“One of the most important things when working ‘in the box’ is to make sure you don’t overload your channels or master buss!

"When clipping occurs in the digital domain, distortion is added to the signal but it doesn’t happen in a smooth satisfying way as it does in the analogue. Even if the distortion is barely audible, the cumulative effect over an entire mix can be really detrimental as your headroom gets eaten up by unwanted information.

“Don’t mix in to limiters! You may feel that the mix is pumping harder with a limiter on the output but you are reducing your options enormously. In a nutshell, every time you try to turn something down, the limiter is trying to turn it back up again. Leave this to the mastering stage.

“Think about the key element in your mix whether it be a vocal or a lead line and get them into the mix nice and early. You can then fit the other elements around this and you won’t find yourself struggling to make space for them later.”