Hello, It's just my first year in audio mixing. I started a year ago. Can you give me some tips on how to sweeten a track?? 'coz my track always tend to sound dull.

 

If you are doing mostly live instruments, do most of your mixing with your microphones. That is, use your ears and lay off the eq. Much of that sparkle you are looking for will come from an exciter in the mastering phase. Pro tip: Use a hi-pass filter on everything but the bass and kick. You will be amazed at how this will open things up for your mix.

 

The answer is probably more complicated than the question. What is your set-up? (hardware/software/recording/mixing/audio monitors etc) where are you recording/mixing? (room audio dynamics) how good are your ears? (frequencies) try using the search feature at the top of the page, there are lots and lots of excellent advice on this forum. As a start have a look at this old video I found on you tube which I posted in an earlier topic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEjOdqZFvhY

 

Have fun

http://www.pensadosplace.tv/category/into-the-lair/

 

To add to what the good people up there said, there's alot of ways of sweetening your mix. It really depends on the sound you are looking for, but there are some general tips and rules you can follow to achieve that.

1) Maybe the most important tip: cut any frequencies for each instrument that you don't need. Basically low cut everything that's not a kick or bass, however, sometime you might even want to low cut your bass, or use a low shelf and bring down the subs under 100Hz if your bass is interfering with your kick too much, especially if you're using a really subby kick, then you might want to thin out the bass a bit

2) Cut the low mids: this is another extremely important one too. Those low mids are what muddy out your mix but at the same time they are what give it the warmth. SO it's a fine balance of cutting but not too much. The frequencies you want to look for are the 200-500 Hz, these are the usual culprits when it comes to a muddy, messy, unclear mix. Cutting these from each instruments as needed will greatly improve the clarity and punch of your mix.

3) Reverb and delay: these are the real sweeteners here. They are the glaze on top of your mix. Use a variety of different reverbs (short room, medium plate, medium-long hall) and give each of your instruments a little bit of each of the reverbs, you will find that your mix instantly becomes more cohesive, bigger and better. Same thing with delay. Use delay creatively to create movement and dynamic in your songs. It creates interest and width in the mix. Use ping pongs on plucky instruments, 16th slap delays on guitars and vocals is also very nice when used subtly.

4) Tube and harmonic exciters can also be used on leads, guitars, vocals and pretty much anything else that might seem dull and will help bring them to life. Again be very subtle about it, as soon as you start to hear the exciter working, pull it back a bit so it just starts to affect the sound. This can really help to get your tracks to sound more organic if they need it, especially useful for electronic music.

 

I usually just add sugar.

Nah, jk, Good mixing first and foremost. Same goes for group/sub processing. Fixing phase issues. M/S processing, Parallel compression, SC compression where needed, moderate amount of exciter (both low end and high end), etc etc

It's also very important to use "the room" spatially, using the height and depth. A little goes a long way, like adding a tad of short reverb on "mono sounds". Panning dry sounds and contra-panning the wet sounds, etc. It makes it easier to sonically locate the sounds and they come to life. "Dull" tracks usually sound "too mono". Load a phase correlation meter on your master insert and check your sounds.
Basically, the lower you go in the frequency spectrum, the more center/mono it needs to be.

The Art of Mixing by David Gibson is old but gold. The "rules" still applies, still in this digital age. Really worth checking into.

 

That video seriously needs a Kangaroo or some type of mascot.

The best video ever for learning about mixing. Thanks for this.

 

http://www.pensadosplace.tv/ Tips and Tricks of the Pro's All Genres Of Music hip hop edm rock r&b and more

 

whoah. I just grabbed the "The art of mixing" by David Gibson from Amazon. Indeed it was a great book. Thanks for all the great advice... They're really helpful.

And by the this is my setup:

Monitors: I just mix with a beyer dynamics headphones.
Software: Sonar X1 Producer
Effects: I only have plugins. no hardwares.
as you see, i'm only just a beginner... so these are just like a starter kit for me..

 

my advice for sweetening a mix: more cowbell.

more cowbell always brings a mix together.

i recommend you invest in some beginner studio monitor(s) instead of using headphones

only more experienced producers should try to use headphones to mix and master-

you'll get there eventually! some of the higer-end beyer dynamics headphones are good for late night mixing but for now you need accurate sound representation so you really know what you are working with.. i bet this simple change will indeed "sweeten" your mix

i know, monitors cost $$$ and you might not be able to afford them right now ( i understand more than most) so i recommend you google "how to mix with headphones" or "how to master with headphones" and read every article on the first 2 pages of search results so you get a good idea how to adjust your technique while using headphones

also, listen carefully to all the good advice here- especially fuad's advice is excellent

good luck and enjoy your journey

 

Thanks Frito Zanzibar. I will surely listen to all of the advice you guys gave me. And i will start saving for a better monitor.

 

maybe worth having a look at "112dB Redline Monitor VST" which is suppose to help improve the audio mix when using headphones.

http://www.112db.com/redline/monitor/

 

i also mix with headphones, sennheiser hd650's.
do you guys think this works? anyone in here worked with these kind of plugins?
there's also this KRK 'thingie' that supposedly corrects your room.
to be honest i thought it was nonsense. maybe i'm wrong.

 

Can't help but notice that cute cat with headphones.

 

I have the redline monitor and there is a difference, what you are trying to do is use the vst to mimic your audio monitors

 

1.Use hi-pass on everything but bass and kick, its very useful. great start for mixing.
2.Level down all tracks at Verse, preserve headroom for Chorus.
3.Separate tracks with pan, make them balanced.
4.Drop a good mastering VST like Track-CS or others in Master Out, can glue the sounds nice and sweeten.
5.Sometimes you'll need switch Master Out from Stereo to Mono to check out the EQ balance, or drop a freq-spectral to see it.

that's my skill, it's simple, but sure can sweetening a track.

BTW, don't use headphone for mixing, your can do arranging things, but mixing or mastering? No...
when you switch to monitor, you'll find you need start all over...