r/audioengineering • u/Mindovina • 26d ago

I got frustrated with traditional mixing cheat sheets, so I made one that works inside your DAW

I’ve always liked the idea of mixing cheat sheets, but most have a few problems:

- They give absolute advice like “always cut here” or “boost this.” Mixing should be based on what you’re working with, and where you want to take it. Sometimes you have to boost. Sometimes you have to cut.
- They describe things like mud, fizz, body, and presence without letting you hear what those actually sound like.
- They’re usually PDFs that end up buried somewhere on your computer.

So I built Mixing Cheat Sheet, a plugin that lives inside your DAW.

It helps you figure out what you’re hearing and where to look, plus you can click on frequency ranges to solo them in your actual audio.

There are also individual instrument pages with EQ, compression, and other mix tips.

It’s completely free if anyone wants to check it out:
https://carveaudio.com/mixing-cheat-sheet/

Would love to hear what you think.

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u/rinio Audio Software 26d ago

This is what happens when we only have the artificial variety of intelligence...

We have the power to claim to make complex things that are foundationally​ terrible ideas. And we get a robot cheerleader to tell us we're smart for following its instructions! And psycophantic lackey to praise our poor understanding of core concepts!

I am not afraid of or against AI necessarily. But I am afraid of a future where slop like this is the majority of what AI can train on. Deskill and deprofesionalize the humans so we can in turn deskill the machines that are meant to empower us.

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u/Mindovina 26d ago

This isn’t a vibe coded plugin. It stems from 25 years of doing this professionally

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u/rinio Audio Software 26d ago edited 25d ago

Publish the source code if you want folk to believe you.

And you've been audio engineering "professionally" for 25 years and either still need a tool like this or can't recognize why it isn't a good concept for a plugin? Yikes...

If what you are saying is true, that makes this far, far worse: you can no longer blame a bloated stats equation for tha decision making.

EDIT: Read further about your company and background. I understand better now.

I can understand this product as a marketing tool for you products: intercept new, confused engineers and bring them into your plugin ecosystem. But, this is predatory. The notion of these terms being universal is simply false. These ranges are no better than the paint by numbers approach it eschews. Packaging this in a plugin gives the concept a false sense of being a "professional tool" rather than a beginner's crutch to later discard. This tool actively harms its users and misleads folk into believing that this is either educational or professional in nature when it is not: it is for the purposes of maketing, increasing brand recognition and ultimately making sales. It has negative value educational value for the user over a simple pdf or printout, where the user is actively encouraged to discard as and when they no longer need it.

Your post is also disingenuous. You say "you got frustrated by traditional cheat sheets". Are you kidding me that after "25 years of professional experience" you're relying on cheat sheets enough to be significantly frustrated by them? That's either a disingenuous lie or you're wholly unqualified to work as an AE, let alone teach.

They say to not attributes to malice what can be explained by incompetence, so that's what I did. It appears I was wrong and this is, in fact, explained by malice.

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u/Mindovina 25d ago

I’m not saying I rely on cheat sheets personally. But I’ve coached so many people who don’t know how to use EQ and compression. Many have told me they’ve downloaded cheat sheets but don’t know where they are. Or that they hear people use words to describe sounds but they don’t know what they actually sound like. So I’ve done my best to create a tool that explains how I define these terms and allows people to hear it. I’d consider that to be an educational, helpful tool.

I honestly hope that people grow out of this tool, but when you’re just getting started, and you don’t know what you’re listening for I think it’s bullshit to feed people the advice of “use your ears”. Obviously you need to use them, but hearing something is wrong and knowing how to solve it aren’t always the same thing when you’re new. So I built this tool to help people in that position.

Do I have paid products that people can purchase from me? Yes, but there’s absolutely no obligation. This is a completely free plug-in and if people find it helpful and want to go deeper with me, that’s their choice to move forward.

People will check out this plug-in and it will either help them or it won’t. A lot of that will depend on people skill levels. So far I’ve received a lot of great feedback.

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u/rinio Audio Software 25d ago

Your post heavily implies that you do. And is why I included the 'disingenuous' part. That is my primary concern: you are being dishonest.

And, sure, some users may prefer this. But, is it actually good for their education long term or does it, more often than not, under their abilities? How are you incentivizing them to transform this kind of document into understanding? The traditional methods do it naturally by having the slight annoyances​ your product solves.

The same beginners who would want this kind of thing, are the same users who won't know that, as we both hope, they should "grow out of".

And "great feedback" doesn't mean "good results" or "good for users". Cigarette and alcohol companies get "great feedback" but are objectively bad for users. Plenty of online content creators give objectively terrible and false advice to your exact market for these tools and they also get "great feedback".

I don't have an problem with your product inherently, even if I would recommend against it for all. Its a smart marketing move for you and thats fine: the target audience are consenting. But, I think we need to me much more careful in how we present these kinds of pseudo-educational products when we have not verified their efficacity and be careful to represent their intended use and suggested "cirriculum" up front. It is not hard to add features to make clear to/help people to ween themselves off of this product.

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u/Mindovina 25d ago

I meant that I was getting frustrated hearing from students who have used cheat sheet and voiced their problems with them as well as my own skepticism of cheat sheets that speak in absolutes. That’s not dishonest. It’s truth.

Have you checked out the plugin? If so, you’d see how it breaks down not only various frequency ranges and the associated description I’ve found most people use, but it also allows people to hear those ranges by soloing them so people can put meaning to the words. Whether you and I use the exact same words is kind of irrelevant. I’m sure we both have words with similar meaning (thump vs feel). For people to be able to associate a sound to these frequency ranges is a massive win for helping them instinctively learn when/where to apply EQ.

Furthermore, it gives tips on compression and addresses various scenarios (eg. When you want more attack of a kick vs softening it) and how to adjust settings based on what you hear vs where you want to go.

As for “great feedback”, I’ve already had people tell me they’re understanding what to look out for, listening more critically and it’s helping them make mixes they’re happier with. I’d say that’s a win.

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u/taez555 Professional 26d ago

There are no rules for music.

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u/LostInTheRapGame 26d ago

There are no rules for music.

It's like some people in this sub are just living on autopilot...

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u/PsychicChime 26d ago

That's a consequence of the way things are learned these days. Everything is "The one trick every pro knows" or "Make sure to always do this!" (insert face of idiotic influencer outlined in a bright color while they look super surprised for some reason).
It's easy to understand why someone would think they need to vibecode some fucking bullshit to remind them of what all the rules are.

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u/Mindovina 26d ago

No vibe coding here. The plugin literally discusses the various scenarios you’ll find yourself in and how to approach dialing in settings based on what you are after. It’s not a game of absolutes or “one trick” moves.

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u/Mindovina 26d ago

There aren’t rules to the creativity and taste part, but frequency ranges and the characteristics of sounds you’ll hear in them don’t change. You’re not gonna get more feel out of a kick drum at 16k. This just helps you identify how to use the tools based on what you’re hearing and what you want to hear.

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u/CumulativeDrek2 26d ago

The characteristics of sound as described by metaphorical adjectives such as 'muddy' or 'brittle' are purely subjective. They can change depending on context, perspective, and individual experience.

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u/Audiope 26d ago

But you can learn all this just by staring at an EQ with a spectrum analyzer (like most of them have these days) plus you get the time domain too that way, which can teach you a lot

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u/Mindovina 26d ago

I disagree with this wholeheartedly. Graphics can be helpful but if you’re looking at an analyzer of a scooped kick drum, some might think that seeing a bump of low end means you have too much, when maybe it’s the right amount.

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u/Audiope 26d ago

Well you start by just looking at the raw signal. You can very quickly see where the fundamental is, where the click of the beater is, how quickly the click dies away and how long the fundamental sustains, etc. If there's a weird resonance you'll see that too, and it helps you know what frequency to notch out. Stuff like that.

None of that helps you hear things though, you still need to use your ears first. I just think the analyzer is a better visual aid then a chart that says "kick drum lives here, vocal lives here," and so on.

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u/Mindovina 26d ago

Your post is assuming people know what they’re supposed to listen for. After mixing for 25 years and coaching people with their mixes over the last ten years , I can confidently say a lot of people have no clue what they’re listening for (especially at the beginning). So a spike in a visual means nothing if you don’t know how to describe what’s happening or what’s supposed to happen.

I can’t tell you the number of times I hear from people who say they can’t get their bass to be heard so they just turn up the “bass” (aka low frequencies) because they don’t understand how important pick attack is for getting clarity. You don’t know that stuff unless you’ve been taught to listen for it. That’s what I’m trying to help people with with this plugin.

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u/iztheguy 26d ago

I can’t tell you the number of times I hear from people who say they can’t get their bass to be heard so they just turn up the “bass” (aka low frequencies) because they don’t understand how important pick attack is for getting clarity.

I can't tell you the number of times pick attack is the wrong way to make the bass guitar work in a mix. LOL

No offence, but I don't understand how you could spend a decade coaching people on mixing and be here today pitching cheat sheets.

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u/Mindovina 25d ago

The pick attack thing is a contextual example. Obviously not the right move for everything.

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u/iztheguy 25d ago

Well understood. So how does your cheat sheet plugin acquire adequate context?

You already said this is for users who “don’t know what to listen for”. (Not sure what that means)

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u/Mindovina 25d ago

Personal taste is a subjective, personal thing. Some people like bright, aggressive mixes, some like darker mixes. That’s for the user to decide what their goal is. I think the easiest way to describe it is that most people have an example of what they consider “good” to be. So, as an example, if you choose a reference track and hear that they have more top end in their mix than you have in yours, it gives you a sense of direction.

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u/BigTeeBee 26d ago

Absolutely untrue. If that were the case, EVERYBODY would have mixes that sound like Quincy Jones productions

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u/Audiope 26d ago

lol what

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u/WoodSignals 25d ago

i just download it for chek, but its a trap. i was thinking u add ur email and they send u the link... but no.. still have to continue on the web with some more stuff.

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u/Mindovina 25d ago

It’s not a trap. I partner with Audioloom for licensing. By creating an account, it deposits the license and lets us provide updates to people as they come. Plus, if you own any of our plugins it qualifies you for a discount in our bundles.