Mix & Master
Vault

Mix-ready project setup

Bounce stems, bring every fader down to around minus five as a starting point for headroom, group into kick, clap, hat and perc buses, then bounce a premix as reference one.

18 min · Logic Pro, Plugin Alliance Metric AB, reference artists Camelphat

Referencing and analyzing

Pick two reference tracks you would play either side of yours, then level your hats, claps and bass against them before any processing starts.

12 min · Camelphat "Freak", Hot Since 82 "Chasing", Sample Magic Magic AB

Levelling, set the foundation of your mix

Turn everything down until the master sits around minus nine, then level every element against a reference with Metric AB before you touch a single plugin.

10 min · Metric AB, Logic Pro

Speaker translation techniques

Saturate around 200Hz on your kick and bass so both translate better to a phone, then fix a clap that vanishes in mono with mid only saturation.

16 min · FabFilter Saturn warm transformer, iZotope Ozone Exciter, Sonarworks

Big room sounds in small spaces, headphone mixing

Why your headphones and your spare room mislead you, and how a Sonarworks correction curve helps your mixes translate.

13 min · Sonarworks SoundID Reference, Sennheiser HD 25 and HD 600/650

Frequency slotting

Put an EQ on every channel and cut only where two elements collide, so kick, bass, piano and vocal each get their own space.

18 min · "Bring The Heat", FabFilter Pro-Q 3

Midrange clarity and translation

Diagnose which bus is king of your midrange, then duck the drum bus against the music bus with Soothe so synths and vocals cut through.

18 min · Insomniac Records release by Rodden, oeksound soothe, TrackSpacer

An Insomniac releaseMixed by Jon

Mid side EQ, Mushrooms by Stereohype

Brighten only the side signal of your drums and cut mud at 200 to 400Hz in the sides of your synths, using the released track.

13 min · "Mushrooms" on James Hype's Stereohype label, FabFilter Pro-Q 3

MushroomsLeftwing : Kody, Glasgow KI$$, Robot Collective

Side signal cleaning

Clean only the stereo half of a muddy synth bus, with side mode EQ, Soothe in mid side, and TrackSpacer ducking sides from the vocal.

9 min · Insomniac mixdown for Rodden, FabFilter Pro-Q 3, oeksound soothe

An Insomniac releaseMixed by Jon

Bass widening techniques

Widen bass above 250Hz with a multiband imager, Serum unison, chorus or short reverb, while the sub stays mono and solid.

15 min · iZotope Ozone Imager (9, 10, 11), Serum unison, MetricAB

Saturation, the secret to punchier mixes

Saturate a snare bus so it reads two dB quieter yet sounds louder, then multiband saturate 100Hz to 900Hz so bass survives on phones.

20 min · Toolroom release, SoundToys Decapitator, FabFilter Saturn

A Toolroom releaseProduced by Jon

Analog emulation plugins

Five analogue emulations on a raw loop: tape glue on drums, parallel 1176 on claps, LA-3A to even out bass notes.

17 min · UAD Studer A800 (7.5 ips), Maag EQ air band, UAD 1176 Rev A

Compression part 1, glue

Glue your drum bus with a 30ms attack, fastest release and a 220Hz sidechain filter, so the kick triggers the compressor far less.

22 min · SSL G-Bus (UAD), Ableton Glue Compressor, FabFilter Pro-C 2

Compression part 2, levelling

Even out a vocal so the quiet words stop dropping out, using an LA-2A first, then timing attack and release by hand.

15 min · Leftwing : Kody release (BBC Radio 1 play, Spotify support)

Compression part 3, multiband

Control one problem band without EQ dulling the source: harsh drum tops, a nasal 2k in the vocal, resonant lower mids on bass.

15 min · FabFilter Pro-MB, FabFilter Pro-Q 3 dynamic bands

Modern sidechaining

Sidechain the low bass whole band with MiniChain at 50 percent, then sidechain only below 200Hz on the mid bass so the top end survives.

17 min · Hot Since 82 collaboration mix, Vengeance VPS MiniChain and MultiChain

Sidechaining busses for clarity

Watch Jon sidechain every bus multiband to the kick, plus piano and high synths to the vocal, for a tighter mix without touching a fader.

16 min · "Bring The Heat" on Armada Subjekt, TrackSpacer

Advanced sidechaining, Hayden James Beggin

Taught on Jon's own Leftwing : Kody remix. Sidechain your piano to the vocal across only the 1k to 4k band, so both sit forward without EQ killing the keys.

15 min · Hayden James "Beggin" remix, Future Classic, TrackSpacer

Beggin' YouHayden James, Leftwing : Kody RemixFuture Classic

Loud mixes with clipping and limiting

Use a hard clipper to shave the sharpest transients before the limiter, so the mix gets louder with less audible distortion.

19 min · FabFilter Pro-L 2, Oxford Limiter, Standard Clip, Soft Clip Pro

Techniques, drums as one

Four ways to glue a drum bus: multiband at 500Hz to 4kHz, transient shaping, Saturn warm tape, and an Oxford gate, then reverb to put them in one room.

17 min · iZotope Ozone 9 Dynamics, iZotope Neutron 3 Transient Shaper

Mixing melodic instruments

Notch the ringing resonances out of a piano, carve where it overlaps the bass, then add Decapitator and an eighth note delay for space.

10 min · SoundToys Decapitator, SoundToys EchoBoy, Valhalla Room bright plate

How to mix vocals part 1

Jon's full vocal chain on a real Vintage Culture session, from the 300Hz boxiness cut to splitting compression across two compressors.

16 min · Vintage Culture, Annabel England, Antares Auto-Tune (UAD)

Coming HomeVintage Culture, Leftwing : Kody, Anabel Englund

How to mix vocals part 2

Set up the short plate and long hall reverbs plus sixteenth, eighth, quarter and half delays that put a vocal in the mix.

16 min · UAD Lexicon 224 (Kevin Killen Vox Plate, EJ Smooth Hall)

How to mix vocals part 3

Sidechain your reverbs and delays to the vocal so you can run far more of them, then thicken the vocal with parallel compression.

18 min · Wavesfactory Trackspacer, Waves C2, UAD 1176, Lexicon 224 hall

AI vocal processing

Build a full lead from a thin Splice vocal using AI harmony stacks, octave doubles and Jon's full lead vocal chain.

20 min · Splice, Audimee, Tube-Tech CL 1B, FabFilter Pro-DS and Pro-Q 3

Oeksound Soothe, advanced techniques

Four uses beyond resonance suppression: parallel thickening, sides only mode, frequency slotting by sidechain, and drum bus glue.

14 min · Patrick Topping's Trick recordings, track with artist Raffi

Creative reverbs

Reverb as sound design: reversed percussion tails, dual mono reverbs panned left and right, gated clap tails, reverse reverb on vocals.

17 min · Watson collaboration, Logic Space Designer and GoldVerb, TrackSpacer

In the mix, Earthquake on Realm Records

The full mix of Earthquake, Jon's 2025 Leftwing : Kody release on Realm Records, opened up: the drums and drum bus, the LFO bass, synths, vocals, then the mastering chain.

EarthquakeLeftwing : Kody · 2025

Mastering fundamentals part 1

The first four moves of a master in order: negative EQ sweeps, SSL bus glue, positive EQ, then multiband to hold the boosted top end.

9 min · FabFilter Pro-Q 3, UAD SSL G Bus, FabFilter Pro-MB

Mastering fundamentals part 2

Finish a master with mid side EQ for width, Pro-L 2 limiting at two to three dB, then check loudness against references at around minus five RMS.

9 min · FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (linear phase), FabFilter Pro-L 2

Mastering saturation

Drive Decapitator on the master to add perceived loudness without the RMS meter climbing, so the limiter has less work to do.

19 min · SoundToys Decapitator, Brainworx bx_blackbox, iZotope Ozone Exciter

Mastering compression

Two approaches: one for levelling at a single dB, and one with a 250Hz sidechain filter for glue. Taught on Star by Jansons, a Circus Recordings release Jon mastered.

12 min · Jansons "Star" (Circus Recordings), UAD SSL G Bus, Ableton Glue

Full track mastering, Trick Records Steam Roller

Watch Jon master a released Trick Records track, including how he runs two limiters in series to build loudness cleanly.

13 min · Trick Records, UAD SSL G Bus compressor (200Hz sidechain filter)

Steam RollerMastered for Trick

Full track mastering, Vintage Culture Coming Home

Watch Jon master a full Vintage Culture record using only Ozone 10, from dynamic EQ through to soft clipping, finishing at his usual minus three to minus five RMS.

18 min · Vintage Culture "Coming Home", iZotope Ozone 10 (Dynamic EQ, Dynamics

Coming HomeVintage Culture, Leftwing : Kody, Anabel Englund