How to Get Your Sound as a Beginner (Without Drowning in Plugins)

When you’re starting out, getting your sound can feel overwhelming.

There are endless plugins, constant advice, and a feeling that everyone else knows something you don’t. I’ve written before about getting your sound – this is an extension of that idea, aimed at beginners who want to make progress without drowning in information.

Here’s the truth:

You don’t find your sound by trying everything.

You find it by learning a small number of tools properly.

Start by Finding What Works – and Stay There for a While

Getting your sound starts with simple, repeatable decisions.

Get your settings.

Find your place.

Find that reverb that always works.

Find that filter that does the job every time.

Use that desk and that compressor that give you a result you trust.

At the beginning, variety isn’t the goal – familiarity is.

Understanding the basic fundamentals of mixing matters far more than chasing advanced techniques. There’s more information available now than ever before, and it’s very easy to drown in it before you’ve even learned to swim.

One Compressor You Understand Is Enough to Start

Knowing a compressor that does the job every time is a very good thing.

I often mention MJUC, because it works. It’s musical, forgiving, and it helps beginners hear what compression actually does.

Learn:

• what attack does to a sound

• how release affects movement

• why less compression often works better than more

Once you understand one compressor, others make sense later – like an LA-2A on bass or a Distressor on vocals.

Switching tools too early doesn’t speed things up – it slows learning down.

Start Mixing with a Channel Strip (Desk Emulation)

If I was starting again today and wanted solid results quickly, I’d tell myself this:

Pick a desk emulation and learn it properly.

Something like the Brainworx SSL E is a great place to begin.

It gives you:

• a reliable compressor

• a gate/expander

• an EQ that’s easy to hear

• high-pass and low-pass filters

• subtle saturation

Using a channel strip across all your tracks (I don't include FX returns or the master bus) helps everything feel connected. You’re not stacking plugins – you’re mixing through a system.

There are plenty of channel strips out there. Find the one that suits the music you’re making. If the SSL sound isn’t right, an API-style desk is cleaner and more modern sounding, while a Neve-style desk is thicker and more coloured. The idea stays the same.

Reverb for Beginners: Keep It Simple

Reverb is one of the easiest places to get lost.

You don’t need lots of spaces to start mixing.

A good beginner setup is:

• one Room reverb

• one Hall reverb

Learn how they behave. Listen to what happens when you use just a little, and what happens when you use too much. Reverb isn’t about effects – it’s about placing sounds in space.

Learn from the Producers You Already Like

This might sound obvious, but it really helps.

Look up the producers making the kind of music you want to make. Read interviews. Watch studio walkthroughs. See which compressors, EQs, reverbs, and desks keep coming up.

Patterns appear.

If you can, hire a local studio for a few hours. Hearing compression and reverb in a real room changes how you understand them.

Each experience becomes a small pocket of information. Over time, those pockets form a clear picture of what actually works.

Beginner Starter Setup (Enough to Get a Great Mix)

If you’re just starting out, this is all you need – for now.

Channel Strip:

One desk emulation you use on most tracks

Compressor:

One main compressor you understand

Reverbs:

One Room, one Hall

Delay:

One simple tempo-synced delay

Reference Tracks:

Two or three tracks in your genre

Don’t add new tools until the ones you have feel familiar.

You are your sound (even when you think you aren’t)

It’s also worth saying this, especially for beginners:

You are your sound.

The instruments you choose matter, yes. So do the tools, the desks, the compressors. But underneath all of that, there’s something else going on.

You have a kind of internal DNA – a way you phrase things, a way you balance sounds, a way you lean towards certain tones or movements. Over time, that becomes ingrained. It shows up whether you mean it to or not.

I’ve been told many times over the years, “I can hear it’s you.”

And often that’s been in response to something I felt was completely new or different.

That’s the interesting part.

Even when you change genre, try new instruments, or do something that feels outside your comfort zone, that DNA is still there on some level. It’s in the decisions you make without thinking. The things you push. The things you leave alone.

For beginners, this matters because it takes some pressure off.

You don’t need to invent a sound from scratch.

You don’t need to force an identity.

Your sound isn’t something you bolt on – it reveals itself over time as you learn the fundamentals, make choices, and repeat what feels natural to you.

The tools help. The knowledge helps.

But you are the constant.