Hi!
I need tips on how i can improve my mixing and mastering,
i dont know what im doing wrong, but i dont like how it sounds...

Some songs that i made:




This is how my master looks generally:

i mix everything to around -6db / -8db before mastering

(i can't upload more than 5 pics so...)


Any feedback would help me, so please comment what u think

 

I've never seen decent song writing with mixing skills that poor, hire a mix engineer asap

 

It's a matter of skill mate. You could learn how to master joining a related course.

 

Too much processing on the master, put those changes on the specific elements that require it as appose to trying to fix it at the end. Also idk why you are cutting 20k and doing all of this mid/side cutting and boosting on the master. Those phase bumps are gonna really do bad things to a final mix, especially with harsh curves and non linear phase. That 20k cut that you are applying twice doesnt give you any headroom. No one knows either what the pre mix sounds like, because you are applying harmonic exciting and multiband compression, when it might not even need it. Imo its just OD on the master for no reason.

 

Whatever you're listening on right now + the room you're in, it isn't letting you hear the bass properly. So you're overdoing it hard, it's overwhelming the compressors (which you're also overdoing in my opinion). That's why your stuff sounds "sludgy" and you don't like it - you can fix it.

Even knowing that your listening situation is craptastic, there is a ghetto way to still move forward. You can take a track you like which is "similar" to yours, and then use a simple EQ lowpass to cut everything away from it except for the bass area. Now line up your track and this mutilated stump that used to be a good track before. Look at where the bass is using a spectrogram, and re-mix your own bass instruments so that they (when all together) approximately hit the same average level in the spectrogram too. Shape your bass with a compressor so it has approximately the same "bounce" as reference too.

Once you got that in place, you don't touch it any more (for fear of ruining it all again), mix your other instruments in around this bass blob instead. When you're more or less happy with it, use less compression. Try the Klangelm MJUC tube comp, it's difficult to make it sound bad. Try the parallel compression feature, this is like a dry/wet for the compressor and will let you play around more effectively (just one knob to focus on, instead of 25 complex comp controls) while immediately getting that phat sound.

When learning it's way better to have just one good comp and EQ on your mix, for a simple reason - you got less shit to tweak, so you tweak it more while actually listening to what it's doing to sound. If you fall into the trap of dropping in random plugins, you quickly lose that feeling of being in control of anything, it becomes too random to learn anything.

To learn EQs, get a sample of pink noise, loop that junk and then put your favorite EQ's on it one by one, and try out their filters. Pink noise is like a solid slab of meaningless sound. Sweep the EQ filters around and listen to what it's doing to the wooshy. You can bring meaning even to pink noise, you'll see what I mean - you kinda hear different ambiences and tones when you do this to it. You could do this for an hour or two every day if you wanted, and this is valuable knowledge. Because now when you put an EQ on a real track you're working on, you can instantly have an idea in your mind what you want it to do to the sound. On a real track, you don't sweep anything, you immediately dial in the filter to where you want it, and then listen... Off/on...off...on...OK yeah, more to the left. Again listening...not bad but I want more cut from this... adding more cut. Perfect! It's like being a chef then.

Ozone is a great thing, but it's complex and you don't want complex for this workflow. You want simple. The big epiphany as when you realize that just because you got Ozone on something, doesn't mean it won't sound like shit. It absolutely can, it's more about knowing what you want from the sound, not about the actual plugin you use to get what you want happening...

 

Last edited: Mar 18, 2017

First of all, thanks for all the replies

Im producing, mixing and mastering everything on Beyerdynamic DT-770 M (80 ohm), so yeah, my listening situation isnt that good.

I will try this with my next track and i will come back again to see if i improved something.

I got a few questions:

-The major problem in my tracks is the bass, right?

-Should i keep using multiband compression or should i use another compressor (maybe Klanghelm MJUC tube comp, as Satai said)

-Should i remove the harmonic exiting?

-Should i even use iZotope Ozone? if not, what can i use?

 

Remove everything, have KJUC and one easy EQ on your mix, and then see what you can do with it.

Refer to this scientific chart:

 

i wil try it now, i will do a quick example song and send it

 

it is nasty but u r right
i wont rate u negatively, but i don't think my music is that bad xD

thanks for ur oppinion i guess haha

 

no offesne but you have to work on your mixing skills. No sub bass no umph but some nasty Mudd. It is not your mastering its your mixing mate.

You have to take a good look at eqing. I would say your main problem is you dont carve enough holes for the different intruments. Focus on the single intrumesnts and their eq. Sounds to mE like too many layerd frequencies. That is why your sound is a bit muddy dull and not crisp enough.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Mar 19, 2017

You need to stage your tracks with the faders or clip gain so the whole thing has good balance and proportion by weight before you compress, EQ, or anything else. Right now you're hyper-compressing the entire mix to try and force it to go together.

 

Last edited: Mar 18, 2017

Hi..it Seems u mix in wrong way...
U cant talk about mastering here,cause u have Just Just limiter to sound lodder.

Mix is muddy. .did u hear about cut in low cut un end cut un middel. .

Let me explain you...when u make a lead...u must cut the low .. So u can have more rom for other instruments...

Every instrument need rom in a mix...

U must use effekts

Mut is not very bad..its okey start..

Just work more u can do it better..

 

Its funny people shitting on this mix, yet when you hear some of daft punk stuff and its f-ed up overblown mixes that sound weird, yet were nr.1
I agree mostly with the critiques but it aint that as bad that it cant be easily fixed.
Very good usage of reverbs and eqing of mid high frequencies on the first song.

"i mix everything to around -6db / -8db before mastering"

Thats a good way to kill dynamics.

Also im on a laptop right now, so not exactly a clinical way to judge a mix, lol.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Mar 18, 2017

Thanks again for all the replies!

I guess i will have to learn how to mix properly,

I EQ every sound and i try to leave room for the other sounds but i guess im not doing it right haha
i will try to use less layers and leave more room than i do now.

i will mix a song and ill post it with a clear master channel, i hope i improve something and u guys can tell me if something is still wrong

btw thanks for the comments, i hope ur suggestions help me improving

 

Are you sure you're not just putting ozone or alloy or ezmix or something like that on every track and picking presets? It's definitely way too compressed in the mixdown. Layers are not the issue my trap tracks have a minimum of 65 tracks in them lately. my chord stacks have at least five layers as do my snares sometimes. my leads are 3 or more. Try grouping your tracks by the type, drums/subs/synths/vox/fx....and just massaging it with a little bit of bus compression and or eq. Roll the highs off your subs. Roll the lows off everything that's not Subs. And most importantly buy some monitors. People can mix in headphones but that's because they've been doing it for 10 years and know how their headphones will translate on to other systems.

 

I only use ozone on the master chanel, but i put a maximus (not presets) on almost every sound before EQing.

I tried that before and it didnt work well, btw i didnt do it in the linked songs.
i will try that again and ill see if it helps.

i cant buy good monitors bc i cant afford them, i dont have a place to put them anyways...
so i guess i have to keep using headphones
i hope that in the future i can buy some monitors and learn to mix well

Thank for the feedback

 

Btw, could u guys suggest me some tutorials or articles on how to mix properly?
i think i need help with EQing and compression too...

i dont know if i should write this on another thread but i think its ok here haha

 

Von Steyr`s masterclass.
Befriend your chair and get used to spending up to 15 hours per day on it.

 

I like it it its badass because of the distortion and stuff, just ran it into my diamond speakers

 

Can't afford good speakers, no place to put them, it's a familiar story to everyone starting in electronic music. You can make it work with what you have, you can find ways around every impediment and bad equipment. Just have to be hungry to learn and have that "Challenge accepted!" attitude.

 

Last edited: Mar 19, 2017