Mixing starts with three moves: make the part people should hear the loudest, give it the middle, and leave room at the top so nothing clips.
In the studio each step is one sentence in a strip over the real controls. Its check lights when your song does what the step says; Show me opens the tool and points at the control.
A chords part plays more notes than a melody, so at the same fader level it covers the hook. Two or three dB lower and the hook comes through. Panning the chords a little to one side, fifteen percent or more, clears the middle for the lead without making the mix lopsided.
Headroom is measured, not guessed. The studio renders the song exactly as it exports and reads its true peak, the same measurement the Finish sheet shows. Above -1 dBTP, peaks can distort when streaming services turn a song into MP3 or AAC. A four-part song like the path's often peaks a dB or two over 0 dBTP with the Master fader at 0 dB; the hint says how far to pull the Master down, from the measurement, and checks again once you have.
The lead must be at least 2 dB above the chords part on the faders and not muted; the chords part panned at least 15% to either side, the lead within 15% of the centre; no track soloed (a solo left on would export one part); and the song's measured true peak at or under -1 dBTP.
Lead and Keys sit at the same level (-1.9 dB). Keys plays more notes, so it covers the hook.
The loudest peak reaches +1.4 dBTP, over the -1 dBTP line where it can distort. Pull the Master fader down about 3.0 dB, or use Limit the peaks in Finish.
Decibels relative to full scale, measured as a true peak: the loudest point of the waveform including the peaks between samples, which a converter can reconstruct above what the samples show.
Not when it clips. Streaming services turn loud songs down anyway, so a clean song at a sensible level often sounds better than a crushed one.
No. Every lesson is done by hand, with a check that reads your song. Gusta, the studio's AI, can make an example you can study, keep or undo, but that is optional and it uses tokens; the lessons themselves are free.
Eight lessons of about ten minutes, each building part of the same song, ending with a finished file.
Next lesson: Out the door.
Gusta Music is a free browser studio: a timeline, a note editor, a mixer and an AI copilot that edits your song with you instead of generating one for you. The lessons run on top of it, and the song you make is yours.
Start lesson 7