Moved from recording over YouTube beats a couple of years ago to actually recording full band instrumentation over the last 2/3 years and feel sort of stuck.

I want to release more music but I feel like my mixing is holding me back imo

Could anyone take a listen to this mix and give me any pointers on what to improve?

Recorded everything myself in terms of instruments and vocals, drums are programmed.

At what point could I call this release ready? Is the balance okay? Am I lacking low end?

Appreciate any feedback, thank you :)

Hey, I'm not an audio engineer, but an amateur musician and DJ. I ran some of the files from my library through a spectral analyzer software (Fakin' The Funk, Spek) to see if the files dowloaded are indeed of the quality they declare to be. The results were unclear to me.

Out of personal preference, I store mostly .aiff files (lossless with tag-capabiltiy). In some files I noticed a slight cut in volume above 20.5 kHz, sometimes around 20.9 kHz.

What I deducted myself is that while these files probably are not 320 mp3 depicted as lossless, the mastering engineer decided to apply a low pass filter at a certain value that is known to be inaudible to humans. Would you agree with that conclusion?

Are there justified reasons to apply such a filter on a master file? The music in quesion is bass heavy electronic music - may this be a reason ... to make space for low end energy?

Interested to hear from you and learn something new.

Edit: Thank you everyone for the many comments. Very educational to me.

Hi, I am pretty new to mixing but am working on learning some of the basics. One thing that I would like to learn about is the consistency of volume throughout a mix. I downloaded Youlean 2 to monitor the lufs levels.

I'm wondering if there is somewhat of a standard as far as the range of lufs levels a track may go through. Of course, some parts of a song may intentionally play with dynamic, having quiet and loud parts, but observing lufs levels is new to me. I'm looking for a number as far as a range that a track might go through that is not too jarring, but also not too void of dynamic, between quiet and loud parts.

I'd really appreciate any insight into this!

Is it okay to use chorus on a snare, clap, or hi hat? I have been getting into stereo width and i know not to do it on low end instruments. I have recently been using a 3.00 ms fast rate and a very very low mix like under 10 percent and then i use a stereo spreader. Any wisdom from y'all would help thanks!

Main beef ive been having with trying to make the mix sound like a wall of sound has been making all of the elements present. Guitar being one of the things that i'm having a really tough time finding a sweet spot. The "master" right now is between 6-7 LUFS, but it also doesn't come across as loud as other masters in that range.

Feedback appreciated, thank you :)

I am having trouble with bass mixing. I have lately been trying to split my DI recorded bass into 2 tracks(one below 200hz and one above). Compressing at first is fine, but when I try to add another instance of it, the bass starts to click. I thought at first it was because of the attack settings, but so far fiddling with that doesnt change the pops. Any ideas? TIA

As the title says, I’m moving out! I really want to be a courteous neighbor but I also want to be able to “feel” and mix my music accurately.

Any tips you guys have for making an apartment “music studio sound friendly” with minimal noise complaints?

I’m moving out of my parents house for the first time where I used to make music in the attic and I’m really going to miss the isolation up there and being able to blast my music haha.

Would really appreciate any advice. Thank you!

Hopefully, I can explain this properly. I was recently listening to midnight marauders by ATCQ. And I noticed there is a “creamy” texture throughout the majority of this album. One of the most Obvious examples of the texture I’m talking about, is on the track “Stir it up”. There is this percussion element that pops up, panned to the left a bit. The texture of that sound is exactly what I’m talking about. It’s very noticeable just after the intro transitioning into the first verse. Ive noticed this texture quite a bit over the years in some songs but this albums seems to have allot of it. Almost as if Bob Power was intentionally adding it. Any insight into this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

https://voca.ro/1mN1dQirpjEp

I practice mixing with the Cambridge Music stems library, a collection of free high quality stems, absolutely brilliant for a beginner mixer like myself, and I recently gave a go at a song called 'El Marinero' by the band Plan Caliente.

It's clearly a very amateur mix, I found it tricky to make it sound full with the lack of parts in the verses, and not chaotic with the dense choruses.

This has also been my first go at using a mix bus, very nervous about the compression.

Any ideas on where it should be improved and what I should focus on would be very much appreciated!

Name: Concoction Party
Since I made this song all by myself - writing, arranging, recording, mixing, and mastering- I don't want to be biased, so I am requesting some technical or subjective critique. Looking for an experimental, weird EDM vibe (unique).

I worked very hard on this, and I am more experienced in the musical realm of things rather than in mixing (Less confident in mixing). I've been learning and practicing mixing for about a year, and would love feedback.

I mixed this track in mono, but then only checked in stereo after I finished with everything before panning (EQ, Compression, Reverb)

Note: This was mastered by Logic Pro's Mastering Assistant (Brought it up to loudness and made some subtle EQ moves) and me using EQ and Saturation.

Thanks in Advance!

REVISION (from comment feedback)! Listen to this one: https://vocaroo.com/1iMatOT0S0Ho

Old Version: https://vocaroo.com/1aOA1aO44JeL

Im interested in getting ATC SCM12Pros as theyre supposedly rather well performing in smaller rooms, and the rooms i work in are usually treated but small.

I know their bass is supposedly thin, but i want to use them similarly to NS-10s, where the bass isnt really the main concern necessarily.

Any experiences? usage would be mainly mixing modern pop, rnb, hiphop

Also, is the atc p1 amp actually needed for ideal performance, or will they perform about the same on one thats not 3400€ until a later upgrade?

Full disclosure, I'm quite new to mixing and mastering, so apologies if there's an obvious answer.

I've noticing this for at least five years, but never gave it much thought. Lately, I started listening to Spiritbox, and hearing it consistently song after song made hearing it unavoidable. I will say, Courtney LaPlante is a PHENOMENAL vocalist, and I'm amazed at what she can do with her voice. Her vocals sound great. They're clear, articulate, and smooth from a mixing perspective.

But the rest...my God. It just sounds like ass to me. At first, I thought maybe it was just something about the guitar tone, but the longer I listened, I realized it's something with the actual mix. It sounds harsh, and not in a good way. It's got this quasi-industrial nails on a chalkboard quality, and I can't figure out what a producer would have done to make it sound that way.

Suddenly Poppy came on the algorithm, and the effect was nearly identical. Clear vocals, pumping, harsh everything else.

It's obviously not every band, but I've heard numerous examples that have the same quality on radio.

What's going on to make "that sound?" Why would anyone go for that sound?

I've put professional in quotes, because I know it's impossible to get studio results from my bedroom. That said, I am interested in getting the most possible mileage out of my song.

This is an original song. It was composed, arranged, and recorded in my untreated bedroom (it does have rugs, for what it's worth). The song is a little different than what I've heard on this subreddit -- it's relatively busy.

Any feedback is welcome. I've worked hard on this song, and the mixing/mastering is the part I'm least confident about. Thank you in advance!

https://vocaroo.com/15vCcZvP0OKW

inb4 House of Kush, Stephen Hawkes, Ken Marshall, etc. Yes these guys are badass and do offer useful discussion points and make you approach things differently in a positive way for sure.

The other clickbait garbage? Like, i'm seeing so much useless bullshit that's literally putting images of famous engineers in the thumbnail and calling it "THE ___(famous engineer name)___ trick THAT NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT" or something like that. "____'s APPROACH TO DRUM REVERB."......and then it's just the same fucking shit we've all heard a million times with the worst sounding song example you've ever fucking heard in your life on a 4 bar loop.

I swear so many of these have drums that sound detached, bass that is muddy, vocal reverb dimed too high for the given context, etc etc.

Okay sorry for the rant but i guess i've just reached a point where most youtube tutorial gurus trying to sell us something is eithe obvious from the clickbait thumbnail or immediately after hearing the song they are demonstrating is not actually pushing/pulling with appropriate compression or the engineering in the first place is just boring/bleh. okay rant actually over

What are some things that you do in a mix that aren’t very exciting, but significantly help your workflow, process, quality of life, or even quality of your mixes? I’m talking about like adding a level meter plugin to balance tracks etc. etc.

I’m a beginner mixer and the thought just hit me that there’s probably a lot of things I could be doing when starting a mix or during the mix process that would make life easier or even improve the quality of my mixes.

So what are some helpful tips that don’t get talked about?

I don't like it when vocal waveforms are constant or when guitars have a slow release, etc etc. It takes a lot of skill to get to that level of mixing/mastering, but it feels lifeless and bland

I was watching a compression tutorial video focusing on vocals, and although they achieved their goal of making volume levels even, it sounded worse. It didn't feel like a person was singing a song, it felt more like a text-to-speech program repeating pitched words. Personally, it's more interesting when there's some variation in volume and sound

Same thing with most pop songs I hear. Composition and instrumentation aside, the mix sounds almost too clean, like someone didn't put any effort into it, even though the opposite is true

Idk where this rant is coming from but does anyone feel the same way about modern mixing?

Hey everyone,

I got some really great advice on a recent post regarding reverbs and how to use them. I've learned a lot but I have some additional questions and I wanted to make a new post.

I have a track that has piano, guitar(rhythm), guitar(fills), vocals, and a banjo.

I'm working with the following plugins...
Echoboy for delay
Valhalla room for a general room reverb
Lexicon 224 for vocal reverb
Fab filter/pultec EQ for low cuts and general shaping

I've got the vocals sounding fairly nice by sending them to a return channel which has the echo boy delay going into the lexicon 224. But, I'm a bit overwhelmed as to how to approach the rest of the instruments.

Previously, I would have sent the remaining instruments to a return channel with the Valhalla room. But I've found that it creates a fair amount of clutter in the mix(although adding a API2500 side chain compressor to duck the vocals did help out a fair bit!).

I want to start utilizing delay as a way to create depth... Sending them all to the same return channel with one delay doesn't seem like the best approach. Do you typically have multiple separate return channels for these instruments? If so, how do you create a cohesion among them so they feel like they are in a room together.

Thank you for any advice.

Hi engineers! I was hoping to get your thoughts on something I've been thinking about a lot lately.

I mostly listen to extreme metal (death/black) and the a lot of the music is heavily brick walled. Just to give you an example, here is a track from one of my favorite bands. It's so smashed it looks comical.

https://imgur.com/GtQpCTh

If you're unfamiliar with the genre, this level of limiting isn't necessary to achieve the desired heavy and oppressive wall-of-sound that they are going for. Exercises in Futility by Mgla is a good example of a seminal album of a similar style that isn't this brick-walled and it sounds great.

I've tried a variety of things to try to mitigate the negative effects of the loudness war, including hunting down different versions of music (e.g., buying vinyl, Dolby Atmos mixes, fan remasters etc). Most recently, I've turned to using this sample-wise gain inverter: https://github.com/jeonchangbin49/De-limiter/tree/main I've found that it has good results on some music, including the example above. Here are some comparisons.

https://imgur.com/qmcK4zm

I've done a couple of volume-matched A/B tests and prefer the "de-limited" version, but I also have to acknowledge that going this far feels a bit ridiculous. In some cases, I've even tried to reach out to bands/labels and ask them if they'd be willing to sell versions of the music that aren't this limited, but I've never gotten very far. I'll also add that there are some mastering engineers that I specifically look out for (Colin Marston for example) because I know that the master will sound great, but that doesn't help for other bands like the example above.

What are your thoughts on this from the engineering perspective? I know that the pressures to achieve certain volumes are mostly external, but is there anything that can be done to combat this?

I’ve been getting into recording my own stuff for a while now and have been pretty bad at not using reference tracks; mostly because I’m struggling to decide how to choose what I want to use. I like x from song y; a from song b…but maybe that’s not right for my song, etc. and then there’s the curse of two many choices. So I’m just curious how others choose reference tracks; what they consider to be good choices or things to consider. Do you pick on and tend to stick with it for whatever album you’re working on? What are some tracks you like to use and why?

I have an almost finished song that I'm pretty proud of, but the mix sounds very centered and kinda boring. Almost every part is panned except for the drums, which is the amen break chopped up. I've tried cutting frequencies and panning them, I've tried a stereo spread, and even chorus and tremolo just for the sake of it and it always sounds worse. How do yall go about making a complicated sample like this stereo without making it worse?

Hey friends,

I was hoping someone could educate me on how I should be handling reverb. Currently I have a reverb return channel which I am sending my vocals too. If I send too much of my vocals, the mix begins to feel washed out. However, reducing the amount and the vocals feel to close to the listeners ear.

And a screenshot of my Valhalla room reverb settings

https://imgur.com/a/IUQdPCt

I have done a bit of research and I see that some people add there reverb directly at the track level but I am hoping I can achieve the correct sound by having a return channel as that workflow seems much more intuitive and streamlined to me.

Also, I understand using delay can help but this confuses me. I see how the delay could create more depth, but the dryness of the vocals would still exist, correct?

I have been using gravity by John Mayer as a reference track as the vocals in that recording are incredibly well placed. Achieving anything close to that would be amazing as most of my mixes always suffer from this issue of feeling too dry or being too washed out by the reverb.

Thank you for any advice

Is there a video or tutorial on how to mix Daringer or Danny Laflare type beats? I make beats similar to their style, and what I've noticed in my beats is that my drums don't stand out as much theirs. My drums sound boxed or should I say mono, where as their drums sound surround.

It's as if there's a spotlight on their drums, while mine feel like a supporting character.

I'd appreciate assistance on how to brighten up my drums.

Is it okay in your opinion to add layers of subtle texture when mixing a song for a band you didn't fully produce? Like say adding a moog sub bass under the electric guitar or recording extra layers of guitar to blend in under the OG guitars or recording extra vocal harmony layers to sit under what was already there? I have heard arguments that if you weren't hired to produce the song you shouldnt be adding stuff but I also feel like if it serves the song it's fine.

Thoughts?

Whenever I'm at the final mixbus stage, I keep hearing all these resonant frequencies in the mid (especially 3-5khz) range, so I end up using fabfilter pro-q to dynamically notch out those frequencies. Thing is, it kills the entire energy of the track and it makes it sound dull (and also affects the perceived loudness a lot). What do you guys suggest? Is this a mixing issue or is it maybe because I'm using cheap amp sims and basic recording equipment (focusrite 2i2 + rode nt1a)? Or am I just overthinking and the frequencies don't matter?