This is the biggest pain in the ass. I've been working on mixing since last year and have been improved my mixing skills, but only this one cannot be improved at all. I know the method and the plugins, but the sound is not clear enough. Every time I listen to commercial albums, every instrument has its own place clearly. But my mix is still muddy. Every instrument doesn't locate its place and not isolated. I've used Neutron, Fabfilter and stock plugins, but not so much improved. I also watched many Youtube videos about frequency masking, but no luck.
I would like to listen to your trick and knowhow.

 

Last edited: Nov 18, 2019

What have you done so far to "separate" the instruments?

 

Maybe its an issue of arrangement

 

did you mind share something? listening to the problem it's better to read about it...

 

"This book does much more than just teaching you how to use basic tools (such as volume, panning, EQ, gates, compressors, delay, reverb, etc.) to get an OK mix. It also guides you through the relationships – some simple, some complex – that exist between the dimensions of sound and the dimensions of space. It gives you the confidence to transform your OK mixes into great mixes. Although not light on theory, it has a practical emphasis, with links to archives containing some 40 or so project files, with step by step examples. These help you put your knowledge into practice."

>> http://www.lulu.com/shop/geoffrey-f...riers-with-reaper/ebook/product-17419956.html

don't know better book which try to bridge the gap between the ok and great mixes, it uses example projects

 

it's not about the tools you use it's about the fundamentals and how you can apply them...

when mixing, the two basic foundations are:

- Gain Staging
- Cutting out anything below 20Hz and above 20KHz

It's a good start. Try practicing these two things in every mix... honestly sometimes that's all you need to do mixing wise i swer...

 

It takes longer than one year to become good at mixing. Aim for that 10.000+ hours at least.

There is more than just the frequency aspect (subtractive mixing, removing things you don't need, etc). You also have the width, as in panning, stereo, Haas, unison, HRTF and the Sides (in M/S). Then you have depth, close and far. Combining these and you have a 3D space, a room to place your "different colored furniture" in. Then you have the transients and the sustained content (like a close snare hit and the sustaining body, drifting into the depth (and also some width, if it's stereo reverb/stereo room mics).
Yes, it is complicated in the beginning. But it gets easier when you learn about harmonics, timbre, psychoacoustics, how sound behaves and how we percieve sound.

 

Last edited: Nov 18, 2019

del

 

Last edited: Nov 18, 2019

Rome wasn't built in a year. Any craft is built upon layers and layers of acquired, applied knowledge, and even the best of the best took years to develope the intimacy with their tools of the trade in order to render high end work.

 

In addition to my previous comment,

I know that those aren't the only things about mixing and there is much much more to the world and it entails years of practice and perfection.

However, to not overwhelm the OP, I just gave him some basic things to start off with...

Often in the world of computer music beginners tend to get overwhelmed because all they hear about are all these tools, techniques and concepts and think they need all this stuff when they haven't even realised or been taught some very basic stuff, like adjusting levels in the mixer, which can help alot...

So many beginners hear about plugins, compression this that before even learning to properly adjust a single fader in their mixer...

So the point was to give the OP a basic, non bloat start at mixing because even adjusting levels and simple frequecy adjustments can be very deep and lead you to discover further concepts like elements sitting in their own place, stereo field etc...

**P.S: This isn't a response to anyone in particular, just throwing it out there in case...**

 

Last edited: Nov 18, 2019

everything starts with arrangement,
I highly recommend downloading some professionally mixed multitracks of well known songs (remixpacks ru can be a source for ex.), to get a better idea of how things are done - you might be surprised how individual instruments sound without context of the rest,
it's too complex topic to go along some manual, you need to experiment with "sound composition",
problem I see with too many sound engineers and producers is, they treat instruments in regard to frequency spectrum, which is a very basic source for masking fixes, but tone/timbre of instruments is determined by harmonics which are not bound to certain frequency, therefore getting rid of masking instruments needs to be primarily done by overall composition of notes played, and player actual style/performance which usually influences transients, length of tones, balance of chords etc..

 

As others have said, it helps tremendously to know what type of material you're working with. Post up a sample!

One thing I had to learn was not to be afraid of losing that low end information in a track (eg. guitars) when it is supported by another instrument (eg. bass guitar). You've got to choose where the most important parts are.
Also, if you are using reverb, check out the Abbey Road reverb thing where you HP/LP the reverbs which helps tremendously. I'll do the same with delays sometimes.

 

just for the rec....use trim tool not daw faders for gain staging

 

Maybe it's your imaging. There are exceptions, but

• Leads & percussive instruments: narrow
• Sustains: wide

 

Thanks, all. I didn't realize the arrangement and narrowing frequency is so important for the frequency masking. By the way, I just found my mix has been much better when I changed the guitar amp. I used to use Amplitube and Guitar Rig, and found their sound is pretty thin. Thus, the guitar and the bass sound were not clear. I changed the guitar amp to TH3 last night and found my mix became better.
I will check the arrangement later as well.

 

we need to hear something man. i am a noob my self. But our forums have some great legends who help people. like xupito, lois lane , no avenger, kungfao pao, gyro, tits and baxter. I see them most of the times. Also cav emp. So you have some friends here who will try to give you feedback and some of them might have super hearing also so they will be able to suggest what to do. so i am expecting links. can we get some links?

 

oh one thing which matters a lot too:
mixing elements in context of whole mix - more often than not, an individual instrument can sound amazing when solo'ed, but once you bring back other tracks, it does not sound that good anymore, mostly the problem is with kick drum, guitars, vocals etc..
if you search for "top down mixing", you'll learn a completely opposite approach, which often can produce better result as a whole

 

Here is a simple video that shows how to deal with the problem:

 

Last edited: Nov 21, 2019

What's with the spamming? Are you a bot?