Launch Mixcraft and select the top option (Record Yourself or Your Band) from the New Project screen. Navigate to the You Think It’s Easy folder and drag the first track (called You Think It’s Easy – Track 01) onto the first Audio track in the Sequencer window. If you drag it over the left pane, where the Audio track’s name is, the audio will snap to the beginning of the track.

Drag each track in turn into the Sequencer window. When you get to the ninth track, you can drag it into the space below the other track names, and a new Audio track will be created for it. You can continue this with the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth tracks. Make sure all files are snapped to the beginning of the Sequencer window.

Zoom in by rolling the mouse scroll wheel forward (or by using the + on the keyboard number pad) and see whether there are any gaps between the beginning of the timeline and the beginning of any Audio tracks. If there are, drag the tracks to the left until they are aligned with zero. Save your work and remember to keep saving every few minutes as you work.

Listen to the song. You will notice that you have some decisions to make. What will you do about the long silence before the track? Are the drums supposed to be in the music, or are they just in the mix to keep the musicians in time? What will you do about the long silence at the end?

Solo the first track. Click in the timeline above the first point at which you see audio in the track and press Play. What instrument do you hear? Press Stop. Click the track name at the left of the Audio track and type in the name of this instrument.

Double-click the speaker icon under the track’s new name and select a new icon for the track. Unsolo Track 1, solo Track 2, and listen to find out what instrument is on the track. You will notice that this instrument is the same instrument as Track 1. Do not delete it! There are two tracks of the same instrument in the mix—this is deliberate. You now need to label Track 1 and Track 2 so their names contain numbers. This means that if you think you heard a flute in Tracks 1 and 2, they should be labeled Flute 1 and Flute 2. (By the way, those are not flutes on those tracks—but you already knew that.)

Choose an icon for Track 2 by double-clicking the speaker icon. You will probably want to choose the same icon as for Track 1. Mixcraft does not give you a lot of choices.

Go through each track, soloing them and labeling them. You will find that some instruments are doubled—that means there are two recordings of the same instrument. Doubling is different from duplication. When you duplicate a track, you create an exact copy; when you double a track, you record it again with some slight changes to the sound or timing. Make sure you number each doubled instrument as you label it.

Right-click in the blank area below the name of each track (to the left of its Mute button). Select Color and choose a color for each track. You may like to color doubled instruments together. For example, you could choose the same color for both of the electric pianos. This will make it easier to locate your tracks as you mix.

After you have colored all the tracks, you can rearrange them into whatever order you like by dragging each track up or down in the Sequencer. Click and hold the blank space under a track name (the same area you just right-clicked for color changing) and then drag the track up or down past one of the other tracks. You will see that you can move them all until you get them into an order you like.

Keep like instruments together. Some studio musicians like to have their vocals at the top of the Sequencer window, whereas others like to have the bass and drums at the top—it is totally up to you.

Open the Mixer tab. Listen to the song and adjust the panning position for each instrument. You may want to imagine how they might sound on stage and place them so they come out of the speakers at those points. You will probably want to keep the vocals fairly near the center of the mix and fill out the rest of the space with different sounds.

Place doubled instruments in different places in the mix. They are doubled for a reason—to give more presence to their sound. Think of how an orchestra has 30 violins or a rock band sometimes has three guitars. This is a standard multitracking technique, and you can achieve great sounds by mixing this way.

Solo the Vocal track. Use the simple EQ dials to shape the sound of the voice. Make sure the levels do not peak into the red zone as you add EQ. Unsolo the voice to hear how it sounds with the rest of the mix. Keep adjusting the EQ dials and the volume fader until you get a good sound.

Repeat this step with every track on the Mixer. Use slightly different EQ settings for doubled instruments. It will take some time to work through every track, but do not hurry the job. It will be well worth it in the end.

If any tracks require more fine-tuning of their EQ or need compression, you can use the FX button to insert EQ or Compressor units. Try to avoid doing this for every track, or you will overly tax the computer’s processor, and your audio could suffer as a result.

Decide what to do with the drums. You can mute them or delete them entirely if you think they are unnecessary, or you can keep the volume fader on the drums quite low so they are not too dominant in the mix.

Decide what to do with the silence at the beginning of the track. You could add another Audio track and use a microphone and audio interface to record your own introduction to the music, like a radio DJ announcing what the next song is. You could also cut the whole opening—select one track in the Sequencer window, choose Edit > Select All (shortcut key combination: Ctrl+A), right-click in the timeline just before the point where you want the music to start, select Split (shortcut key combination: Ctrl+T), delete the clips you do not want, and move all the tracks back to zero on the timeline. You will need to click somewhere off the tracks in the Sequencer to deselect everything.

Decide what to do with the end of the song. You will probably want to delete all of the unused audio at the end. Select all the tracks, split the tracks, and delete the unused portion, just like in Step 9. If you have decided to keep the drums in the mix, you will need to use the automation feature in the Sequencer to fade them out at the end of the song.

Return to the Mixer tab. Use Track > Add Track > Send Track to add a Send track to the mix. You will see it inserted between the last Audio track in your Mixer and the Master Mix fader. Double-click the name of the Send track and change it to Reverb. Click the FX button and add the Classic Reverb. Choose a preset you like.

You will now see that Send knobs have been added to all the tracks. Play the song and adjust the amount of signal that goes from each track into the reverb send by turning the Send knob. The amount of reverb that is sent from doubled instruments can remain the same—that is not a problem. Make sure the level in the Send track never goes into the red zone.

Add another Send track. Label it Chorus, add the Classic Chorus to the FX chain, and choose a preset. Mixcraft does not add another Send knob—you use the same one you used for the reverb channel, and Mixcraft remembers the level of the Send knob for each channel. Use the drop-down menu at the left of the Mixer tab to select Chorus as the send channel and send some of the audio from the tracks to the chorus.

You probably do not want to send chorus from every instrument. (Drums would be particularly strange with chorus.) With the doubled instruments, you should send different amounts to the chorus from each of them, or you could send one doubled instrument to the chorus send and not to the other. As you mix, you will see how effective that can be.

Just for fun, add the GSnap Pitch Correction to the FX chain on the Vocal track. Click Edit beside the preset selection column, and you will see the GSnap Pitch Correction Unit. Click Set Key and adjust the key of the unit to G minor. Now listen to what that does to the vocal. Pretty cool! You can keep that in your mix, if you like, or remove it—it’s a matter of taste. Some people really like auto-tune; others hate it.

Click the FX button on the Master Mix fader. Add the Classic Master Limiter and select the Master CD preset. Press Edit beside the preset selection column so you can see the Classic Master Limiter unit. Listen to your song and adjust the Threshold knob to find a level in which your final mix sounds blended but not congested. You should be able to hear all the instruments well, but your mix should not feel as if all the instruments are trying to play as loudly as they can. Your Master Mix fader should almost hit the red zone but just fall short. This is a delicate process, but it is the final polishing touch that will make the mix sound as if it is on a professional CD, if you do it right.

Mix down your final version of “Do You Think It’s Easy?” by selecting File > Mix Down To > MP3. Share your mix with your friends and family. We have already secured you permission from Robin Hodson (the composer and copyright holder) to post this mix online, so look ahead to Chapter 17, “Putting It All Together,” for ideas on how to do this.

Launch Mixcraft and select the top option (Record Yourself or Your Band) from the New Project screen. Navigate to the Susquehanna folder and drag the first track (called Susquehanna – Track 01) onto the first Audio track in the Sequencer window. If you drag it over the left pane, where the Audio track’s name is, the audio will snap to the beginning of the track.

Drag each track in turn into the Sequencer window. When you get to the ninth track, you can drag it into the space below the other track names, and a new Audio track will be created for it. You can continue this with the rest of the tracks. Make sure all files are snapped to the beginning of the Sequencer window.

Zoom in by rolling the mouse scroll wheel forward (or by using the + on the keyboard number pad) and see whether there are any gaps between the beginning of the timeline and the beginning of any Audio tracks. If there are, drag the tracks to the left until they are aligned with zero. Save your work and remember to keep saving every few minutes as you work.

Listen to the song from the beginning until 6:30. At this point, there are just drums left on the tracks, so you don’t need to listen to the rest—you’ll be trimming that away. How many different instruments can you hear in the mix?

Solo the first track. Click in the timeline above the first point at which you see audio in the track and press Play. What instrument do you hear? Press Stop. Click the track name at the left of the Audio track and type in a name for this instrument.

Double-click the speaker icon under the track’s new name and select a new icon for the track. Unsolo Track 1, solo Track 2, and listen to find out what instrument is on the track. Label it and choose an icon. Go through all the tracks in turn, listening to them and labeling them. You may find that there are instruments you did not hear in the previous step. It will be your job as the studio engineer to make sure all these instruments are heard in the mix.

Right-click in the blank area below the name of each track (to the left of its Mute button). Select Color and choose a color for each track. You may like to color similar instruments the same. After you have colored all the tracks, you can rearrange them into whatever order you like by dragging each track up or down in the Sequencer. Click and hold the blank space under a track name (the same area you just right-clicked for color changing) and then drag the track up or down past one of the other tracks.

Open the Mixer tab. Listen to the song and adjust the panning position for each instrument. You may want to imagine how they might sound on stage and place them so they come out of the speakers at those points. You will probably want to keep the vocals fairly near the center of the mix and fill out the rest of the space with different sounds. Give careful consideration to instruments that are doubled.

Listen through the song several times and alter the levels of each instrument until you can hear them in the mix. You may find it helpful to use the simple EQ dials on the Mixer to highlight certain sounds and help them stand out in the mix.

Add a Send track and insert a reverb unit on it. Choose an appropriate preset for the song. Label the Send track as Reverb Send. Use the Send dials on the Mixer to send sounds from each track to the Reverb Send as you listen to the song.

You may find that you would like to automate how much reverb is being sent from each instrument to the Reverb Send. For example, the saxophone sounds good with plenty of reverb at the start of the song, but you would need to bring down this amount of reverb when the other instruments enter. You will be able to adjust the Reverb Send automation in the automation lane for the Saxophone track.

In the Sequencer window, click on the Automation button in the Track Name pane. (It looks like a small line graph.) You will see that Track Volume is the default selection in the automation lane. Click the down arrow to the right of the words Track Volume and select Reverb. You can now add breakpoints to the automation line to control the amount of send from the track. Give the saxophone plenty of reverb at the start of the song and then bring down that level by drawing in breakpoints later in the track. Solo the Saxophone track and listen to it to hear that effect work. Listen again with all the instruments playing. You can adjust the breakpoints as you listen.

Create another Send track and label it Drum Compressor. There are a lot of Drum tracks in this song, so it would be good to compress them together in one Send track in order to keep the sound smooth. Choose a good preset for drums and change the Send Channel selector in the Mixer to Drum Compressor. Solo all the Drum tracks and adjust the amount of sound going into the Send track from the Send knobs until you have a smooth drum sound. Listen to the drums together and also listen to them with the rest of the mix.

Check the levels of every track to make sure that you can still hear all the sounds and that they are well balanced. Add compressors and/or EQs to some tracks to highlight those sounds.

Continue to check levels of each sound as you mix. Make sure levels do not go into the red zone on the channel strips in the Mixer.

Listen to the end of the song (around 6:00–6:30 on the timeline) and find a point at which you would like the mix to fade out. Use Track > Show Master Track to bring up the master fader in the Sequencer. Use the automation lane to create a slow fade at the end of the song. Use Edit > Select All (or the shortcut key combination Ctrl+A) to select all the tracks in the Sequencer. Right-click on one of the tracks just after the end of the fade and select Split from the drop-down menu. Click in a blank space in the Sequencer window to deselect everything and then delete the unused region from each track. (Select each clip after the split point by clicking on its name bar and pressing Delete.)

Check your song several times to make sure everything is correct. Add the Classic Master Limiter to the Main Mix Fader FX chain and select the Master CD preset. Mix down your final version of “Susquehanna” by selecting

File > Mix Down To > MP3. Share your mix with your friends and your family. We have already secured you permission from Robin Hodson (the composer and copyright holder) to post this mix online, so look ahead to Chapter 17 for ideas on how to do this.