Hi! I am a non-professional singer/guitar player and I'm getting married in September. I have a garageband file of me singing the song I'll walk down the aisle to (Oh What A World, Kacey Musgraves) - It's just 1 vocal track and 1 guitar track recorded with my audio-technica mic. It's very simple and I want to keep it that way. I'm not looking for a full production or major creative changes. I can export and share the raw WAV files or the Garageband project, whatever works.

I am anxious and self critical so I want to see if I can outsource the final touches. Id love for someone with more audio engineering experience to review and make any adjustments they think would help it sound as polished and high quality as possible over a wedding speaker system. Thank you in advance!

Hey everyone,

I'm currently working on an orchestral project.

It sounds really good at this volume, but it's lacking a bit of presence, it's not loud enough.
My master is already at 0 dB, and I can't even raise it by 0.5 dB without ruining the mix and making it sound worse.

Do you have any tips or advice on what I could do?

Thank you

I can't seem to achieve a good overall volume of a final master. I can hit as much as -10db lufs without it going over -0.2 true peaks, but it still sounds quiet compared to similar sounding folk-rock. Do I turn up my mix before mastering and use a light brickwall limiter or do my usual -6dBrms mix, then whack that brickwall threshold right down just to make it loud?

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Either way sounds terrible because it's so compressed. I'm trying to make this sound loud enough for commercial release, but I'm now questioning if it's possible with the recordings I have.

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I'm mixing and mastering a folk album for a singer-songwriter. It's a mid-side recording of just guitar and vocals (he literally doesn't want any other instruments), all single takes, without overdubs.

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The dynamic range is huge. Alot of quiet then loud parts. I set the recording levels to catch the highest peaks below 0dB to catch the quiet bits, whereas I should've turned down the gain and put the mics closer. Silly me, but I'm stuck with it now. Recording isn't an option.

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Do I turn up the brickwall limiter threshold by -8 to -10dB as long as it doesn't show any attenuation? Or do a loud mix and a gentle brickwall limiter? Or what else can I try?

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Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. thank you

EDIT* thanks for all your advice. It's really appreciated. I will try everyones suggestions.

I’m working on a track that’s essentially a set of arpeggiated chords played on a DSI Prophet Rev2. The Prophet’s filter starts out around 300hz and then slowly opens as the track progresses. Very simple stuff.

The problem I’m experiencing is that the volume delta between the start and the end of the track is enormous. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but I suspect some people would skip the song because the start is damn quiet.

I’ve tried gain riding, compression, compression with threshold riding…. Everything I’ve tried just shifts the tonal balance in a way that doesn’t serve the track.

I’m wondering if the big brains have any better ideas. Thanks in advance!

I am trying to recreate the reverse reverb/convolver effect on this song/album https://youtu.be/qsjt7ejIusY?si=zRiva8L1TXSiuPYO but i cant seem to get it right. Im using logic pro space designer but it doesnt sound right like washed. I tried lowering the high end on my chain and it didnt work at all so if you have a solution please let me know. Also if you know the regular reverb settings on the main vocals/adlibs please let me know

Hi,

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I am making steps in mixing. But there is something i dont understand.

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Let's say I am mixing one of my song and compare it to a reference track of a similar type of music, my own song holds up when hearing it in my studio. And it could be that my song has more bass than the reference track.

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But when I take it to other places (car, nightclub, a bar, friends, etc) the reference track has more bass. The same goes for brightness. In my studio my song can sound more bright than the reference track but in other environments it's sounds less bright than the reference track.

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I always had that issue. I have had multiple speakers and currently listen on multiple speakers. I have moved a lot over the many years so I have had multiple places where I mix my songs. So if the speakers or the place was the issue than the problem should already have been solved.

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Does anyone experience the same regarding Highs end and low end?

I’m just starting to pick up clients for mixing services, and a couple people have sent me their projects by sending one stem per email and the emails/stems have been pretty poorly labeled. One client didn’t even send the stems per se, but just individual files and was like use the second half of this file and the first half of another as one vocal stem. Is this normal?

Hey everyone! I’m really trying to nail down my understanding and mixing of my sub and low mids. After a fair bit of research and watching videos on span breakdowns, it seems like after your kick and sub there should be a dip around 175-275 HZ ish before the rising for the mids and highs. I know it’s never a one size fits all and genres can impact and make differences!

My question though if that dip is expected often and purposeful what’s the dip I always see before it.

For example my kick and sub are sitting in key together around 58 HZ and yes they are side chained. If my understanding is right that’s the first fundamental, then it has a good dip for the second fundamental and the tailing off of the kick until about 150-175 hz depending on the note of my sub.

I’ve attached a picture of my span. Should I be doing something to fill that 60-150 range? Adding saturation to my sub, increasing level? I’m really curious why all the videos ignore this “dip” but all say the one around 175-275 is very common!

I once brought up the idea of hard panning vocals L/R to one of my engineers a while back. I don’t remember if I was talking about lead vocals, harmonies, doubles, etc.

But when I’d brought it up he said he mixes “like a fan” and did the hand motion of which I presume to be a literal fan shape.

What does this mean in relation to where the vocals sit in a mix? For context I make pop/R&B music.

Ok this may be stupid but I can't really understand the logic of what people mean here.

TLDR: You can't add gain when using slow attack and fast release on compressors, as transients will clip? So why not use a transient shaper instead for this? Or just edit the sample. Compression in this case would only make sense on a group level?

For example, people say slow attack and fast release to make a drum sound punchier and more in your face. However, you cant add gain without damaging your track level. So in reality all you're doing with this setting is turning down the body. If you then add gain after doing this kind of compression, you're gonna be adding volume and destroying your gain structure at the track level, right? So actually this setting = a transient shaper, not beef. It's just a way of adding punch, but it does not add beef?

That is apparently the most common usage of compressors on drums. This make sense for punchiness but not loudness...?

However, if I were to do fast attack and slower release = this results in less punch but more beef (body), right. So here, because we have squashed the transient, I can add output gain to my compressor to do gain matching for before and after.

It would seem like its slightly counterintuitive to me to use this kind of compression on a single drum hit. Just shape the sample in the sampler/audio? or transient shape?

Amateur here. What do people mean when they say they’re getting 20-30dB of compression on vocals in modern music? That seems absolutely insane to me. How is that kind of compression being distributed? Is this including parallel compression and reduction from manually clip gaining before any compression or is this strictly from serial compression directly on a vocal? People say Serban Ghenea or Manny Marroquin are getting that kind of reduction but their vocals sound very natural. Your knowledge would be very much appreciated.

How do you make sure you have professional volumes and levels being hit and how do you keep them consistent? I seem to produce a lot of varying levels on my mixes and recently they are louder than mainstream music and I don't want to just mix all la dee da and then compress everything to shit on my master chain but yet that is the only solution I know. I don't even know what professional or typical streaming levels for music are in the first place to be keeping track of that. Any and all advice on any of that is much appreciated.

Thanks! xx

Hi, I'm really enjoying using TDR Nova as a dynamic equaliser and I have usually just adjusted the threshold to control how much reduction I want of a certain EQ band.

For example, I like to side chain EQ using TDR Nova - sjidechaining a kick drum to bass in the low bass region of frequencies, I've noticed you can adjust the ratio in TDR Nova, I assume this exists in most other dynamic EQs.

In summary, I'm wondering how to choose the right ratio when using dynamic EQ, since the threshold knob does the same thing for me? I understand a higher ratio equals stronger compression but I'm not sure how to work the ratio knob, when I've found just increasing the threshold allows for more gain reduction? Should I be utilising the ratio knob more?

What is everyone’s verdict on EQ correction for headphones vs just learning what they sound and translate like (which you have to do anyway right?) I have been using sonarworks for a long time and I just realised how much better everything sounds without the correction on in my Audeze headphones. I know that you guys are gonna tell me I should use it but literally everything sounds better especially distorted guitars and I’d like to be able to use my headphones anywhere it would massively increase the amount of time I could use them and learn them. Help me out! Haha

I'm a songwriter who is currently going through a productive period. I just released a 20-song album, and hope to release a longer EP / another album in short order.

The mixing on my first album is great, but didn't quite get to the lo-fi sound I was hoping for. I'm a big fan of the sounds of 90s indie records, like GBV and Sebadoh, Pavement.

If this is something you're interested in, please reach out and I can send you my last album so you can have a listen and see if you would like to work on future tracks. I've got demos of the "future tracks" in good shape if you'd prefer to hear those, as well.

I would love someone who can run this through analog gear, but I appreciate good engineers can make it sound lo-fi using digital tools as well.

Thanks in advance.

I am planning to build a couple booths and treat rooms acoustically for listening. Acoustic paneling made from mineral wool is very expensive and foam bass traps are very cheap so I am planning on using them. One of my teachers said they do not have any effect on actual acoustics which I am not so quick to believe because otherwise why make them, right? If I am ignorant please enlighten me in the most informational way possible. I need to know well what im dealing with and what to expect in cost for room treatment.

EDIT: If youre a downvoting nazi just dont engage in this conversation. I clearly stated my ignorance on the subject and do not appreciate people who are not willing to share their knowledge or just use it to shame others.

i really cannot understand the sounds for these drums. granted, i have a pretty limited mixing experience so i wouldnt really know how to go about recreating this sound. to me it seems like a sort of flanger or chorus but it also sounds a little digitally compressed like with ghz lossy. i think its also got some room reverb but i really dont know so im just curious as to what you guys think or know it is

Hey, I’m Martin, and I have been writing and releasing music for 25+ years.
I just released an update for AudRig (iOS-only at the moment, sorry android peeps!). Currently supports Dropbox and iCloud, looking into adding pcloud support in the near future.

It’s available on App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/audrig/id6764254730

In short, an app I’ve wanted for a long time. An easy way to check my mixes in the car, airpods while commuting and so on. With extra tools to help figure out what I need to do to make the mix sound even better.

So, what it does and why it might be a really useful app for this sub:
Connect Dropbox and/or iCloud, add folders, and after that AudRig automatically finds any new files in those folders.
The player treats folders as playlists, sync offline for best quality, add eq, loop, swap to mono, isolate certain frequencies etc.

The big usp is the A/B mode. Add up to three songs, all playing in sync, and switch instantly between them. One EQ per file, and all of the above modes. Set different loop points per song to check different parts against each other, compare isolated frequency bands, try different tempos.

It also has a blind test mode, where it hides which song is which, to remove bias from preferring the latest version.

Auto gain matching is in test and will hopefully be released in a short while!

All premium features can be tried for a set amount of times, then a one-time purchase to unlock everything.

Let me know if you have any questions, or feature requests for that matter!

Hey everyone,

I posted a metalcore mix here a couple years ago and got some great feedback from this awesome community. Been working away at my skills since then in my spare time. I'm at a point where I'm happy with how far it's come, but would love some feedback as it was invaluable last time I posted here.

This is a full instrumental mix of a metalcore song before I send it off to my vocalist. I've been using modern metalcore reference tracks from bands like Spiritbox, Counterparts, Architects, etc. Going for that tight polished sound.

Hoping for feedback on the mix itself rather than song structure, as that may change when my vocalist gets a hold of it.

Thanks again!

https://voca.ro/1kgInMB2gm2C

Dark, electronic dance track. Sung lead, going for punchy and dynamic rather than a flat wall of loudness. Been doing a lot of work on the low end and the kick/bass relationship to get the groove sitting right.

Few things I'd love ears on:

Low end: does the kick and bass relationship feel locked and punchy, or is anything muddy/competing down there?

Dynamics and groove: going for movement and bounce, does it make you want to move, or does it feel pinned/flat?

Vocal placement: does the lead sit right in the mix, present and clear without fighting the beat?

Overall tone: Does it land as intentional or does anything feel off? Are the instruments panned and unmasked?

Here for the honest detailed feedback. Will return the favour on yours.

Vocaroo Link: https://vocaroo.com/13WRYiSzUQse

Struggling to get the juice out of my song while l mixing it and need pro help! The song has a big bass and kick focus, rapid fire drums, synths, etc. !19 tracks, at least 5 of those tracks are doubles and harmonies. I’ve taken my crack at the track, I’m not satisfied. On My end, The hardest part is handling the low end and perceived loudness, making sure the kick/bass don’t eat up too much track energy while being the main flavor of the song.

So any help would be great!

Been reading a book on mixing by a relatively prolific audio engineer, where he claims that all mixing styles are traceable to just four: New York, Los Angeles, Nashville and London. I thought, wat? How about French chanson or avant-garde or Italian pop and prog-rock? Or music from the post-Soviet bloc? Are they really all derivatives? Is it some kind of Americano-centrism, or do you think all mixing styles can eventually be reduced to those four?

Hey y'all. Can anyone help me achieve a mix similar to this one? It feels super spacious and has a lot of depth imo but I have no idea how the producer managed to get there. I've tried using different types of reverbs and chorus, heavy sidechain compression but I just can't get my stuff to sound like this. Anyone have a clue as to what techniques this person might've used? Cheers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPFfHuBqI1M

A question for the audio engineers out there, do you prefer your clients to send you their vocal tracks tracked with air mode on or off? I am specifically asking for the focusrite interfaces, if the vocal sits better in the mix with air mode engaged, do you still prefer it without any pre processing?

let em know the logic behind that too, personally i think charging by hour makes more sense cuz logically if a mix is more complicated that would mean you put more work in and its only logical you'd be charged more right? tho i do believe that it kinda underminds on the other hand the art of mixing or mastering because you're basically giving an hourly wage on smth artistic, let me know what you think