Overview
Ready to take your mixes to the next level? Whether you’re a music producer, songwriter, engineer, or dedicated hobbyist, this four-week course will help you create mixes and masters that don’t just sound good but also feel good. If you're familiar with the basics of electronic music production, but find your tracks lack the depth, clarity or warmth of a pro-level release, you’re in the right place.
Through hands-on sessions with our experienced tutors, collaboration with fellow musicians and time experimenting with both hardware and software in the studio, you’ll learn critical listening skills that allow you to pinpoint what your mix needs and master the art of taking it where it needs to go.
But it’s not just about using the right tools—it’s about understanding how to approach music creatively and emotionally. This course provides you with the techniques, problem-solving skills and production philosophies needed to craft professional-sounding tracks, whether you're working in a home studio or a commercial space.
Course structure
Topics covered
The course content will focus on the following subject areas:
- Mix analysis, preparation and workflow considerations.
- Listening skills, mix approaches, styles and philosophies.
- Mixing and mastering environments.
- Pro Tools operation and workflow.
- Balance and position.
- EQ – surgical, subtractive and additive.
- Dynamics – surgical, parallel, multiband and combined.
- Space and depth.
- Tonal processing.
- Routing, patchbays and analogue/digital outboard.
- Master bus finalisation.
- Mastering philosophy.
- Sonic analysis and metering.
- Mastering chains, tools and processing.
- Mastering standards and formats.
- Studio and equipment considerations.
Weekly breakdown
Week 1 – Mixing introduction and workflow
- Artful unbalancing and the power of volume.
- ‘Mixing is subjective’ and investigating how balance affects a piece of music.
- Building an efficient mix template.
- Routing, gain staging and signal flow.
- How to use an analog mixing console.
- What defines a good master?
Week 2 – EQ and tone
- Lo-Fi vs Hi-Fi aesthetics.
- Ear training and using reference tracks for EQ.
- Channel and group EQ techniques.
- Surgical vs Broad EQ application.
- Developing an efficient EQ workflow.
- Mastering EQ strategies.
Week 3 – Dynamics and saturation
- Understand how loudness affects a mix.
- How to hear compression and its emotional value.
- Styles of compressors and where they should be used.
- How compression is used at various stages of a mix.
- Implementing saturation and clipping.
- Mastering compression techniques.
Week 4 – Dimension
- Creative use of dimension in mixing.
- Modulation and creating movement.
- Exploring various styles of reverb and delay.
- Stereo placement and creating space in the mix.
- Finalising a master.
In Week 4, students will complete a full mixing and mastering project, transforming a raw multitrack session into a fully mastered track. This project will be presented for feedback.
Skills gained
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Understand and apply the principles of mixing and mastering.
- Develop a set of valuable listening skills.
- Understand the basics of analog mixing consoles, routing and patchbays.
- Approach mixing from a creative mindset.
- Understand and apply the principles of EQ, compression, saturation, reverb, delay and modulation effects and gain staging.
- Establish an efficient workflow.
- Understand the principles of the stereo field.
- Know how to process audio with various hardware equipment and software plugins.
- Define and apply your own subjective decision making process to audio material.
- Master and finalise material effectively.
Progression
Whether you want to dive deep into hands-on practice with professional studio gear and connect with a community of like-minded creatives, or you’re preparing to advance to one of our longer HE Certificate, BA or MA programmes and need practical experience, this short course is your springboard to mastering the art of mixing and mastering.
You will develop and receive feedback on projects that will help you sharpen skills relevant to professional roles such as: mastering engineer, mixing engineer, studio engineer, music producer, post-production sound engineer (for film/TV) and broadcast sound engineer. These positions all make use of both the technical proficiency and creative problem-solving developed throughout the course.
“Catalyst stood out as the right choice for me out of many good short course options around the world. In a world overflowing with information, Catalyst provided me with clear and valuable insights, empowering me to rely on my own instincts in a way that I hadn‘t before.”
– Guðmundur Óðinsson, Mixing & Mastering Electronic Music alumnus
Your technological playground
Get hands-on access to cutting-edge facilities and tons of bookable gear
Tutors
Our tutors are industry-acclaimed experts in their field, with a passion for passing on their knowledge to others. Here are some of the tutors that will be supporting you throughout your learning process.
Student work
Have a listen to some of the tracks created by our previous students during this course.
Essential information
Tuition fees
Enrolment fee*: €495
Course fee: €1,755
Total: €2,250
Early Bird Discount: Enrol in a Summer Short Course before the end of February 2025 and receive a discount of €150 off the tuition fee.
Multi Course Discount: Enrol in both a Summer Short Course and a degree course with us in the same year, and receive a discount of €500 off the total tuition fee.
*Enrolment fee is non-refundable.
Timetable and class size
We can’t provide an exact timetable until we know how many students will attend the course. However, you will have an average of 16 hours per week of workshops. Alongside this, you will have some technical inductions and timetabled opportunities for collaboration with students from other programmes.
Our campus facilities are open for the students to use beyond the timetabled workshop hours. Live audio recording studios, production suites and mixing suites are bookable from 10:00 until 19:45 during the Short Course term. Each student has 3 hours per week of bookable time, as well as ad-hoc bookings depending on availability of the facilities.
You can expect to be in a class of 12 to 16 students.
Entry requirements
The most important prerequisite for attending this course is that you must be passionate about building and developing your skills within mixing and mastering.
Our Short Courses are designed to be accessible to anyone, so we do not require any level of academic certification to apply. If you’re applying to an intermediate or advanced course, we trust you to make this judgement for yourself. Generally, applicants must be 18 or over when the course begins, although exceptions can occasionally be made by the Admissions Team where parental consent is obtained. If you're coming from outside the EU, a holiday/travel visa will usually suffice.
For more information, please contact a member of the Admissions team. We love to chat! Please reach out to us at admissions@catalyst-berlin.com or call us at +49 30 2900 9052.
Application deadlines
Once a course is full, we will no longer accept more applications, so applying as soon as possible increases your chances of getting a place. The official deadline for applying to a Short Course is Friday 23 May 2025.
Open days, Q&As & taster workshops
Get a feel for Catalyst and our courses at a range of both online and in-person events. Join us at a Virtual Open Day or an Open Day at our campus in Berlin, check out our facilities with a campus tour, join an Admissions Q&A, or try a taster workshop.
Primer Workshop – Access to Higher Education
Designed for those wishing to join our main programmes, but lacking the formal education requirements to apply through standard entry.
These free workshops run at the same time as your short course programme and cover writing skills, reading, structuring arguments, debate and understanding context.
They utilise task and project-based learning methodology to ensure that you’re prepared and ready for our longer HE Certificate or BA programmes.
Student work
Have a listen to some of the tracks created by our previous students during this course.