Beginner Mixing Course

The basics of mixing a rock song in REAPER.
This course covers a lot of the essential concepts you need to mix and be comfortable working in REAPER. The plug-in effects used in this course are all included free with REAPER.

Part 1
Learn essential mixing skills such as:

  • organizing tracks
  • how to EQ and apply compression to rock vocals
  • working with doubled lead vocals
  • how to set up parallel compression
  • how to set up multiple reverb buses, and why
  • creating separation to layered guitars
  • punchy drum bus compression
  • how to use the stock REAPER plugins: ReaEQ, ReaComp, ReaVerbate and ReaDelay

Part 2

  • Organizing the project with markers
  • The best way to trim audio items
  • How to reduce guitar noise with the ReaFir Plugin
  • Balancing EQ of vocals, guitar, and bass in the mix
  • Creating special effects for vocals
  • Adding excitement to the tracks with saturation fx
  • How to draw in volume automation to level out a vocal, ensuring every word is clear
  • How to use Mid-side EQ technique for enhancing the guitar’s stereo width
  • Automating EQ on drums to enhance clarity in certain sections
  • Ideas for guitar panning automation
  • And tips for refining the mix

Part 3

  • The trick to really punchy and aggressive snare drum
  • A technique to tighten the sound of a kick so it hits harder
  • How to convert audio to MIDI for triggering drum samples
  • Manual and automatic vocal pitch correction
  • Small changes with big impact on the master bus

Plugins used in this course:

  • Cockos ReaGate
  • Cockos ReaEQ
  • Cockos ReaXComp
  • Cockos ReaTune
  • Cockos ReaSamplomatic5000
  • JS: Event Horizon Limiter/Clipper
  • JS: Transient Controller
  • JS: Soft Clipper

Enjoy this free mixing course from The REAPER Blog!

Free

Estimated Time: 3hr +

Difficulty: Beginner

Buy Now

Getting Ready

Welcome
1 of 3

Welcome to the course
Organization
2 of 3

Organizing the tracks in the project
Gain Staging
3 of 3

quick volume adjustment for headroom

Track Processing

EQ on Drums
1 of 10

Learn ReaEQ and how to use it on the drum mics
EQ on Bass
2 of 10

Processing the bass guitar with ReaEQ
EQ on Guitars
3 of 10

Processing Guitars with ReaEQ
EQ on Vocals
4 of 10

Processing Vocals with ReaEQ
Compression on Vocals
5 of 10

Learning ReaComp, take volume automation and parallel compression
Reverb
6 of 10

Using the ReaVerbate plugin for space and depth in the mix
Compression for Drums
7 of 10

Drum bus, mix bus, and parallel compression with ReaComp
Compression for Bass
8 of 10

Using ReaComp on Bass Guitar
Compression for Guitars
9 of 10

Processing the Guitar Bus with ReaComp
Delay
10 of 10

Using ReaDelay effect on vocals

End of Part 1

Rough Mix
1 of 2

Listening to the full song at the end of the first hour.
What’s Next
2 of 2

Organization Continued

Project Markers
1 of 2

Using project markers to define each section of the song
Trimming tracks
2 of 2

Basic editing to remove noise and visual clutter from the project

Mixing Techniques

Noise Reduction
1 of 11

Cleaning up noisy guitars with ReaFir plugin
Parallel Compression tweaks
2 of 11

Refining the drum crush track
Rebalancing Vocals
3 of 11

Finding a better balance for the vocal tracks
EQ Tweaks: Vocal vs Guitar vs Bass
4 of 11

Sculpting the eq to find a space for each group
Bridge guitars
5 of 11

Finding a unique sound for the bridge section
Bridge Vocals
6 of 11

Filtered vocal effect for the bridge
Bus saturation
7 of 11

Using the JS Saturation effect to inflate the overall mix
Vocal volume riding
8 of 11

Fine adjustments to vocal levels so every word is heard, while reducing unwanted sounds
Mid-Side EQ for guitars
9 of 11

Adding width to guitar bus through the use of Mid-Side routing
Bridge Drums EQ Automation
10 of 11

Automating ReaEQ for a crispier snare in the bridge
Guitar transition automation
11 of 11

Panning a guitar before the first chorus to create interest

End of Part 2

Full playthrough
1 of 2

Playback of 2nd mix
What’s Next
2 of 2

your next step in learning to mix in REAPER

Part 3 Introduction

Part 3 – Introduction
1 of 1

Welcome to the 3rd and final part of the Beginner Mixing Course

More Mixing Techniques

Punchy and Aggressive Snare
1 of 7

The trick to a snare that really cuts through the mix
Tight and Hard Kick
2 of 7

The trick to a really hard hitting kick
Triggering Kick Samples
3 of 7

Beefing up the kick drum with an extra layer
Vocal Tuning
4 of 7

How to use ReaTune in manual mode for lead vocal
Tuning Layered Vocals
5 of 7

Using ReaTune in automatic mode on stacked vocals
Recap of Vocal Tuning
6 of 7

Reviewing the workflow and tips on vocal tuning
Master Bus FX
7 of 7

Using multiband compression and limiting on the master track

End of Part 3

Final thoughts and full playthrough
1 of 1

Listening to the full mix one last time.

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Comments

12 responses to “Beginner Mixing Course”

  1. Arturo Manfredi Avatar
    Arturo Manfredi

    Fantastic course!. When I first started using REAPER I was very intimidated and amazed in knowing that I had a TopNotch DAW to work with but had a vague idea as to how to take advantage of all it offered.
    But after taking these Beginner Courses I feel more confident and have began to practice and explore.
    Congrats! to you for explaining so clearly and sharing this knowledge.
    Best Regards.
    Arturo M.
    P.S. Being a beginner that I am, I wish you could point me in the right direction to a basic course on setting up gain staging, proper track levels and such. I’m confuse about this so important subject. Thank You.

    Reply
    1. Admin Avatar
      Admin

      Thanks for your comments Arturo! I’m happy that you liked this course.

      I’m not sure I will do a whole video course on gain staging, but it is an important topic I need to cover.

      Reply
  2. Nicolás Ocampo Avatar
    Nicolás Ocampo

    Very nice course!

    In ReaComp, do you change something in “pre-comp” and “RMS size”? specially in drums.

    Grettings!

    Reply
    1. Admin Avatar
      Admin

      not too often, I’ll use RMS size if I’m trying to copy the sound of a different compressor.

      Reply
  3. Stefano Giacomelli Avatar
    Stefano Giacomelli

    Hi and thank you for all the work done with the course and the uploads,

    I’m a student of Electroacustic Music Composition at the 1st Academic year on a Conservatory in Italy and i enrolled in this series of courses because i use this DAW for music production and i wanted to know more about it, you did really a good job with all the explanations and the tutorial i’ve seen and i’m really excited to follow all the course in this blog, if it can be helpful i would suggest just a more precise explanation of the shortcuts you use to open automations and other parameters during the works, but just if we want to be really critics ahahaha

    Really thank you for all the works and the upload of the 3rd part of the beginner course that i’ve just see

    P.S.: sorry for the bad english ahahah

    Reply
    1. Admin Avatar
      Admin

      Thanks for the suggestion and thank you for taking the course!

      Reply
  4. Barry Avatar
    Barry

    Is there any chance a Reaper course for Voice Over and its intricate editing procedures will be offered? I’m sold on Reaper over my ProTools system that I’ve been using for over 35 years.

    Reply
    1. Douglas Reynolds Avatar
      Douglas Reynolds

      Hi Barry, not to take away from Jon here, in fact, I think I saw some positive feedback from Reaper and/or Reaper Blog on the following video series by Mike Dalgadio: https://youtu.be/EfZ6UxFujx4
      Hope that helps and hope that Jon approves of this comment.

      Reply
  5. John Douglas Avatar
    John Douglas

    I am trying to enroll in the Free Beginner Mixing Course Part 1. How do I do it? I have logged on and chosen the course, it allows me to complete the Welcome video and that’s it. It will not allow me go any further and it doesn’t show in my account.

    Reply
    1. Admin Avatar
      Admin

      sorry, maybe the buttons aren’t appearing because of an adblocker or some browser setting. Please try again on another browser. There should be a red “buy now” to add it to your account, it is free.

      Reply
  6. John Lesser Avatar
    John Lesser

    I am new to Reaper, but not new to voiceover recording. I would like to learn how to use Reaper for Voiceovers. I have used Booth Junkie videos but just seam to be missing something. I hoping that Reaperblog will get me going in the right direction.

    Reply
    1. Admin Avatar
      Admin

      Welcome John.

      Reply

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