Get the Most from Puremix.com
The Puremix website is an in-depth resource for learning recording and mixing techniques, production philosophy and more, from some of the top engineers and producers working today. Watching the latest videos as they come out is a surefire way to increase your knowledge and insights into the music production process.
But you can get even more from your Puremiix membership, whether you’re a Pro Member or free one, by understanding how the site is organized, how to find information about specific techniques you’re interested in, and how to take advantage of all the special features available to you. In this article, we’ll show you how to get the most from Puremix.com.
What’s in a Name?
If you click on the Tutorials button on the homepage, you’ll be able to access all the Puremix videos. These include “one-off” tutorials such as Tony Maserati Mixing Jason Mraz, Mick Guzauski Mixing Jamiroquai, Andrew Scheps Drum Replacement or Principles of Mix Bus Processing with Fab Dupont, and videos from one of our recurring series such as “Start-to-Finish” or “How to Listen.”
The best way to find videos from these series is by clicking the Series category on the homepage.
Get quick access to the various Puremix series from this link.
Top to Bottom
Videos in the Start-to-Finish series give you a bird’s-eye view of the whole production process from tracking basics to vocal and instrument overdubs through the final mix. Some even cover the mastering process. Start-to-Finish series range from two-to-three episodes in length to more than ten. The most recent, Start to Finish: Matt Ross-Spang, is a 15-part series that shows the setup, tracking, overdubs and mixing for a project by Eli “Paperboy” Reed.
The list of Start-to-Finish series is continually growing. Right now, in addition to the Matt Ross-Spang series, you can find two collections from Fab Dupont (DCO and the Arrows), two from Vance Powell (Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown and Illiterate Light), one from Greg Wells (Bryce Drew).
Are You Listening?
“How to Listen” is another Puremix series. Hosted by Fab Dupont, these videos offer tips on what to listen for from an engineer or producer’s perspective. Topics include everything from general studio listening to how to listen to compression, reverb, tape machines, SSL compressors, mic preamps and Pultec EQs.
The currently available episodes of the “How to Listen” series.
For example, in How to Listen: Reverb Edition, Fab compares the different types of reverbs and explains their characteristics. He also listens to hardware reverbs and their plug-in counterparts back to back. In How to Listen: Vintage Gear Edition: Microphone Preamps, Fab teams up with Nashville-based producer, engineer and studio owner Chris Mara to compare the sonic characteristics of four classic mic preamps.
Get on the Boat
Yet another Puremix series is called “Lifeboats.” Its name comes from the title of the Will Knox song that’s mixed by a different Puremix Mentor—Chris Lord-Alge, Andrew Scheps, Mick Guzauski, Jacquire King, John Paterno or Fab Dupont—in each episode of the series.
The “Lifeboats” series features different Puremix Mentors mixing the same song.
Using the identical set of tracks, we asked each engineer to do a complete mix in a couple of hours and explain his thought processes and techniques along the way. The “Lifeboats” concept gives you a unique opportunity to contrast the different workflows, effects choices and overall mixing styles of these top producer/engineers.
The Power of Topics
The Puremix.com site is also a great resource when you’re looking for information about a particular production aspect. Start by clicking the Tutorials button on the homepage and then the Topics button. You’ll then see a Topics list that lets you quickly find videos on general subjects such as Mixing, Production, Recording and Mastering.
You’ll also find a list of links for more specific topics (Compression, Equalization, etc.), as well as those dealing with particular sources (Vocals, Drums, Guitars, Bass etc.) or DAW types (Pro Tools, Studio One, Logic, Cubase).
Searching the site by Topic is a great way to find specific information that you need.
Here’s an example: Say you were looking for info on mixing electric bass. Starting on the home page, you could click Tutorials/Topics/Bass. One of the videos you’d see listed is “Start to Finish: Matt Ross-Spang -Episode 13 - Mixing “Just As Long As You Want Me” Part 1.”
That video is 31 minutes long and covers bass along with many other mixing topics. That’s where the Chapters features that all Puremix videos have comes in handy.
Instead of having to skim through the entire video to find the part about bass, you could open the Chapters list on the video’s landing page and skip directly to the appropriate section. In the case of the Matt Ross-Spang video, that section is a little over three minutes long. In it, Matt EQs the bass to make it sit better with the kick drum. He also compares how it sounds compressed by a UAD LA-2 plug-in versus a UAD LA-2A plug-in.
You could then go to another of the videos that came up when you clicked the Bass topic and find and watch their bass-mixing sections.
On the Topics page, you’ll also see headings for Newest Videos, Free Videos, Most Popular, and Suggestions for You.
Tap into Their Experience
Another way to browse the content on Puremix.com is to click on the Mentors button at the top of the homepage. You’ll then see a grid showing photos of the various Puremix Mentors, and mousing over one of their photos shows you a list of their credits.
Clicking on a Mentor’s picture sends you to a landing page with all of that his videos, organized by popularity. It also includes bio information and specifics about his specialties, not to mention a cool photo gallery.
You can find content from specific Puremix Mentors from the Mentors page.
Extra Value
On the landing page of each Pruemix tutorial, you can find extra information or features. Most offer lists of the equipment and software that was used in the video. Some offer transcripts of the video, allowing you to read everything discussed, word for word. Some even provide downloadable Exercise Files, which consist of stems or individual tracks that you can import into your DAW and use to try out the techniques you learned or do your own mix.
The landing page for Fab’s “Lifeboats” video offers both downloadable exercise files and a transcript.
Speaking of mixing it yourself, Puremix also hosts periodic mixing contests, where you can download tracks to a song, submit your own mix, and get a prize if we pick it as one of the winners.
If you look on the home page under, Features, you’ll see a link for Mixing Contests, which takes you to a page that not only features current contests but lets you check out previous ones, too. Even though those have ended, you can still download the tracks and practice mixing with them.
Right now, there’s a contest to mix Eli “Paperboy” Reed’s song, “Just As Long as You Want Me.” The deadline is November 16, 2020 at 11:59 PM.
Some contests are limited to Puremix Pro Members, but others are open to the general public.
In the Tank
Another place to get your mixes critiqued from the Puremix site is called Mix Tank. Also accessible from a link on the Home Page, Mix Tank allows you to upload your mixes and get constructive feedback from other Pro Members. It’s a great way to get helpful perspectives from your peers.
The upload screen for Mix Tank.
You’ll also want to check out a page called Mix Analysis. There, you can read Fab Dupont’s in-depth breakdowns of mixes of well-known songs by artists that include Rihanna, Adele, Michael Jackson and David Bowie, among many others. Fab dissects each mix and points out specific aspects you should pay attention to.
If you’ve ever wondered how “golden” your ears are, take the Puremix Frequency Quiz, which is also available on the Features page.
Plug-Ins Included
Being a Puremix Pro Member subscriber entitles you to a subscription license to Sugar, the multi-band enhancer and distortion plug-in developed by process.audio, our in-house plug-in company. Sugar is both easy to use and extremely powerful and works great on individual tracks and busses.
Sugar is included with your Puremix Pro Membership.
As we release more plug-ins, they’ll be included, as well. Right now, Pro Members can also participate in the beta for our new mix revision system Mixup.audio. We also offer discounts from third-party plug-in and gear developers and gear giveaway contests.
Getting Social
This article is part of the Puremix Blog, which is usually updated weekly. Whenever a new video excerpt is posted to the site, we also publish an article that breaks down the techniques shown in it. The article will usually then move onto a related topic, often with audio examples.
In addition to reading the new posts, you can check out the previous ones on the Blog landing page.
Our online footprint goes beyond the Puremix site and extends into social media. For example, our YouTube channel offers a lot of free content, including full-length tutorials and excerpts.
You can view a lot of Puremix content for free on our YouTube channel.
If you want to interact with others in the Puremix community and find out the latest news about Puremix, you can join the puremixers Facebook group.