Hi Audio Lovers

I'm getting (as usual) a bit stuck on this one, and I really need some advices on this

So I just uploaded the last bounce of one of my tracks, and I'm failing to really describe and determinate pros and cons of this mix.

I wonder what should I do as Mastering Stage or what Mix corrections I should do. I wanted to use M/S but all my attempts failed, and if I think the mix might sound decent or even great, I can't get the loudness out of it, as soon as I start hitting "satisfying" values for this kind of music (ie -14>-7 RMS, 8 PLR, -12 LKFS), it just loses definition and is fatiguing. So i'm referring to your guys well trained ears and unbiased listening

Here it is : (Edit: deleted : Will upload an update, have read every answer many thanks guys for all the intels, I'll get back to you and answer after it's fixed. )

It is a 32 bit .wav upload, so if someone is interested to try some mastering on it and if it doesn't need mix fixing, I can just enable download option and you'll get the original .wav!

 

Last edited: Jan 30, 2017

Additional questions about the mix : Does it need more or less per-track compression? Is it already fatiguing at this mixing level? (-18 RMS -6 peaks) How is the balance?

 

Brilliant title

I personally wouldn't get too hung up on the level, its always going to be a bit of a trade off against sound quality, and I think you've got a pretty decent mix already.

If you do want to bump it up I'd suggest trying Slates FG X instead of a "normal" limiter. It can do some neat tricks to bring back dynamics even after a squeeze........the rest of the mastering ingredients I'll leave to your taste.

 

Hue hue hue the title is a placeholder... Although the final one isnt clear at the moment. Yeah I want to be on the dynamics side anyways but it still needs some squeeze... All of my different Mojos aren't working here, I have FG-X so i'll give it a shot too, thanks for your reply! Thanks for the appreciation on the Mix, I feel I'm not satisfied with it but it must be my brain doing sonic tricks as usual...

 

I only had a listen on the laptop............and my ears didn't bleed, always a good sign.

If you're gonna try the FG X, keep the compressor switched off at least for starters, and you should have a look at the manual for setting it up..........it helps........just try and keep the knobs below 12 o'clock, as in less than halfway..........and you'll have more sucess with the ITB (?) slider above 0 for this kinda track..........again don't go nuts.............then if you really need it switch the comp on.

Make sure you set the ceiling you want in settings........and use the auto gain while setting up.

GL moosh

 

First of all this is quite an ambient tune, lots of sound and reverb bleed into each other. With that much going on too much compression will quickly turn it into mud.
In my opinion if you want to go for an increased loudness I would try to put more control on the reverb ( e.g. duck it to the dry sound, make some space with an EQ for the fundamentals of the dry sounds) this however might decrease that kind of psychedelic vibe.
You might be able to improve the mix a bit more with some EQ and bring more clarity to the single channels.

I've noticed one panned hat on the left, maybe you could shape the mix with doing some more panning.

Just my 2 cents.

tldr: Would work on the mix before trying to squeeze out loudness.

 

This mix sounds really bad to me. It's so narrow, almost mono. There's a lot of mud and competing frequencies. I don't know what to focus on. Maybe you tried to do too much and just ended up killing it. I would forget about it for a couple of days and then come back with fresh ears and start from scratch. Forget everything you think you know about mixing. Forget about M/S processing and levels. Stop staring at numbers and just use your ears. Decide who is the star of the show and move everything else out of the way. Give every element it's own space in the mix using eq, reverb and panning. And like ampersound mentioned, leave loudness until after your mix is straight. But don't squash everything so much that you lose your dynamics.

 

Yeah I don't really know much about mixing etc but I sort of agree with flyingsleeves.
Leaving the content itself aside as that's not totally my thing, sound aspects for me was that there was nothing to accent the passages in the manner say that dynamic change might.
So purely from a neutral listening aspect it was very flat and didn't have much too focus upon.
Almost became like background sort of non relevant etc.
I don't mean that harsh etc either because I think the content itself was quite good and with some dynamic change etc could be quite a good sort of whatever genre tune.
Thanks for sharing and nice one