@Plendix Last night I was listening to the last track I finished (after sharing it in this forum to get some feedback and everybody encouraged me to finish it, so I did and updated the thread with the final result for everybody interested in it). It was on the phone, thinking, all of a sudden, how would it sound like in another device so I had the phone on my hand and there you go. And still, I wasn't happy enough with the kick.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I don't know either how the best in the business manage to get a decent sound on big rigs and phones at the same time.
I mean I have an educated guess that it is not only the mix. The composition and how it is arranged plays a big role.
They try not to have too many events at the same time to not clutter everything up. sometimes only on sound per 1/8 or two, never more than 3 at a time (including vocals). But making these sounds as fat as possible on the other hand.
There are a lot of acts that have a lot going on and are terriffic bands that are perfectly mixed and those don't sound good on mobile either. So I wouldn't care too much.
Maybe use something else. Maybe go for something like Creatives Pebble v2- 2.0 usb. (I like it more than the v3 and its cheap, about 25 bucks). It#s a decently average low end pc speaker that does what it does right. So in its very narrow frequency response its not doing anything crazy. When I check on that I'm happy at "this is still my mix, it lacks a lot, but the main ingredients are there and tell the same story". And switching to something like that while working helps me.
//EDIT// oh and we shall not forget side chaining. It is a sort of compression too and follows the same principle. And that especially is used to avoid cluttering up by giving priorities to sounds.
Plus it brings cool and groovey fx like rhythmic pumping (something a compressor can do too, think portishead, they made a style from overcompression).
//EDIT2// You said you are/were autodidact ('unfortunately'). I don't know how to put it, somehow we all are. Even after going through a school and having older fellows showing me stuff all that did not help me. Like "hey xy, it sounds bad, what would you do?" and xy dials out 5khz and it sounds good. "how did you do that, why 5khz, how did you find that spot" and the answer is very unsatisfying "I don't know.. I did't like those 5k so I dialed them out". In the end it comes down to "one day, after thousands and thousands of hours of mixing we hear the unmixed tracks, our brains simultaniously hear how it should sound and we just mix after our inner soundsource. A year later we die or go deaf because we are 75"

 

Last edited: Mar 28, 2026 at 9:45 PM

Perfect mixes are rare thing. Mostly mixes aren't perfect. Sometimes we find "mistakes" where there are no mistakes.

I don't know if it is your case but we all have tendency to search for "bugs" and we find them even if they don't exist. We always find them as we search for them. It is a big achievement to be able look at things without searching for mistakes.Try to be less skeptical towards yourself and your abilities.

OK, you aren't happy with your kick. Is it terrible? Is it clipped? Does it "fart"? Do you hear distortion? Or is it just good enough?

 

I have to admit that for me, it is good enough... I might be wrong or another person would do it better, but after reading your comment, I have to accept that there are parts of some proffessionally crafted music that I don't like or that I always have that "this needs X more or Y less" feeling and after all, some of them are classics or became super popular... so... who cares? For me, as long as your sound it's not like reggaeton or trap, you're doing good. hahaha