Yes.

First (unless some of your sound design depends on big effects like modulation, delays, big reverbs, distortion), make it sound as good as you can with just panning and balancing. Nothing else. Do automation. If something sounds shitty no matter what, you have a shitty sound source. Tweak the synth / source and go to square 1. Next identify instruments with competing (or completely unnecessary) frequencies. Do simple cuts with eq. Balance everything again. Put put your synths in few busses and sidechain compress them with base drum. Balance everything again. Make more busses and add some bells and whistles, do some more cuts with eq and balance everything again. Then do some very light "mastering".

Listen to it. What you like about it and what you don't like. Compare it to other mixes you like. Redo the whole process few times. Try to improve your mix every time and eventually you should end up with something you can be happy with.

 

The problem is not (Mainly) in the "mastering".
It's in the way you mix your track and give pan and depth. Once you understand how to mix your song properly, you find that Mastering the way you do now is what it's killing the tracks.
As I always say: practice, practice, practice.... read, see some videos on YOUTUBE or get them from AZ.
Despite the criticism from everyone in general, remember one think.... Nobody learn this in one day. Just keep doing your thing and keep practicing. Make music and let the more technical stuff for later.
Although you need to learn stuff in the between...

 

Let me tell you this, $10,000 headphones won't fix your problem.You know there is a problem even with your decent headset. With expensive ones you will only find more faults but that won't fix the mix would it?

First up, you are over over compressing every track. Your mix lacks detail and dynamic range. I would suggest a lot of study on stereo imaging, dynamic range, compression, gain staging, etc. etc. BTW your music sense is Ok in my book.

Mixing and mastering is a different ball game. They are both art and science. It takes years of skills and understanding. Probably that's why a 12 year old can make music but not master or mix it properly.

Cheers.

 

@GorkaMinus
It takes a while to get good at it and you'll never stop getting better even when you are. I still learn or teach myself something new every time. You will get it with practice. Once you get your ears trained and your toolbox organized you will understand and know many different methods to address these issues. Keep at it, you will get it.

 

Loads of great, sensible suggestions in this thread. For everybody. This guy ,Graham Cochrane from "Recording Revolution" has some very useful things to say, too: https://www.youtube.com/user/recordingrevolution Spend some time watching his videos. You won't regret it.

I find him one of those guys who actually tell you stuff that you already know. At least, I do. He never tells me anything new. But in general it's a good reminder at times to make your tracks sound even better, and he does have heaps of great info for people who are only starting making, mixing, and mastering music.

 

Hi guys!
Im back again,
i made another song, its a very different genre compared to the other tracks that i made:





i spent much more time on mixing, i tried to leave more dynamic range but still being loud.
i kept in mind all the advices, and i listened to it on different devices.
i think i improved a little bit but still a long way to go haha

let me know what you guys think, do i still have the same problems from the first post ?
btw thanks to everyone who answered haha

 

Still over-smashing it with the compressors IMHO, but definite improvements man! Esp. in the bass area, pretty sure you really worked on that and it shows.

I love compressing the shit out of everything too, they bring badassery but they rob your sound EASY if you're not EXACTLY on point with the settings you're using. They are like that evil character in your fav series, who you can't get enough of, but is definitely evil. Meaning, there's always the one sweet spot you want to be in (different for each track/signal), and every other setting is so-so or downright poor. Your job is to learn how to find that sweet spot by ear, intuitively. Once you got it, the same exact track you have here can have a whole new feel and groove to it. It's like a balance between the badassery and keeping the real rawness of sound, you only allow the comp to take "this much", exactly enough for it to do its badass job, but you don't let it take everything it wants....

If you want to have some good fun, post me a soundcloud (.FLAC plz) link to this track with nothing on the master bus. I'll send you back my attempt at what I just described above. If you like it, I'll give you my tips on how to replicate the results, but YOUR way...

 

Last edited: Apr 2, 2017

Theres no zero crossing and 0 envelope fading checks on your sampled parts, its especially audible on the reversed samples. The distortion fuzz on the reverbed piano pad thing is too bright and the automation for it is too sharp. The bass movement needs to have more going on, atm its just one/two passages at most just repeated. There is no cleanliness on the kick high end, it makes it sound overly thumpy, that problem could also be to do with the compression. The sidechain release might need to be increased slightly. Its a good start, but dont be fooled by a high dynamic range reading for this track when half of the track doesnt contain your main bass and is just foley/glitch, thats the main thing thats reducing your DR in the first place because its loud, and atm the bass and its interaction with the kick is still mixed poorly but better then your first attempts, keep it up!

 

My favourite ever advice on mixing and mastering actually came from the mouth of Steve Duda and is something I now try and work to. In a Pyramind session he did (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3), he explains how he doesn't really use plugins and does everything he can to avoid them and try to mix and master the tracks from the art of controlling and manipulating the basic controls of the mixing console, i.e. pans and volume faders primarily to get where he needs to. He then only adds plugins where there are clear needs and this ends up in a cleaner mix and master of a tracks.

Love him or loathe him, and most will love him if only for giving us Serum and Cthulhu, he talks a lot of sense in this session and might be useful for you to listen to and then revisit your mixes as a starting point maybe, as it does seem like you are over processing the track and losing the sense of dynamics in the tracks?

 

It sounds like it too. No width, and tons of phasing issues. The bass is compressed to death as well, kind of pumpy (in a bad way) on some songs.


Like others said. Invest in a pair of monitors.

 

You don't need expensive monitors. These cost the same as your headphones.
https://www.monoprice.com/Product?p_id=605500&gclid=CNvCsP7Xh9MCFRmewAodQrkL6g

You can find a pair of AV42s for 99 bucks used, and they're only $150 for the pair new.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-...9210981-sku^J22446000000000@ADL4MF-adType^PLA

$100 bucks brand new.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-...9210981-sku^H80524000000000@ADL4MF-adType^PLA

 

Even with those 3-4 inch coned monitors you're going to hear a lot more of what's going on in your mix in relationship to your environment. You'll also be able to create width and depth within your mix. Those monitors are no high end JBLs or focal SM9s, but they'd be a much better improvement than headphones.

 

I should probably ask this in another thread but idk

What do you guys think about the M-Audio BX5 D2??
https://www.thomann.de/intl/maudio_bx5_d2.htm

i dont really have a place to put them but...

and what about audio interfaces? any suggestions?

 

Last edited: Apr 3, 2017

For $400 you can get the pair of BX5s and and scarlett 2i2.

 

I just discovered this the other day. I was excited. I'm not bad at mixing but I am pretty clueless with mastering, and I decided to just test out the limits of MJUC on the master bus. Man I really had to make an effort to make it sound shitty. Like, dial at 75% and stupid attack and release times.

 

@GorkaMinus Where are you located? I have an old pair of alesis m1 mkIIs I can let go of for really really cheap. Im in the USA though. Depending on your shipping cost, its probably too much. Theyre powered so they got some heft to them. Im guessing about 10 lbs each.
What I started on before I got the Truths with the sub (maybe the only thing that behringer did right), but all my critical listening is done on openbacked ultrasone headphones.

 

Last edited: Apr 7, 2017

im from Spain so i guess the shipping cost will be more expensive than the monitors themselves lolol
thanks anyways haha