I’m at my wits end… I’ve tried 3 diff guys from soundbetter, the landr plugin, and a professional who charged many many hundreds (works with top 40 artists) and my songs always sound SLIGHTLY less crisp and more quiet than other songs on Spotify. Wtf gives? Could my mixes really be contributing to such lack luster mastering results I seem to be getting?

Edit: I have had songs mastered by stems as well with the same result

why does everyone dump on waves? From what I can tell it has something to do with slimy business practices, but I don’t see any articles / threads / info online as to what exactly is slimy about them?

I just learned that if you don’t have UA hardware, then it’s apparently a pain in the rear to login to your UA plug-ins? That sounds like a major headache.

Who in your opinion are reputable / solid plug-in companies for mixing?

I’ve had u-he, tal and Aly James products for creating for years and have always been satisfied with those three anyway

Edit: also xln audio products and have been satisfied with them as well

Edit x2: I’m not new to music production or the basics of mixing. This subreddit and others pop up once in a while on my feed and I see negative comments about waves all the time. I’m currently really only considering proq4 at the moment. I asked the question about waves and other companies strictly for learning more about plugins for mixing, as I do not own any 3rd party plugins for mixing. I’ve been using stock logic for over 15 years

I don't really understand how to use a compressor on the master, especially to make lows match parts that are louder. Maybe I'm just not understanding compressors in general - (maybe also explain compressors like I'm 5 lol)? I understand to an extent and thought I understood pretty well, but it seems like i'm getting confused often, especially when switching between different plugins with different options

Everytime I am mixing low end I usually put a saturator on it , put the bass in mono and add compression and while it doesn't necessarily sound bad, I just can't seem to nail that really nice, warm and clean bass most of my favourite electronic artists have that you can feel in your chest, especially when played at clubs or systems with good subs. My low end just feels kind of Pale in comparison. What am I doing wrong ?

I've been recording and mixing for over a decade. On my last release I got some feedback about de-essing my vox so with my next release I wanted to try to get good at it. At this point I have tried the de-ess section of sheps omnichannel, I've tried eq, I've even tried straight up eq-ing the entire mid to high frequency half of the entire vocal track and I still hear snakey sounds. I also tried not singing directly into the capsule and I have a pop filter. Are there any good videos or resources to get a handle on this? I'm lost.

What do you guys think about using 48k Sample Rate instead of 44.1k? Had a few sessions and stems arrive to me in 48 recently, been unsure about converting down even though it won’t affect the quality much…

Not sure if the streaming services would just convert it back down regardless, or even allow to upload!

Let me elaborate slightly.

I have been working in music (production/ mixing) for about 15 years and have only recently started to get my mixes to sit right without tons of arbitration, tens of rounds of notes, and of course the many rounds of car/ consumer speaker tests.

I still need to do all of this stuff but I have started moving to laptop speakers and AirPods earlier.

Very few people are listening to music on non consumer devices so other than initial detailing and stereo separation, why the hell are we spending so much time listening to mixes on studio equipment?! (Other than for our inner audiophile)

I remember when boy bands were coming out and guys like Rhett Lawrence were pulling car speakers out of their cars and into the studio.

Someone tell me I’m wrong and why!

…or at least let’s talk about this…

The mix is plenty wide and very balanced. Ive spent hours watching videos on clippers, and transient shapers and even using two limiters but it's not really working as advertised and even making it sound smaller using the parameters that is recommended. using everything the way I am suppose to. Even using those subtle eq tricks on the sides still sounds basically just a slightly louder mix but still cant crack -11 lufs without distortion or weird stuff. Ive been doing this for 10 years and I feel like i am doing everything right and really its sounding good on everything but just small even with all these extra tools

I haven’t really mixed, but I have grown to be a little bit concerned for my friend, who has mixed a lot. He mainly mixes on headphones, and has struggled immensely in getting the mixes to translate to other systems (from what he’s told me). It has gotten to the point where he will be up all night trying to mix and then he’ll wake up feeling like it sounds terrible. Has anyone else experienced this?

Recently started working at a local recording studio, but im self conscious ab my mixes still. I don’t usually get more than 1 or 2 notes on my mixes from my colleagues though, meaning they mostly like them

Im just wondering if its a bad habit to always use the same plugins, it sorta feels like cheating and like im hindering my own growth, but its worked out thus far and im not sure if anybody would notice if i didnt tell them

I typically do this and rarely deviate: Noise gate > Surgical eq > autotune if needed > 1176 > SSL 4k > fresh air > pultec > LA-2A > de esser > tonal eq if needed and im slowly working multiband compression somewhere into all of that

Then for sends: parallel comp, saturation, reverb, and delay

Ive only worked with 2 track so far so on the beat i use subtle dynamic eq and stereo widening to give the vocal room to breathe

I feel like i can get a good variety of different mixes by tweaking individual plugins and switching their order around from time to time but is this enough?

Edit: what ive gathered from this post objectively, is that i should drop fresh air, place autotune first, and experiment with different creative effects when i get the downtime. Also to trust my ears more, thanks everyone for the well thought out replies.

I spent quite a bit of time mix song and was never quite satisfied with it. Then I decided to start from scratch and instead of adding compression, reverb, adjusting eq, etc..., all I did was adjust volumes and panning and so far (without working on the vocals) to me the new version with less adjustments sounds better. Am I fooling myself, or in some cases just letting the mix be less processed work to your benefit?

Generally I would always remove the low end of my mix starting from 45hz to at the least 50hz. But upon analyzing a lot of my favourite tracks, I see they actually keep some of these frequencies. Are these just artifacts from my download source? (bandcamp), or do most tracks keep some frequencies below this range?

Thanks for reading!

UPDATE: A few friends pointed me to Xpitch as the best auto-tune slayer at the moment. It's a one time perpetual license, and reasonable price, so I'll be giving it a try and reporting back!

----

It's not just their awful, greedy subscription model, or the need to be connected to the internet to be able to use it. It's mainly the fact that it's ridiculously buggy, and has embarrassed me in front of artists and clients way too many times. Nothing like pulling up an older session in front of an artist, only to find that every single vocal track of Auto-Tune has been reset to C and their vocals are unlistenable.

I'm in Ableton, so I'll be giving its native Autoshift plugin a try—that alongside Melodyne will hopefully make Auto Tune a thing of the past.

But I'm curious if anyone else has been using an alternative to Auto-Tune with pro results?

I first heard Guns N' Roses' "big three" records in 1992 when I was twelve and knew little about rock music. The sound of those records, including the mix, is in my musical DNA. They are reflexively my definition of a "good sounding record." But I still think that they are objectively great sounding records, and one of the reasons why is that even with two guitars and later keyboards, the bass guitar sounds incredible. It's not lost at all, it's not just a low rumble, it cuts through everything. Even on crappy headphones, even on bone conduction headphones, the bass guitar is crystal clear; you can hear every note.

This was driven home to me on my way home tonight. I stopped by a store. My Michelle was playing over their crappy, tinny speakers, and even in that setting, the furthest thing possible from an ideal listening setting, the bass guitar was perfectly audible. I could hear every note. And I stress, bass guitar, and notes. Not bass as in the frequency range. No, the bass had no power. But you could hear the notes. I know few mixes where you could pipe it out of crummy dollar general speakers thirty feet in the air and the mix is still that open and the bass guitar is still that articulate.

Coincidentally, on Band-Maid's new single that came out this week, listening on bone-conduction headphones with no real bass power, the bass notes are still really clear. Not as clear as the Guns N' Roses records, but still, by the standards of most records I know, where the bass can often be either a low rumble or missing entirely depending on the speaker setup, extraordinarily clear.

So I'd like to ask this community of people who know what they're talking about: What gives? How are these mixes letting the bass guitar come through so incredibly clearly on bad speakers with little to no bass response?

Assuming that the room is an average-sized, furnished bedroom that doesn’t have terribly bad acoustics to begin with (at least, I don’t think it does).

Asking for myself as someone who doesn’t have the ability to treat my room at this current point in time and is not very handy when it comes to DIY. But I am able to either acquire a pair of monitors or upgrade my headphones (my current ones are Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pros, and I know there’s room for improvement). Just want to make the best choice possible. I also would be willing to purchase something like Sonarworks somewhere down the line.

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

What are things you can do that save you a lot of time and energy in the longrun?

I identified 2 things for me:

1) Using templates for busses and fx chains. I make adjustments as necessary. But spending less energy on menial labor means I can allocate it toward the decisions that actually matter.

2) Mixing super-quiet to identify instruments that are way too loud or way too quiet) can save me a half hour of fumbling in the long run.

Curious what everyone’s master bus has on it all the time? What’s your stock plug-ins or outboard gear that is pretty much a standard for you? I’m curious to see how standard this is for all mixing styles, or not.

Tried the UA one that everyone seems to love but it’s not quite what I’m looking for. Something not necessarily specific to a studio room but more modifiable and user less tweaking options. I have the studio one room reverb and it’s good but it’s not super realistic. Anyone have one they like ? Or swear by?

I’ve had my sennheisers 6XX for a good year or two and using sound works to flatten response. I use them daily, listening to music I love.

The only issue I’m having is that I find it difficult to manage energy levels in my mixes because well, I want the highs or whatever to sparkle but because they’re flat I really push it and then when i hear back on different systems they’re sharp and painful.

Should flat headphone mixes sound kinda boring… uneventful? I donno how else to describe this. Because I am trying to serve the song I want some things to really push through and take the stage, but then I am essentially pushing too much because the headphones basically dampen excitement to some degree.

But I feel super confused. When I listen to other music it sounds perfectly reasonable. How do you deal with this?

I’m talking about energy level specifically.

A week ago i've decided to learn mixing and started watching an EQ course on youtube. It was going pretty good until the resonant frequency part came.

Well, at first and I was hearing some resonant frequencies, but after a while with the new instruments coming in I've realized that I can't hear them anymore, even though the guy was teaching about hearing them.

Now, every day for a week, I've been on webtet net, doing the 'parametric equalization' exercise with pink noise and... I still can't hear the resonant frequencies, even though the exercises go great.

Am I on the right path? Should I try another exercise? Or just finish the course before doing these? I'm kinda lost

I'd really appreciate any advice!

Edit: Typo

I’ve been using a Sonitus Compressor for all my compression purposes and I don’t understand why I’d ever look into other compressors.

If I can change the attack time, release time, ratio, and basically every relevant criteria to my liking in my compressor, what makes any other compressor worth getting or looking into? Do other compressor plugins just sound different or something? Even on the same settings?

Hi all,

I recently sent an engineer a (relatively heavy) rock song for mixing for the first time. This engineer has excellent qualifications and has worked with lots of big artists in the past. In addition to the multitracks, I sent him my own reference mix and a list of reference tracks with very clear instructions about how I wanted the song to sound.

Unfortunately, when I got the mix back it very different from my reference mix/the reference tracks I provided, almost like a pop song instead of a rock song. I'm now quite nervous about providing feedback as it seems like the engineer didn't pay much attention to my clear instructions and sort of just did what he felt like regardless of my wishes.

Does this happen often in the mixing process? From the perspective of you mixing/mastering professionals out there, what would be the best way for me to politely encourage my engineer to more closely match the reference track I provided? I appreciate any feeback you may have :)

Hi!

Is there some way to make a good mix if you don't have room treatment?

I can't treat the room (home studio) but I herd you can go and listen to your mix in a car. But is there some way that is easier.

Positioning of speakers? Some program that can give you feedback on how your room is resonating?

Any help will be great.

Hey everyone! I was wondering if you would be kind enough to give me some advice. It's kind of long, but I think it's relevant to my issue.

I have watched hundreds of videos and read countless amateur and "pro" advice in my beginning mixing journey. I've followed all the advice with panning, gain staging, and HPFs and leaving the low end just for the bass and kick. The low end is also in mono and centered. The vocals are also centered (not in mono). I mix with my ears 90% of the time as well as with a spectrum analyzer to see inconsistencies and possible issues the other 10% of the time. On and on and on.

Instruments in my mix: Vocals, kick, bass, piano, steel guitar, Wurlitzer, horns, hi hats, rim shot, snare, and crash. I know it's kind of busy, but the steel guitar and Wurlitzer are used sparingly in the arrangement and the horns are playing when the vocals aren't. If I had to label the genre it might be jazz pop or something like that.

My tonal balance seems to be ok on SPAN (correct me if I'm wrong in the second pic). Nothing seems to be out of place or too loud or too soft when I listen to it. The first frequency spectrum pic I uploaded (https://imgur.com/a/N85OgmM) is a pro mix reference and the second pic (https://imgur.com/a/mPZ5fUM) is the frequency spectrum from my mix. Mine even seems more balanced along the entire spectrum (once again, correct me if I'm wrong). I see my sides don't start until about 260 or so and their sides don't start until about 170 or so. My bass is louder than my kick and it's the opposite for them. I have a pretty flat frequency spectrum throughout except for a slight boost in the lows with my bass and kick and that roll off with the upper highs. There's a bit of a dip in 200-300, but that's because I cut quite a lot there to get rid of a lot of mud that built up so the bottom end can be separated from the low-mids.

I think I've used reverb sparingly and I've compressed the instruments slightly that had a little too much dynamics at about -3db. I compressed the vocals a bit more at about -7db. Maybe another -3db on the master.

My headphones are EQ'd to the Harman Target. I just use the headphones to mix because my computer speakers are trash. Pro songs sound just fine in my headphones when I reference. My song sounds fine in my headphones, but when I play it on anything else (PC speakers or Sony earbuds) versus a song on Spotify or Pandora or even YouTube on my computer, it's much different.

The problem is that the pro song sounds "fat" and full, and mine sounds "thin" and "hollow" or harsh and when I master it, it just sounds like louder "thin" and "hollow" and harsh. From my description, what can I possibly be doing wrong? Is there any advice you can give me on how to get that pro "fat" and "warm" sound?

I'm only on my second song, and the first song has the same problem. I'm happy with everything from the tonal balance with my levels (in the spectrum analyzer and in my ears) to the arrangement to everything else. I'm still missing that pro fatness and warmth. It's almost like my song is in mono (it's not) compared to pro songs even though I've done panning with layers to hard left and hard right, and stereo separation.

Is it just layering? Do I have to layer a few tracks of the same instrument? How would that work in terms of loudness and adjusting my levels, compression, etc?

I've hit a wall and I have no idea what to do.

Hi,

I'm a DJ by profession and generally make music productions made for the club.

I have always been terrible at mixing. It's so bad that I had to rely on other people to mix my songs. This is way too expensive. I have Yamaha HS-8 monitors that sound great. I also use small computer speakers. Im my studio the productions sounds great but once in the club they sound tiny and unplayable.

But I managed to route everything now to my TV that has crappy speakers. So I can now mix on those as well. I noticed that if it sounds good on those it sounds good everywhere. Even in the club.

I can't hardly believe the progress I have made. I can now compete with other DJ producers without having to pay for someone for every song I made. So I am very happy.

My question is: have crappy speakers improved your mixes? And what out of the ordinary do you use to mix on?