i just wonder how commercial tracks has such good sound and many instruments are heard without clashing with bass or vocal.. someone could give me a tip.. is it layering or having 100 tracks?

i noticed my mixes a bit weak when it comes to instruments in the mix

 

Find out how to get to Carnegie Hall and you're half way there.

 

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Last edited by a moderator: Aug 26, 2024

This is such a broad question, as there are hundreds of "mixing- and compositional tricks" to create dynamics, contrasts, space, width and depth, avoid overlapping/masking, etc. It's all about aquiring as much experience and tools/techniques as possible and apply these when composing/producing/mixing/mastering - where/when needed.
If you want a more in-depth answer you could post an example of your mix and one commercial track/song, to see what could be done differently.

 

Last edited: Aug 24, 2024

Sorry for nitpicking, but I think you mean multitracks and not stems.

 

OTT

 

Wow.my tracks usually end up with only 6-7 "Stems".must be doing something wrong.

 

A mix resource series is quite good on SOS; on one hand, you can learn a lot from it, and on the other hand, sometimes the stems and sometimes the before-and-after versions are included after the articles

https://www.soundonsound.com/search?terms=Mix Rescue

 

I think pre-production is just as important as mastering. I'm guilty of just using guitar amp and instrument vst presets but for the best results these presets need to be edited to fit the track rather than relying on Ozone or something on the master track to make everything sound better. It's why studios can spend hours just micing a drum kit, getting it to sound just right before it's recorded. How many of us go into so much detail? I like the methodology of creating templates in which every instrument works well together, at least as a starting point.

 

yes like it was mentioned before,
commercial tracks have teams of people, specialized in their job, with extensive experience, and years of training their ears.
not to mention their studio probably is better equipped than yours, with expensive studio monitors, DACs, etc.

your question is kinda a noob in a guitar asking himself why doesn't he sound like jimmy hendrix (no offence kate, but that just means you gotta practice your mixing. In my specific case, i'm on the same boat as you - but i'm yet focusing on my performances instead of my mixes)

 

Here's an example of a couple of exercises found on youtube

 

This isn't nitpicking at all, because it is a contribution to the cause of the original question. By leaving all these individual channels running ungrouped, and not processed together into cohesive stems; real frequency separation is next to impossible. There will be so much garbage information floating around in that "song" that it will all stack up and cause a big hit to signal to noise ratio. Then the "solution" becomes throwing a bunch of compressors at stuff that do not need compression; and you will get a nice big, smashed, squishy, and muddy mix every time.

 

Last edited: Aug 24, 2024

Filtering and Compressing,
but mostly: Filtering

 

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice.

 

Go listen to the first albuns by The Stooges or Carcass and stop worrying about that.

 

It's "Practice, practice, practice" to be precise.

 

I was going to suggest "pink noise mixing", and it turns out a link I was going to post is also from SOS.
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mixing-pink-noise-reference


Artist: “Hey Ed, how’s it going?”

Me: “Mmm. What’s up?”

Artist: “Nothing... Um... you know that EDM track you said you’d mix for us?”

Me: “Yep.”

Artist: “I’ve uploaded it to the server...”

Me: “Server? What’s wrong with the Dropbox?”

Artist: “Er, the files are a wee bit too large.”

Me: “Too large? We discussed this for a whole hour, didn’t we? Anything above 60 tracks will take me at least a week.”

Artist: [silence]

Me: “Do I need to book a hitman?”

Artist: [more silence]

Me: [sigh] “OK... Exactly how many tracks are we talking?”

Him: “Um... a shade over 160.”

[Dead ring tone]

 

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Last edited by a moderator: Aug 26, 2024

Poor Foster. What's up with the weird obsession about project sizes?