I am struggling to stop myself muffling my mixes. They sound good at the beginning but I always think they need something more. Maybe it is because of lack of experience, I don't know. Is there any books, videos that you recommend me watch to learn more about mixing, especially synthwave, darkwave stuff. Thank you!

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClAFwSFgHGe788IpuUF9Iig

 

we seem to go from making crappy unpredictable unbalanced mixes, to overreaching/overdoing and killing the mix.

when i had this problem it had a lot to do with me failing to realize that a mix session wasn't a mastering session. but back then i really couldn't draw the line with certainty.

so sure its a "simple" matter of lack of experience, a shorter phase that should go away with more practice. kind of tricky to formulate a "solution" to such a subjective process though, haven't seen such a specific tut yet but maybe someone here has seen something useful

 

Last edited: Sep 17, 2020

I'm definitely not the best mixing engineer but my mixes got a lot better when I stopped doing extensive mixing sessions after the production phase and do most of my mixing during the production phase and only do minor changes after that.

 

By caring about the actual musical idea and how to bring the best out of it and not about which plugins you use!

 

stick to a mixing way, only add effect if needed once it sound nice. stop. listen to it on ur mobile phone n speakers for errors. if none found, forward to client the next day

let em b d one to tell u if it has a problem or its ok

 

Last edited: Sep 17, 2020

How to stop overmixing

1. Set all mid-range instruments synth piano , vocals position and create space using reverb or plates

--------Drum-----
--------synth
--------Vocal

2. Use Buss Groups for Vocals, Drums. Keys, Guitar. apply eq, compression and limiter. 2nd Busss for FX on Group One to Four.
Group 1 Drum
Group 2 Vocal Buss
Group 3 Keys
Group four Piano

3. Master bus has Stereo EQ plug or AI to balance mix No Limiter or Compressor, EDM use limiter in third place.

Time for mastering.

 

get in mix dude mode and leave artist mode for that piece...watch it from above as a stranger..
and what steezo said

 

How Do You Avoid OVERMIXING? When Is Mix Finished? Rapid-Fire Q&A #15

 

Actually, all the responses have been very helpful. Thanks everyone. I will put up a deadline for myself. That is what I have been missing I guess.

 

mix with your ears and not your eyes, take breaks from mixing to give ur ears time to rest, and dont overthink things, eq is a must even tho it might not seem that way,

 

This point here is the key - mixing with tired ears late at night will absolutely guarantee you'll overdo the top end elements in the mix because thats the first part which starts to dull as your ears get tired. Check the mix again the next day and you find you've whacked up all the hihats and stuff because you couldn't hear them.

Short breaks are key especially if you mix in headphones because they tire your ears out much more quickly than monitors. Also dont mix too loudly either as that also tires your ears.

 

I'd trust what this guy says with my life
... if I ever go to the gym

 

Last edited: Sep 21, 2020

ADPTR Metric AB I found stopped this over mixing. Put it on the masterbus, loadup a similar track wave file pro track from favourite album and AB back and forth to see how close or not you are from where you want the sound to be. Learned so much AB'ing pro tracks from my favourite albums. I always mixed drums & guitars too loudly but this little plugin has proved invaluable. Finally you learn so much about what to listen and aim for you won't need it anymore or just now and then to see if your mix is in the ball park. Hope that helps.

 

Bruce Swedien did 91 mixes on Billie Jeans..

https://www.soundonsound.com/people/bruce-swedien-recording-michael-jackson

 

1) Deadline/time limitation
2) Experience
Bake them together and you got a pretty good formula (IMO).

 

Start to make overmastering instead.
With oversampling, of course.

 

For me overmixing was a mandatory step and reflective of a necessary obsession. I'm finally getting to a point where I feel like I'm kind of getting the intended mix in a quicker timeframe. It's the overmixing that refined the process for me, time consuming but worth it imo.

 

TONS of videos about mixing on youtube