10 mistakes artists make before sending a track.

Fix them, and two things happen: your track sounds better before mixing even starts, and the whole process becomes faster and smoother. Less back and forth. Better result.

Mistake 01You don't check your exports#

You bounce your stems, send them… and hope for the best.

Meanwhile I open the session and find things out of sync, clipping on the drums, random glitches on the vocal, something that just feels off. At that point, we're not mixing. We're troubleshooting.

Mistake 02You process before fixing problems#

Classic move: add compression, throw in reverb and delay, maybe some autotune — but the vocal still has noise, clicks, bad edits underneath all of it.

So now all of that lives inside your effects. You didn't fix it. You just made it harder to fix later.

Mistake 03You send cooked vocals instead of clean ones#

Sometimes everything is already heavily styled: big reverb, long delays, heavy tuning. And that might be part of your vision — that's fine. But if there's no clean version alongside it, there's no room to shape anything properly.

It's always easier to add than to undo. Send both.

Mistake 04Your session looks like chaos#

30 tracks named Audio_01, Insert_12, final_final_REAL.wav. Everything blending into some hybrid texture nobody planned.

Then I get a note: "Can you make that guitar hit harder?" I would love to. I just need to go on a treasure hunt first.

Mistake 05You duplicate vocals instead of recording doubles#

Same vocal copied 3–5 times. No variation. That's not layering — that's just louder.

A real double takes seconds to record and makes a huge difference. When you duplicate, you get the same energy, same timing, same everything. That's exactly why it doesn't feel bigger. Just louder.

Mistake 06You send broken or messy files#

Missing parts, cut-off tails, random silence, files starting at different points. Nothing dramatic on its own. But together, it slows everything down.

And usually leads to messages like: "Hey, can you resend this one?"

Mistake 07You expect mixing to fix everything#

You want it to sound like The Weeknd or Travis Scott — but the take is off pitch, off timing, recorded in a rough setup. I'll push it as far as possible. That's the job. But there's a line.

Mistake 08You skip the boring stuff that actually matters#

Cleaning, editing, checking timing — not exciting. I get it. But that's the foundation.

Skipping it is like painting over a cracked wall and hoping no one notices. They do.

Mistake 09You wait too long to get feedback#

You listen to your track 100 times. It starts to feel normal — even if something is off. If you're tired of the track, you're probably not hearing it clearly anymore.

That's when you need a fresh ear. Send it to someone. Ask what they hear. It can save you from going in circles for weeks.

Mistake 10You send it too early — or too late#

Too early: you're still unsure, still changing things. The song isn't locked yet.
Too late: you're burned out, afraid to touch anything, and any note feels like an attack.

The sweet spot is simple: you're not trying to change the song anymore. You just want it to sound better. That's when mixing actually works.

Quick checkBefore you send#

Run through this before you hit send. If it's all green, you're good.

Mixing doesn't fix songs. It reveals them. Whatever is in your track right now will just become more obvious — for better or worse.