Have you ever mixed a song that sounded great in your studio but fell apart everywhere else? I know I sure did.

It's a common problem in the home studio. Our monitors and especially our room are not 100% "transparent", they "color" the sound of our mix, making us do mixing decisions that will sound good only in our studio. Resulting in what's called a mix that "doesn't translate well".

But it doesn't mean we can't solve this problem.

Here Are My 7 Ways To Make Sure Your Mix Translates Well To Any Sound System

1. Use Reference Tracks We already talked about using reference tracks, so I won't go into too much detail. But it's one of the best ways to make sure your mix sounds good no matter where it is played. Simply because you can compare your mix to the reference track and learn how does a pro mix sound like in your studio.

2. Mix In Low Volumes One of my earliest posts on talked about why you should mix in low volumes. Some of the benefits of doing that is that we get less reverb in our studio (less "color" from our room), and our ears perceive a more natural sound. This concludes in a more transparent mixing environment, which will help us deliver better translating mixes.

3. Check Your Mix On Cheap Earbuds Most people will probably listen to your song on their cheap earbuds (the ones they got with their smartphone), so it's a good idea to listen to your mix the way most people will. Take a critical listen and write down any problem your hear. Then, take that list and fix the problems back in your studio.

4. Get To Know Your Gear This is a big topic that I might talk about entirely in a future post. But for now I just want to mention that mixing is not about the gear, it's about knowing your gear. Knowing how it sounds, and knowing how to use it.

In this case knowing how your monitors (or headphones) sound is a crucial part of creating mixes that sound good everywhere. If your monitors (or room) have too much bass, you have to know and be aware of that. Otherwise you'll think that your mix has too much bass in it, you'll cut it until it sounds good to you, and then your mix won't have enough bass on other systems. The best way to learn your monitors is to listen to reference tracks.

5. Check Your Mix On As Many Sound Systems As You Can This might seem obvious, but a good way to make sure your mix translate well is to actually check it on many different sound systems, take a critical listen, and then fix your mix accordingly. Old speakers, the living room's stereo, your dad's car, and your friend's headphones, these are all helpful playback sources that can teach you a bit more about your mix, from a different point of view. The key is to always compare it to your reference track, so you know how does your mix should sound on each sound system. I tend to do that later on in the mix, when it's close to be finished.

6. Take Short Breaks It's important to take short brakes when mixing, ideally every 30 minutes or so, to avoid ear fatigue. Our ears tend to ignore and get used to things that we hear constantly, this causes us the lose track of what sounds good (and what sounds bad), and start making bad mixing decisions. Taking a short brake from mixing "resets" or "refreshes" our ears, making us ready to go mix again and hear our mix the way it really sounds.

7. Mix In 2 Volume Levels This might sound a bit bizarre, but mixing in 2 volume levels is a good trick to implement. Set your system to your normal mixing volume (which shouldn't be too loud), and every once in a while turn it down by 10db (a simple volume plugin on your master fader can be useful here). This will help you keep your ears fresh, and maintain a true perspective on how your mix sounds. It's also very useful when checking your volume balance and EQ decisions.

Combine all of these methods together and you got yourself a winning recipe to better translating mixes.

Over time you'll learn how does a good mix should sound in your studio, on your monitors, and you'll rely less on these tricks.

Do you struggle with making your mixes translate well?

Do you have any tips of your own?

Let us know in the comments!