General

 

Interviews/walkthroughs with legitimate professionals working can be great (e.g Mix With The Masters). You’ll get more out of them if you’re comfortable with the tools they’re using, so read the plugin manuals and get using them on a daily basis.

 

In general beware of anything with hyped titles like “30 MIXING HACKS”. There’s a whole lot of misinformation out there, so assess who the information is coming from, and what their agenda may be (whether that’s building subscribers, or shilling a product etc). Research the records these people have worked on, and see if they actually sound good before you go taking their advice!

Engineering/Mixing/Production

 

Live With Matt Rad: A great series of IG Live interviews with guests including Bainz, TEEZIO, Jon Castelli, and more. The series spawned a super generous Discord community that’s turned into one of the best online sources of info on modern record making, with some very accomplished regular contributors. // LWMR Instagram // Podcast on Spotify, also on Apple Music etc. // Discord Community // YouTube Channel

 

Steve Albini / Electrical Audio: YouTube channel by a legendary engineer, with great tutorials on recording fundamentals //  https://www.youtube.com/@ElectricalAudioOfficial


Making records with Eric Valentine: Another legend in the field, again delivering high quality instructive videos on making records  https://www.youtube.com/@mrwev


Just For The Record: Live streams of world class mixers doing their work //  https://www.youtube.com/@JFTRLive

 

Sol State: Clips from longer form streams by (mostly electronic and pop) producers – https://www.youtube.com/@SolStateMusic

Orchestral/Scoring

 

Recommends from LA composer Phil Boucher (Fortnite, Civilisation…):

 

Just like with the record side, there’s so much noise from bedroom composers and people that have zero real-world experience, and even the people with real success often can’t teach what they know.

 

Spitfire has gotten quite good at creating “tutorial” videos that are thinly veiled advertisements, and many of their libraries are the equivalent of one-knob plugins or CLA vocals. Selling paint-by-numbers solutions to naïve kids who want to get into scoring (They’re far from the only ones guilty of this).

 

But to focus on some of the channels I think are actually worth their salt:

 

8-Bit Music Theory: https://www.youtube.com/@8bitMusicTheory/videos Can be a bit basic at times, but he talks a lot about structure which, IMO, is becoming a lost art in modern scoring.

 

Anne-Kathrin Dern: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWJg1w7F3PKPbSpEF2YOejVjWAg-KcM3Z Not the biggest name out there, but she has a no-bullshit way of explaining things about orchestration and theory that is clear and concise. As far as “teachers,” I think she’s a good one.

 

Alan Meyerson Waves Sessions: https://youtu.be/h9jZqn5lnw4 I hesitate to include this. I know for a fact that Alan swapped out a bunch of his go-to plugins to make everything a Waves product. I haven’t watched this in awhile, but it’s a good insight into how he sets up a big mix session and why he makes some of his decisions. He’s also playing to the camera/audience some, so this is a your-mileage-may-vary recommendation.

 

McGowen Soundworks: https://www.youtube.com/@McGowanSoundworks/featured Phil knows his shit, and goes pretty deep breaking down a few actual mixes, which is pretty rare to find.

 

JunkieXL (Mad Max Fury Road, Hans Zimmer protegé) walks through projects, gear setup, music theory, professional practice stuff – https://www.youtube.com/@junkiexlofficial

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