Mixing has always felt like a battle in my music journey. I clearly remember those days when I had melodies, drums, and everything needed to finish a song. However, even with good ideas and strong themes, I failed to grab public attention.
The main reason was that my songs, despite sounding good in parts, always ended up muddy. Eventually, I turned to YouTube to learn how to make better mixes. I spent thousands of hours there, hoping that one day my mixes would sound clean and clear like professional ones.
Unfortunately, most of those videos turned out to be more like band-aids than real solutions. You cannot rely on a single video that explains how to use reverb, delay, or any other effect. Mixing requires understanding many aspects of plugins and knowing how to use them in different situations. After spending a lot of time on free but mostly ineffective tutorials, I sadly decided to invest some money and enroll in a paid course.
A friend of mine recommended the Busy Works Beats mixing course. I had already watched some of their YouTube tutorials, and they were decent for beginners. So, I decided to join their course as well. This is my honest review after spending around 70 hours across different modules. It’s important to mention that I am not sponsored, nor am I promoting any specific course. I am sharing this review to help others, especially those in the hip-hop community.
First Look at the Interface
After logging into their website, I was overwhelmed by the huge amount of content available. It did not feel like a typical online course with just a few videos covering basic techniques. Instead, it felt like a complete library of courses that covered many different aspects of mixing. According to the website, the bundle includes around 72 hours of video content, which equals nearly 67 GB of data.
Here is the outline of the course bundle.
- Mixing Fundamentals ($499 Value): The bedrock of the course.
- How to Mix Vocals Easily: A deep dive into engineering like a pro.
- 808 Science Platinum: The holy grail for trap producers.
- Mix Genius: A specialized system to get a 15-minute mix.
- Mastering Made Easy: Finishing your track for loudness without losing dynamics.
Core Psychology of the Course:
The entire content is built around a simple idea: “Keep it simple, don’t be basic.” I was genuinely impressed by the tutor’s teaching style. He kept things simple and explained advanced concepts in easy wording, almost like he was telling a story.
While going through the fundamentals of the mixing section, I finally understood the “why” behind EQ, compression, and reverb. The tutor treated the mixer as a playground rather than a laboratory tool. This approach is one of the main reasons Busy Works Beats has over 300,000 students. The course is clearly designed for people who truly want to learn how to mix, not for those who only want to read manuals or blindly copy exact settings from somewhere else.
One issue I personally faced while watching the course was the speaker’s accent. At times, I had to listen to certain parts again and again to fully understand what he was saying, mainly because of the accent.
The Vocal Mixing Session:
One part of mixing that I enjoy the most is vocal mixing. However, I always felt that I never had a strong and clear approach to it. This course included two dedicated sessions on vocal mixing. The first session focused on the fundamentals of vocal mixing, while the second session covered professional and unique techniques. Because of this structure, my attention was immediately drawn to these two sessions.
Now, let’s talk about the first session. In this part, very basic vocal techniques were taught, such as cleaning vocals from white noise, using trimming tricks, and targeting specific EQ areas. For example, if you want to add air to vocals, you boost the 10k to 13k range in the EQ spectrum. This is where I learned how a cheap microphone can sound more premium and expensive with just a few small tweaks.
Now comes the interesting part, which felt like the real secret sauce of the course. In this session, the instructor explained how singers should use a specific tone and which effects should be applied to mimic the sound of popular artists like Kanye West, Travis Scott, Future, and Drake.
One major confusion of mine was also cleared during this session. I learned that whether you use paid plugins like iZotope Ozone or stock FL Studio plugins, the final sound can be the same if the correct techniques are applied.
The 808 Problem
One of the biggest headaches for me, and for many other producers as well, is mixing the 808 with the bass. The 808 often sounds great on studio speakers but completely disappears when the song is played in a car or on a smartphone. This course includes a specific mini course called How to Mangle Your 808, along with another one titled How to Make Your 808 Punchier.
I watched both of these lessons carefully, and finally understood how to balance the top end and low end of the 808. It taught me how to make the 808 translate well on studio speakers while still being audible on mobile phone speakers, which cannot properly reproduce low frequencies.
Who is this Bundle Really For?
I’m not here to promote or criticize the course. I just want to share my opinion of Busy Works Beats.
If you are someone struggling with thin-sounding mixes or don’t really understand how compressors or reverb actually work, this course is perfect for you. It delivers complex concepts in simple, easy-to-understand language. It can serve as a strong foundation for your journey in mixing and, to some extent, mastering.
The course claims to be applicable to 95% of DAWs, but most of the tutorials are done using Logic Pro X and FL Studio.
If you already have a basic understanding of mixing and mastering, this course might feel a bit slow or repetitive. That’s because the tutor mainly focuses on bedroom producers rather than intermediate-level producers. In that case, you may need to skip certain sections or speed through them.