I got an interesting ableton tip for you guys. If you rename your songs scene in a live set to the songs bpm, when you start the scene itll jump to that bpm. I found this especially useful when designing my live set as a producer. I have a section that jumps from 90 bpm to 60 bpm and it's hard to always remember to do that manually with all the other thoughts going on through my head in a live setting. (Improvisation, the crowd, errors, etc..) So this is a great way to avoid that in advance.
Mixing and mastering tip #011 Mixing is part subjective and part objective, there are some objective things you can work along for a guideline that I think every engineer should be aware of. One of them is calculating reverb and delay times. Having an accurate delay/reverb time makes your reverb sound more harmonic and in time with the song. You want to make sure you set the predelay and the reverb time using this method. Use the link below for access to a great calculator and how to on using it. Bookmark it also. http://www.nickfever.com/music/delay-calculator Also make sure to set the frequency range and size. To calculate frequency range you want to look at a handy little chart like
Mixing and Mastering Tip #010 Sometimes during mastering you need to make more than a small adjustment to the bass. EQ is great, but for a more drastic change, one of the best and least destructive ways is to use a multiband compressor and turn the low band up/down. (Independently from the other bands) All you need to do this is a multiband compressor of some sort (Izotope ozone 7 pictured) and a DAW of some sort obviously You may also want to turn on the compressor if you are adding more than a small amount of bass, because you are losing headroom by adding gain to the bass. That compression could help you buy it back. Make sure the gain reduction is triggering, otherwise it isn't doing a
People talk a lot about subtractive EQ (Getting rid of frequencies on one instrument so that the frequencies on another can cut through.) But sweetening is just as important, subtractive EQ alone will produce a very clean mix, but they can be called dry, boring etc.. This can be two ways, the first is increasing one section of the spectrum a lot, and the other is increasing a bunch of points across the spectrum, you can also do both if you find it necessary. Always use your ears to make these decisions, these are just guidelines and ideas to get you moving.
This is a simple and classic tip, sidechain compressing your kick to your sub bass is a great way to achieve a clean mix and get extra headroom going into mastering. I also do it with my kicks and 808s too, make sure the kick hits before the 808 and that the two sounds go together. If set properly it should make the low end much much cleaner!!
Using a little sidechain compression within individual elements (Drums -> Synth/sample, etc) can really help your sounds cut through your mix (Post EQ.) EQ should definitely be the first thing you reach for, but if you are still having issues a little sidechain goes really far. I've experimented with it on my own, it's been recommended to me by many people, it's almost a common practice it seems.