Where to start a mix: mute the vocals and build the low end first

When I start a mix, I rarely touch the vocals first.

Yep. I literally mute them, and I focus entirely on the instrumental.

Why?

Because if the instrumental isn’t solid, the vocals will never sit right.

You can compress, EQ, automate, pray to the audio gods… none of it matters if the foundation isn’t right first.

And that brings us to one of the most important foundations of modern mixing.

Low end: the foundation of the mix

The low end is the foundation of almost every modern genre.

Hip-hop, pop, trap, R&B, electronic… they all rely heavily on the low end.

So if the low end isn’t right, the whole mix feels weak, messy or unstable.

Think about it like building a house: you don’t start with the roof, you start with the foundation.

Same thing with mixing: you start with the low end.

So what’s the very first thing I do when opening a session? There is no guesswork for me:

1. Mute the vocals.
2. Focus on the instrumental.
3. Start shaping the low end.

Because once the low end is locked in, everything else becomes way easier to place.

Kick, bass, 808, sub, toms: these elements decide the weight of the entire track.

If they fight each other, the mix feels muddy. If they work together, the track instantly feels big and powerful.