Has anyone got some decent tips for this thats not gona take me hours to read and understand? Its REALLY starting to piss me off. Got a decent tune finished n i cant make it sound any netter for shit. I know theres no quick fire "make this sound sound better" plugin, but this has to be my biggest downfall, and when u sit there for hours on end trying to make it better n then u listen back n it sounds the same or worse then before u started it gets really fucking frustrating

why are you so lazy?

people spend years developing thier skills...

you wanna do it in an hour.

why not, make a coffee, sit back, and do a few hours reading?

alternatively, try track down the plugin "SuperMix 3"... it basically has a button which you push and it does your mix downs for you...

its made by the same people that make the "Insta-Top40" VST.

Because ive just spent a weak and a half writing a song and mixing and mastering really grates on me.

my Audio/Sound Tech lecturer at uni once said to me that mixing/mastering was the black art of production, but its also the most important.

Sure you spent a week and a half writing a tune, but the hardest/most important part is now, so surely you would want to spend longer/be more precise than u did with the actual tune?

why not, leave the tune for a few weeks, and come back and mix it later...

give urself fresh perspective.

Yea tis probably a better idea. Listened to it so much over the last week or so. But yea totally agree, tis a black art. Can make or break a song. That and i just get too frustrated if i cant do it

Get a book by Stav called "Mixing with your Mind"

Read it at least 3 times and practise practise practise.

Also a book by Bob Katz called "Mastering, the art and the science"

have you tried getting someone else to do it?

do u use any other reference systems apart from the speakers your write on?

I dotn have speakers mate. Only use my pioneer hdj1000s which probably doesnt help. (I got monitors but my nan wont let me use em)

BRO!

hahahaha!

no wonder youre struggling with your mixdowns!

seriously.

tell your nan to fuck off.

(or move out)

do you have a car with a decent stereo? a mate who can have it music turned up?

burn it too cd at a mix of what you think may be ok, go somewhere else, have a listen, write down whats wrong/outta place and go from there.

There are so many different factors that come into getting a good mixdown thats its impossible to tell you to do one thing and all your problems will be gone, one problem you will encounter striaght away is that every song is different and as such you will have to apply techniques learned in different ways for the task in hand...

Make sure you gain a good understanding of effects, especially EQ'ing and compression which are key to getting a tight clean mix...

Mastering is a completely different kettle of fish to mixing down, unless you know what you are doing with mastering and the processes involved (plus having a dedicated room with a few sets of loudspeakers, compressors and EQ's amongst other things) then you should leave it alone as you will probably end up making it sound worse rather than better, dont confuse loud with good...  

Use good monitors that arent tiring to listen to for prolonged periods...

Read, practice, work with engineers who you respect the work of and watch how they do things...

Dont over work !!! The second you are happy with something leave it and dont touch it again, the more you listen to it the more you will get used to it and end up changing it from something that you essentially liked but just got bored of...

Analyzers are quite good sometimes for spotting problem frequencies but first and foremost you should use your ears, they are the best tool you have...

Hope some of that helps mate...

What aspect of how your mix sounds are you not happy with?

Alot of it tbh. It sounds way to cluttered and muddy (even though ive eq'd the bass out of everything that doesn't need bass frequencies) Its just a massive fail point for me. Dont know where to pan what where, or what effects to ad really, ive eq'd everything as best as i can but thats about as much as i know. You can hear the track on www.myspace.com/adamnrg. Called Party Pumper. Just think it cud sound shit loads better  =\

Sounds ok to me. You should go back over it with a fine tooth comb.

If you don't use a spectral analyzer, get one. The Voxengo SPAN is free. Go over every channel in your mix and get the EQ's and envelopes tight as fuck. Only keep what's important for each sound/channel. Take the higher perc elements and pan each channel ever so slightly to one side or the other.

Try using PSP Vintage warmer on some elements. Other than that, don't know what to tell you.

^^^ some real good advice!

Like tom said - give your ears a break from the track for a few days and then go back to it with fresh ears.

You'll then notice the finer details that need work, rather than getting frustrated with the whole thing and not knowing where to start...

Go through the tune track by track (solo-ing perc together, bass and kick, leads together etc) find whats clashing in certain frequency ranges and either adjust EQ or adjust levels to suit.

Try not to have to many sounds in the same frequency range (especially low-mids and lows) coz it will start to sound muddy with too many layers. Also as mentioned, try panning some of your perc sounds and loops to give the track some breathing space.

Once your mixdown sounds right, try a multiband compressor / limiter on master channel - (PSP vintage warmer, Waves L1, L2, L3 ultramaximizer etc etc) play round with as many as you can, but dont over-do it like i always tend to do haha!

It just takes time dude, and you gotta be patient and constantly play around / learn. 

God knows i have pulled my fucking hair with some tracks and thrown my toys a few times

(i havent listened to your track yet so dunno whats going on but will do..)

 

 

 

oh yeah - and get some monitors bro!!!

No way can you right tunes on headphones, unless you really know your shit!!

Great advise in this thread.

 

Also, be aware of your own bias.  I don't think your own track is ever gonna sound as good as other people's tracks TO YOU. 

I've done tracks I thought were poorly engineered and had feedback from people asking how I got it to sound so clear.  ???

I think alot of us are perfectionists when it comes to our own stuff and actually have a negative bias towards our own work.

thats a very good point...

a comment i read on another production forum is that the biggest problem to producers like us is second guessing ourselves.

nothing productive ever comes from second guessing yourself.

try not to think about it all too much, cos you just end up a blithering puddle of rage and frustration.

There's plenty of vids on mastering around, try Youtube or even better try Google vid's and search for the Ian Carey Mastering vid, all his vids are really good. I would think Sound On Sound have a load of articles online on mastering.

Ive never mastered a tune or done a mix down, come to think of it i havnt finished a tune in over a year, im more fussed about getting all the sounds right as i go along than i am finishing it, by the time i have things sounding ok im sick of it, came close to finishing a few lately, maybe i will before the end of summer.

Kick up the volume. Play it loud.

Listen on different systems.

Do A/B comparison tests with stuff that you like the sound of.

The secret to a good master is a good mixdown 

I must practise.. 

I'm not saying it especially applies to your track but are you EQing everything else to give it its own space in the mix? The best EQ  tutorial I have ever read is by a D&B producer called hipnotic from the DOA grid.

Here it is. 

pretty interesting way of looking at it...

like the 'box' analogy though

yea, that was pretty fucking interesting...

*prints*

reading for work tomorrow.

Good read. Think you'd find it useful Tommy.

and remember mastering should be done to give a track a final polish, when its ready for mastering you should be completely happy with the track and they way it sounds. if you are not there ids no point mastering it - go back to your mixdown and fix it! you cant polish a turd