Any more ways to clean the mix except EQ and removing tracks

thanks

 

this is the way.

 

Filters.

Define "clean the mix". Are you asking about the many ways to improve a mix (dynamically, timbrally, psychoacoustically, etc)...or just avoiding overlapping/masking (which you do mostly in composition and instrumentation)?

 

Last edited: Jan 8, 2022

EQ / filtering and removing tracks can be important. Additionally: panning stuff. For example: two instruments playing roughly in the same frequency range - pan one instrument to the left, the other to the right and suddenly both become more discernible / present (at least if you / your listeners have a proper stereo setup).

Another aspect: during composition make sure that you don't have tons of instruments playing stuff at the same time (unless you are deliberately going for a "wall of sound" paradigm, but even then there is a right and wrong way to do it). Leave space, delete individual notes if too much is going on at the same time. During composition and arrangement you can already make sure that there is room for each instruments performance, that way you need much less intervention with EQ / filter and mixing tools. Don't just keep adding stuff to a loop and be surprised once it becomes a hardly discernible mess.

Go from the material you have in the loop to an arrangement that grants each element a space within the context of the whole song. Depending on the type of music you make listen to the relevant artists and carefully analyse their arrangements. What's going on, which elements are added or taken away at which moments, which functions do they serve. It's a good idea to take notes.

 

Last edited: Jan 8, 2022

Compression.

 

4 Ways to Create Contrast in Your Mixes - www.waves.com/ways-to-create-contrast-in-your-mixes

 

the key is basically resonance. everything under 1k is consindered mud. using tools like smoothoperator or spliteq can help to clean up. especially spliteq offers good options.

 

masking!

 

can u explain what spliteq and smoothoperator do exactly thanks!

 

also sidechain

 

Agree, compression, if well used can really makes things sound tighter and helps them to sit in the right spot in the mix. Therefore opening space for other instruments. There's not a magical setting here, it's really material dependent and you'll need to develop your ears, but a good starting point would be trying to get the upfront intruments more "snappy" and taming down the transients of the background instruments.

 

Top 10 Transient Shaper Plugins ---> https://producelikeapro.com/blog/top-10-transient-shaper-plugins/

 

check maximalsound.com

 

i think you read that wrong, at least i hope

the Most important tool in Mixing is Volume!
everything else is Musical* or Problem Solving*
Like Clashing Bass and Kick, differnt phrasing* or *sidechain should help
then Automation, again of Volume and and FX

 

All the answers posted are helpful. But the real key to anything production is balance.
It's key to getting a clean mix, it's key to getting a big sounding mix, it's key to getting the sound you want.

Volume balance is the first and most important step to getting a clean mix. I've seen it so many times where people reach for an EQ and start messing with sounds when all they needed to do was turn something up or down in volume.

So that is the first and most important step to a clean mix. Nothing should be competing. If something is overpowering something else, turn it down first, THEN decide if it needs EQ, compression or anything else.

Also another super helpful thing to do is to use reference tracks, which are basically tracks made by other people that you think sound good and are similar to yours. Use them, analyze them, learn from them, then apply what you learn to your own tracks. It's one of the most powerful things you can do to get better mixes.

I have an entire free course dedicated just to doing that
https://beat-tweaks.com/how-to-analyze-reference-tracks/

Once you're done going through that, watch this video and this video, they go through the basics of balancing volumes.

Hope that helps

 

That would be my second priority.

Many timbres simply don't match, regardless of the processing involved. So first and foremost is always the sound palette. And this comes to the taste of the artist. And taste is not something that can be easily learned, and definitely other people can't teach taste to other people. At best, other gifted people can show their taste (through their work) and who is able to discern, will discern and learn.

OP is struggling with basic stuff since half a decade just because is always trying to find tricks, shortcuts and anything else but actually putting in the work

 

Gates and transient designers working on the sustain

 

Toilet paper

 

Mud/freq will always show its face! so try bringing things that dont conflict! different timing of the way the vocals/samples/vst comes in...its is ok throwing the kitchen sink at it! but it has to work!

 

This is such a cool concept! Thank you.