Congratulations, Gemi! 🙏🏾 Becoming certified in TRE is already a major accomplishment, but being asked to step into a mentor role says a lot too. It means people recognize not only your knowledge and skill, but your ability to help other people grow. I’m looking forward to learning from you and connecting with you along this journey. We all need people around us who can challenge us, teach us, encourage us, and still bring good energy into the process. Much respect, and congratulations on this next chapter. You earned it. Keep growing, keep sharing that knowledge, and keep helping all of us become better engineers, producers, musicians, and creatives. Glad to have you as one of our mentors! 🙏🏾🔥🎶

@Gemi Moon You’re very welcome, Gemi. 🙏🏾 And I meant every word of it. Sometimes we don’t always see in ourselves what other people can already see in us, especially when we’re stepping into something new. The fact that you’re still learning and getting better day by day is what makes it even more meaningful. None of us have everything figured out. We’re all growing in one way or another. I’m definitely looking forward to connecting with you too and learning from you along the way. Keep doing your thing and growing into the role. You got this! 🙏🏾🔥🎶

I don’t think AirPods are bad at all for what you’re describing, big bro. If you’re traveling and mainly watching mixing tutorials, studying, listening to references, or just training your ears, I’d use them without overthinking it. I’d just separate that from doing critical mix decisions. I personally wouldn’t want AirPods to be my only reference for things like low-end balance, detailed EQ moves, dynamics, imaging, etc. But as another reference and something portable? Absolutely. And honestly, there’s value in learning how professional records sound through AirPods because that’s how a lot of regular listeners are actually hearing music anyway. If you want something more purpose-built for critical listening while traveling, I’d probably look into a good pair of wired professional IEMs. That way you can get something portable with better isolation and potentially a more controlled response without carrying full-size studio headphones everywhere. So I wouldn’t say AirPods = bad. I’d say use them for what they’re good at, learn their sound, reference constantly, and verify important decisions on your main monitoring setup when you get back to the studio. 🎧🔥

I voted Cubase, big bro. I have Cubase 15 Pro myself, although I’ll be completely transparent; I haven’t gone nearly as deep with it as I should have yet. I’ve had Cubase for a few years, and I’m actually making it a point to really learn it instead of just having this powerful DAW sitting on my computer. 😂 From everything I’ve seen, Cubase is ridiculously deep when it comes to recording, MIDI, virtual instruments, composition, editing and mixing. Since you play guitar and piano and you’re learning bass, I think it could give you a lot of room to grow without eventually feeling like you’ve outgrown the DAW. That being said, I wouldn’t switch just because another DAW is considered “better.” If Cakewalk is already working for you, the biggest question might be whether the lack of structured education is actually slowing you down enough to justify learning an entirely new workflow. Whatever you choose, I think learning one DAW deeply is probably more valuable than bouncing around trying to find the perfect one. I’m guilty of that myself because I have multiple DAWs. 😂 The fundamentals are still the fundamentals; the buttons are just in different places. 🎶🔥

Big bro, I’m still learning myself, but one thing I’m starting to understand is that knowing your headphones is probably more important than just having expensive headphones. I would listen to a LOT of professionally mixed and mastered reference tracks that you already know sound good. Learn how the low end, vocals, high end, width and overall balance sound through your headphones. That gives you something to compare your own mixes against. I’d also constantly check the mix on other systems you have access to; car, speakers, earbuds, phone, etc. If you notice the same problem every time you leave your headphones, go back and figure out what your headphones may be hiding or exaggerating. And I wouldn’t try to compensate just because the headphones sound weak somewhere. For example, if they don’t reproduce sub-bass very well, boosting the hell out of the low end until you can hear it could actually make the mix way too bass-heavy everywhere else. 😂 Eventually I’d definitely invest in a good pair of monitoring headphones when you can, but until then, references, learning your headphones, ear training and checking translation can take you a long way. Keep working with what you have, big bro. 🎧🔥

Appreciate you sharing this, big bro! For real, this is a good look. 🙏🏾 I just wanted to throw this out there too in case anybody didn’t know; this same 12-hour Logic Pro 11 Complete Tutorial is already inside the community under the Classroom. I’ve actually been going through it in there myself. I personally prefer watching it inside the community because everything is already organized in one place and I can stay focused on learning without bouncing back and forth to YouTube, dealing with ads if you don’t have Premium, recommendations, distractions and all that. So if anybody here is already a member, check the Classroom before heading over to YouTube. You can go through the whole Logic course right here on the platform. But definitely appreciate you sharing it either way, big bro, because somebody might not have even known the course existed. Good looking out! 🙏🏾🎶🔥