Advanced Home Recording and Mixing

This unit expands foundational home studio skills into full-session production workflows, covering advanced miking techniques, DAW editing and MIDI integration, mixing/submixing, effects, automation, and mastering/exporting. Students will learn to prepare and deliver finished tracks for digital distribution and physical media while assessing professional mastering and sharing options.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze room and source characteristics to select microphones, stereo and instrument-specific miking combinations, and appropriate mic/preamps pairings for multitrack recording
• Apply DAW production techniques—including MIDI transfer, loop integration, comping, quantizing, editing automation, and use of gates/expanders, chorus, and de-essing—to create cohesive, performance-ready sessions
• Demonstrate mixing and submixing workflows using EQ, dynamics, effects, stereo-field placement, automation, and bouncing to produce and export industry-standard deliverables (WAV/MP3) and share files across devices and social platforms
• Evaluate mastering options and distribution pathways by comparing self-mastering and professional mastering, preparing masters for mono/stereo playback, and outlining steps for physical media preparation (e.g., vinyl pressing)