send a link to a song whose sound you like, and say what it is you like: the weight of the bass, the space around the vocal, the brightness. It’s much more useful than a general "like this".

Send everything together

Collect all of your notes and send them in one go. If you send them one at a time, changes can undo each other. Every mix comes with three revisions, so it’s worth making each round count.

Check the basics before you panic

If something sounds odd, check if it’s just the speakers. Does it sound the same on another device? Is your volume the same when you compare it with other songs?

Trust what’s working

Say what you like as well. If we know the vocal is perfect, we’ll leave it alone.

Know when it’s done

If the notes are getting smaller and smaller, it’s probably finished. At some point more changes stop helping, and you’ll need to let it go and release it.