The mixing checklist: what to run before you call it done

Run these before you call a mix finished. Each one catches a problem that is cheap to fix now and expensive to find after the master, or after release.

Work through them in order. Do not skip the boring ones — they are the ones that catch real problems.

Balance

• Play the whole song at low volume. Does the arrangement make sense?
• Is the most important element clearly the most important? See sound hierarchy.
• Does anything disappear in any section?
• Does anything jump out unpleasantly?
• Are the section transitions right — does the chorus actually lift?
• Does the vocal stay intelligible throughout, including the quiet lines?

Low-volume listening is the single most reliable check on this list.

Frequency

• Is the low end controlled, with one clear owner of the sub region?
• Are the low mids clear, or is there buildup across several elements?
• Does anything sound harsh in the 2–5 kHz region at higher volumes?
• Is there air without hiss or sibilance?
• Has everything that does not need low end been high-passed?
• Are there resonances ringing on particular notes?

Dynamics

• Do the drums still hit, or has compression flattened them?
• Is any compressor working constantly rather than moving with the music?
• Do quiet sections still have life?
• Does the loudest section still have somewhere to go?
• Is any gain reduction meter stuck rather than breathing?

Space and depth

• Is there a clear front and back, or is everything equally close?
• Are the reverbs filtered so the tails are not adding mud? See how to fix muddy reverb.
• Are you using a small number of shared spaces rather than many different ones?
• Does the stereo image use the whole field?
• Is the low end centred?

The technical checks

• Mono. Sum to mono. Does anything vanish, thin out or change level?
• Phase. Any multi-mic or layered source checked for cancellation? See what is phase and phase cancellation.
• Headroom. A few decibels below the ceiling, no limiter on the master. See what is headroom.
• Clicks. Clean start, complete tail, no artefacts at edits.
• Automation. Does everything you automated still make sense?
• Mutes. Anything muted that should not be? Anything unmuted that should be?

Translation

Play the full song on each of these. Not a section — the whole thing.

System	Listening for
Main monitoring, quiet	Overall balance
Phone or laptop speaker	Does the bass exist? Is the vocal clear?
Headphones	Detail, sibilance, stereo problems
Car	Low-end weight in the real world

If it works on all four, it will work almost anywhere.

References

• Compared against two finished tracks, level-matched?
• Is your low end in the same territory as theirs?
• Is your top end comparable, not noticeably duller or harsher?
• Is your vocal roughly as forward as theirs?

You are not copying them. You are checking that your relationships are sane.

The final questions

• Does a day away reveal anything obvious?
• Are your recent changes improvements, or just alternatives?
• Does the song do emotionally what it is supposed to do?
• Would you be happy for someone to hear this today?

When the answers are no, no, yes, yes — you are finished.

Before you export

• Remove any limiter from the master bus.
• Export at full resolution: 24-bit, project sample rate.
• Leave the tail intact.
• Name the file so you will recognise it later.
• Save a version of the project as it was at bounce.

Then hand it to the mastering stage — what is mastering covers what happens next, and fix it in the mix or the master covers what to do when a check on this list fails after you have already bounced.

Print it once

The value of a checklist is that it catches the thing you would not have thought to check on the day you were tired. Run it every time, including the times you are certain the mix is fine.

Those are usually the times it catches something.