Hey everyone! If you haven't registered already, our "Fix-The-Mix" (November) 3-day event kicks off this Monday, November 13th at 11am ET! But this time... we're spicing it up a little 🌶️ We want to mix one of YOUR tracks live on the event 😱😱😱 Even better, we'll give you the mix + master at the conclusion of the event for free as a thank you for letting us use it! All you have to do to submit your track for consideration is: 1. Make sure you're registered for "Fix-The-Mix" (November) here: https://go.mastering.com/fix-the-mix-challenge-dark-free7628423 2. Drop a link to your track below! *** Be sure to have stems for your track ready in case we choose your song. We’ll reach out privately in our community to get a file transfer link before the event starts. *** Alright... let's see what ya got! Drop your tracks below 👇👇👇 Michael Gilbride GM - Mastering.com

There are many different styles, methods, and tools people use to express their musical creativity, and I was curious how many people here share my seemingly obscure ones and to what level they do so. Here mine are in order of apparent obscurity: Level 1: I mostly compose music for band/orchestra and, in those cases, shoot for realism with the audio rather than whatever sounds coolest. Level 2: I compose directly in the notation software and then move to the DAW rather than starting in the DAW and only using the notation software for creating/refining sheet music. Level 3: I export the audio for each instrument part from the notation software and put that in the DAW rather than exporting the MIDI and using VSTis. Level 4: I use MuseScore 4 as my notation (and composition) software of choice. How far did you get? Any partial similarities? Any skipped levels? I'd be surprised (though delighted) to see anyone here even relate to level 1, let alone any farther, but I was curious how much of the odd-one-out I really am here. But even if none of those apply to you... What obscure aspects of your workflow do you wonder if anyone relates to? Maybe by sharing you'll find out you're not as alone as you thought? Anyway, I know there probably won't be much engagement here since FTM just ended for the month (unless I'm mistaken and the community stays alive during the interim), but in case someone does see this, let me know your thoughts!

I just wanted to express the gratitude I and probably many others feel towards the way @Michael Gilbride handles the mailing list. I signed up for it months, maybe years, ago after seeing a YouTube ad where Caleb introduced TRE, but I never really looked at any of the emails until Michael explained that he was going to start writing them himself. That was before I even considered pursuing music as a career, and I just thought it was a really cool move, but I started reading the emails, and as I (for unrelated reasons) began actually taking my passion for music seriously instead of considering it a handy/cool talent, and as I started to pursue music as a career, the emails started to become really encouraging. I've been hearing about FTM for a while and thinking "eh, maybe when I'm ready", but this time, my recent experience with the emails made me feel like it might be worth trying FTM out. My expectations were completely blown out of the water. FTM taught me so much, and I feel so much less overwhelmed by the task of mixing my own music, which I previously was convinced I should do ONLY out of necessity and minimize my involvement with otherwise. My impostor syndrome is also just gone now. Though I may be a bit less certain on where EXACTLY to go with my career, I feel so much MORE certain that I want music to be my career. I haven't even published my first score yet, but I know that even if it sucks and no one cares about it, I CAN succeed if I keep putting the work in. And I CAN put the work in. I discovered just how well my career choice really fits me, and how much more diverse my options are within it. I found a community where I don't feel like I can ever fit in with just because I'm autistic, one which, before FTM, scared the heck out of me because I felt like I REALLY didn't fit. TRE went from something that was a cool idea but in NOOOO way for me to something that I'm REALLY excited to be a part of when I'm ready. I'm sorry if this is too many words. I tend to say too much when I write... But all of it is just to say thank you to Michael. This experience has transformed my life, and I'm only here because he decided to change the way he did marketing emails. Thank you Michael and everyone at Mastering.com for the amazing things you do. It's great to be here!

This was my first Fix the Mix, and I absolutely loved it, but have a question for the people who've gone before: why did you come back? Do you learn something different every month? Do you come to do the homework just to see how your skills have improved over the past month? Do you come because it's entertaining and/or fun? Do you come just because it allows you to interact with a community of like-minded artists? To those like me whose first FTM this was: are you coming back? Why/why not? I'm probably going to come back next month, but I'd been curious since day 1 of why people would do that, so I thought: why not just ask?

I'm behind on homework and didn't get both things done today like I'd hoped, but here's my audio-only mix. It's a score I composed in MuseScore 4 and is the first I plan to publish. I tried panning the audio in a way that emulated the seating chart for a concert band, and I have reverb on the master bus to emulate a concert hall, but all other effects have been removed. I'm sure there's more to do, including but not limited to all of the stuff we learned on day 2, so I'll keep working tomorrow, but for now... any thoughts?