Hey Reader,

Mixing on headphones sucks.
You’re never really sure how your low end translates.
And unless you’ve got a treated room and expensive monitors, it always feels like guesswork.

I’ve been there.
I used to bounce tracks, test them in the car, go back, adjust, repeat.
Still not sure if I made it better or worse.

How a visual trick changed everything

Then I found a workaround.
It wasn’t another plugin promising “instant mix clarity.”
It was a visual trick.

I started using LFOtool, not just as a volume shaper, but as a waveform viewer.

I placed it on my master channel and routed my reference track through it.

Then I filtered out everything above 200Hz to look just at the low end.

And suddenly, I saw it:

• How tight the reference kick was
• How much space it took up
• How clean the sub looked
• How different it was from mine

So I started drawing.
Literally.
I’d match the LFO curve to the shape I saw, and use that as a guide for my own kick and bass.

Sometimes I do the same for hats and shakers, everything above 1kHz.

Over time, I got fast at it:
Two button presses → LPF + LFOtool opens.
Compare. Draw. Adjust. Done.

It’s like building a custom template for each track.

What happened after I started using it

My last release?
It was an old track.
One I almost gave up on.
Several labels had passed on it. No feedback, no reason.

But this time, something clicked.
I refined the low end. Cleaned up the top.
Sent it again.

And this time, they didn’t just reply:

They released the track and used my master version.

If you're curious, the track is called 'La Vida'. It just dropped last week on the label Slap The Club. If you want to hear the result, here is the link:

​https://hypeddit.com/lemande/lavida​

It’s the one where I used this exact process.

That message hit different.
Because I mix almost entirely on headphones.

What I’d tell any producer working in a non-perfect room

Of course your ears matter.
But sometimes your eyes can help you trust what you’re hearing.

So if you’re ever unsure about your mix:
Stop guessing.
Start looking.

LFOtool is $50.
There are free tools too.
But the insight it gave me?
Changed the way I produce.

That’s it for now. Have a great week!

Stay Productive,
- LEMAN

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