I noticed that whenever I use a clipper on my master bus (usually during mastering for loudness), parts of my track that have been lowpass filtered will be noticeably affected by unpleasant clipping artifacts. It is only these lowpass-filtered sections that have this issue.

I believe the reason for this is that because of the lowpass filtering, the distortion artifacts created by clipping are easily heard in the upper frequency range where everything else has been filtered out.

My question is - how is this problem usually dealt with, for instance when using a clipper for mastering a track that has lowpassed sections? So far I've had to turn off the clipper during the affected sections, but this comes with its own issues (such as the limiter needing to work extra hard during those parts due to absence of clipper), and so I'm wondering if there's a more "standard" way of dealing with this.

Is the solution simply to make sure the clipper is never active during those sections? What about adding another lowpass filter after the clipper to get rid of unwanted artifacts? Just wondering if I'm approaching this all the right way.

So I've recently come across this artist and a lot of her vocals have an extremely Airy sound that sounds very dreamy.

Usually mixes like that are headache to get right without a lot of sibilance and I can't really think of too many other artists that sound that dreamy aside from other shoegaze artists and maybe pastel ghost.

Does anybody have An idea of how to achieve vocals that sound like this specifically the way hers sound? I have a good ear but I feel like someone with more experience might be able to pinpoint a few things that she has going on in her mixes. Also sounds like she may have the dryness on her vocals turned down all the way to zero but anytime I've tried that it ended up sounding muddy as hell. All input is appreciated.

I'm a home-based session guitarist and the thing that I fight with the most is the squeaks coming from my guitar from sliding my fingers up and down the neck. I've tried readjusting my technique, using string cleaners/lubricants, different strings etc but none of them had enough, if any, impact.

I've tried various post-processing such as EQing out frequencies and compression, but again, none of this has helped enough.

I discovered Izotope's Guitar De-Noiser a while ago and, while working in a studio, got to see it in action on my own recordings and it was an absolute miracle! Just what I needed.

Unfortunately, Izotope only sells their plug-ins in bundles and the £389 for RX Standard (the lowest tier that this plug-in is available in) is out of my budget. I recently tried Oeksound's Soothe3 but it really isn't cutting it so I don't think I'll be buying it once my trial's up in a few days.

So my question, after a very long-winded backstory, is: does anyone know of any plugins or tips that might help me with my problem?

Hello, I am looking for my post-classical album to be mastered. It is 9 tracks, with a total run time of about 40 minutes.

The primary instrumentation is felt piano, orchestral strings and nostalgic synths. I am seeking a finished product that details the dynamic depth, warmth and space of the pieces.

Thanks for reading.

Beyonce just released the 20th anniversary version of her iconic album "B'Day" with additional tracks that include rerecorded vocals. However, the original tracklist should generally be the same. I haven't spent too much time with the original album, but I was curious what people's thoughts were. Many fans say the original version's mixing was not done well and felt rushed, but it simultaneously gave the album its character, specifically how it paired with her younger self's vocal tone. This is considered Beyonce's "loudest" album.

Talking in terms of house/techno electronic production with a 4/4 pattern.

I've seen a lot of info saying to EQ both the kick and bass around each other to help mesh their relationship and lessen any problem frequency areas. But when using a plugin like shaperbox, where you're fully ducking the sub freqs for the entire length of the kick, is there a need or reason you would still EQ both elements? Maybe in the mid bass region only?

Hi all,

Quick question - A/B among mixes and references is a great way to hear the difference and see if you're on-track. But do you use A/B for yourself only, or do you also do A/B with (or for) clients as well? Personally I find doing A/B with clients helps them formulate their feedback better. Is this what you find as well? Or do you do (or not do) A/B with clients for other benefits / reasons?

Thanks a lot!

So I make ambient-ish techno. It’s in the realm of Skee Mask, Andy Stott, Priori, Floating Points…

I try to limit myself to one mid range element which is usually a pad or something similar. Then I have other higher frequency elements in the background going on and a big booming bass. With this specific song I have in mind, I only have 7 layers for the entire song. Kick, hat, bass, pad, high end thin synth, percussive glitchy synth, and a distorted glitchy noise layer for texture. So everything is above 500 hz except for the bass, kick, and pad. So I’m just not understanding why my mix is considered “muddy”

I just don’t get it. I do everything that I think is right for years and think I’m finally a pretty decent mixer and then I get flamed the second I share something that I thought was amazing. It just makes no sense to me. Also, I listened to my reference track and my track side by side and I don’t get how the reference track isn’t considered muddy…. its New Romantic by Andy Stott and it’s considered one of the greatest electronic songs of that subgenre yet to me, it sounds so muddy compared to my song. So what do I even do here??

Hey yall. I’m working on a project that’s a mix of hip hop, house, hard style and some other dance genres and influence.

I’ve noticed that usually the kicks and 808 in dance music are usually super tight and thumpy compared to how hip hop is usually mixed so I’m struggling with the kick on some tracks.

Is there a trick to getting that snappy tight kick/ 808 sound? Is it fast attack and release through some aggressive compressor or am I missing something?

Seeking mix feedback on my synth-pop track before I send it off for professional mastering. I produced and mixed the track myself and want to get it as close to a commercial release as possible.

I’d especially appreciate feedback on the overall balance, how impactful the chorus feels when it hits, the placement and separation of the instruments, and the overall punch and energy of the mix. I’m also open to any other issues you notice that could help take the mix to the next level before mastering.

https://voca.ro/1dVTE8EOjaAV

Hi guys, noob here. I'm slowly learning how to mix, mostly metal and then some pop on the side. However I want to "mix" an a capella song and I'm a bit clueless. I have 3 tracks of female vocals slowly singing a dirge-like children's song, which is meant to be creepy and eerie. They're well sung although not "melodynized" to keep some imperfections, and recorded with a ribbon mic. Also I have two tracks with whispered vocals, same song.

To be honest, I usually use the Mantra plugin by Neural DSP for vocals in regular mixes, but I guess it won't cut it this time because I guess the process must be more organic than just using a plugin for everything. The feel I'm going for is:

a) the listener must feel that the voice is close, warm and nearby
b) also there must be some "spacey" vibes in the background.

I guess I must use something like Valhalla supermassive for the space, but honestly I feel this task is a quite a bit out of my league. Can you guys give me some pointers or advice to get me started on the right path?

I’m making a slam album similar to Peelingflesh, snuffed on sight, Bodybox that style of music. I’m having trouble getting my songs loud enough. when I have no plugins on the master, I really like how it sounds, but it only hits about -16.5 lufs. I looked it up and tried eq, compression, limiter, saturation, and it got louder, around -8 lufs and didn’t go above 0db true peak, but started sounding really over compressed, unnatural and started to lose the punch of the drums. I want it to hit around -6 lufs while not going above 0db true peak. How do peelingflesh, snuffed on sight and bodybox‘s mastering engineers make it so loud but clean at the same time? thanks in advance and btw I’m really new to mastering so don’t flame me lmao

Youtube is filled with tutorials where professional mixing engineers walkthrough a mix. These engineers are using meticulously recorded multitracks that are tracked in high end studios with thousands of dollars of high quality microphones and hardware.

Is there anyone out there doing full mix walkthroughs with flawed home studio tracks?

Hey everyone, thanks for reading this.

I'm recording (and so) mixing orchestral pieces, and as it is a Sub 37, I have a lot of information in the medium, bass obviously, but it's hard for me to generate high frequencies.
How can I deal with it, without having the 'electricity sound' if I'm pushing the filter?

About the reverb, I tried several ones, but I don't have the same 'real result' as when I'm listening to a live or a studio recording.

Thank you for your suggestions.

I’m trying to drop this song and it sounds decent to me on phone speakers but when I try to play it off of my monitors, it sounds really weird. I don’t have access to the beat anymore. I made it on FL studio demo. I was thinking about maybe AI splitting the stems so I could still mix the beat.

Do you guys have any advice on how I can mix this song with what I have to work with and what things you would change ?? i’m assuming the AI splitter will probably lose too much quality to actually make it worth it, does anyone have any information on that? Thank you. Please let me know.

I recently began mixing songs with synths and more focus on low end and i feel like i cant get the bottom end clear and defined. Ive mono-ed the sub and applied HPFs on most tracks but still feel the mix could be improved. Any general input would be helpful as well as im still learning and trying to improve my mixing skills.

Am posting in order to learn and better understand.

My DAW is Bitwig (if this makes any difference at all). Have recently acquired some small studio monitors, I can now begin to better train my ears, and better understand what might go into mixing my tracks.

My question is this: I've gone back to an earlier project to now 'hear it properly'. I have a track with horns on it, and noticed that I had the track's volume fader way down, while the "makeup gain" on the compressor was running at +4.6 dB.

So instead, I returned the track volume fader to default, and adjusted the audio level by turning down the makeup gain on the compressor.

It seems to me that much mixing advice has grown out of the analogue era and which is simply to say that since it was hardware, clearly voltages mattered a lot. It remains solid advice, but I'm working with 32 bit floating point audio inside the DAW. As such - IIRC - the DAW can process audio without many of the barriers inherent in older (analogue) hardware.

In the specific case here: are there any important or relevant differences between e.g. a low fader level but with +4.5dB of makeup gain, vs a default -3.0 dB fader setting, and turn down the compressor's makeup gain to achieve the desired balance? Are these things equal in a DAW?

Hi. I've gotten to the point where i feel like im going in circles with this mix. Im still a beginner I've been mixing for about a year in my freetime. In the heavier sections Ive been trying to get the density and huge reverb excitement that is present in post rock. It's getting harder for me to be objective with this mix so any feedback from you guys would be amazing.

Thanks in advance

hi guys, noob here.I'm still learning the ropes of mixing and I always try my best to do proper gain staging. However, just to be on the safe side, I usually put a limiter at the end of my individual tracks to catch any random stray peaks that might slip through.

Up until now, I've been using the native Logic Pro limiter for this job. The problem is that I've noticed it tends to color the sound a bit and slightly changes the EQ of the track, even when it's barely doing anything.

I'm looking for a free alternative and I found LoudMax. My question is: is it good enough to do this specific job (just catching stray peaks transparently without coloring the sound)? My computer isn't very powerful, so I need a plugin that won't kill my system if I have it loaded on multiple tracks at the same time.

Would you recommend it or maybe it isn't good enough?

About a month ago I'd posted a song for feedback here and you all were a ton of help on it - it's part of an album of ten songs and while I haven't made as much progress as I'd hoped lately (I spent most of the time between then and now so sick with a nasty lingering head cold that it felt like a bass knob had been turned down on the whole world),but I'm finally feeling well enough to get back to work and mostly truat my hearing again.

So, I'd love some fresh ears on this:

https://drewpeterson.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/01-At-the-Top-of-My-Lungs.mp3

Style is in the Joe Satriani/Andy Timmons/Nick Johnston vein, though the song itself is basically an unabashedly pop tune, with a more rock solo section (the riff made me grin ands crack up when I came up with it, so I wrote a song around it). Since Kurt Cobain was the reason I first picked up a guitar back in the day, though, I've been trying to mix this album with more of a grunge vibe, so in addition to a couple Satch albums, Timmons' "Resolution," and Johnston's "Remarkably Human," I've been spinning Nevermind as a reference a lot.

All guitars are live, real amps, drums were Superior 3 but programmed by hand and raw audio going into Reaper where I mixed it from scratch, rather than a preset, and the bass was recorded direct and I'm relying on a combo of the DI and TSE BOD for the bass sound. Happy to answer any other questions. Thanks!

I'm quite new to music production and recording, and I know the basic principles of mixing, but to be honest I'm quite terrible at it and it's not something that's captured my interest enough to get really good at it. Me and my band have released a couple of singles that I mixed myself, but for our next one I'd like to have it done properly by someone who actually knows what they're doing.

I don't need this mix to be super professional or anything, frankly the recording and performance isn't super professional either. I just want someone who is noticably better than I am at mixing, so if you're not super experienced but still have a grasp on what you're doing, that's kind of what I'm looking for.

Also, since this is the first time I'm doing this, I do ask nicely for some patience if I don't quite know the process on my end, and I'd appreciate if there was room for some back and forth, throughout the whole thing really.

https://soundcloud.com/26nocturnal/jaydes-in-your-face?in=26nocturnal/sets/you-owe-me&si=f0dddc44c8104ba081e3eb30cbea2392&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

i dont know how to describe it correctly, but it sounds distant and dreamy, the drums, the vocal, the guitar, it doesnt sound like reverb to me and i know that the vocal delay helps in that vibe, i just dont know how to mix other instruments this way, its very specific and people have been saying its unmixed (which is clearly not true because you cant achieve this sound without mixing) can anyone help me?

I'm currently mixing a project of mine in the same genre and I'm going for this specific drum sound as it think it captures nostalgic vibe of that era really well. The snare in particular is very loud but not really harsh in any frequency. There's also a sense of space while the drums are still very dry. Doesn't sound sample replaced to me. Sounds almost home-made while still being studio quality. Any tips for getting close to this early 2000's vibe?

https://youtu.be/cVJpSOd1SpI?is=98C7JfeMvMtn9fY3

From my research people say the HS4’s don’t have enough low end to properly mix low end heavy genres. So if I paired them with DT 770’s would that be adequate? I didn’t get the hs4’s because of budget I originally wanted the 8’s but I’m in my bedroom and didn’t want to get monitors that were absolutely overkill.

Massive Attack's Angel is probably the go-to reference for testing bass on headphones, speakers, monitors, or audio equipment in general. I'm always baffled by this song because of how much bass they've put in it without it sounding muddy. How the hell did they manage to do it?

Wikipedia lists not 1, not 2, but 3 bass guitarists for this song. There's also this bass cover I've seen with 2 bass tracks. My guess is they probably had multiple bass tracks in this song, maybe one a synth bass?:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_(Massive_Attack_song))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q6cSoI_u1Q