I am trying to mix my song but can't get through removing the muddiness.
My monitors lacks low end so it's just difficult to make out how much to boost or cut!

If some one here is kind enough to EQ my session (just the subtractive EQ) to make it sound tight and clear, that would be awesome!

My project is in REAPER. Let me know for further details if interested!

Here's the link to the song https://soundcloud.com/abhinavjoshua/my-reason-for-as

Thanks!

PS - The genre is Pop/Rock (going somewhat into ambient) Sorry, I'm not good in differentiating genres!

 

eq high pass filter 100hz all the instruments except the bass guitar/synth bass and Drums boost sweep to find any annoying frequencies and then cut from 1 to 2 db's there is way more to it then that but that is a start

 

I usually work with electronic music, but you already tried to remove (or reduce) the bass of all instruments that do not need it and the ambiance? or maybe they're just missing instruments to fill the remainder of the spectrum (thus would be more balanced) ...

PS. If you do not have problem in uploading your music so we can hear it would probably be easier to help solve your problem ...

 

There's been quite a few topics posted here on the forum about this topic. Just do a search "muddy mix" or "clean mix" and you'll find alot of discussions on this.

Start by low cutting pretty much everything. Synths and guitars can be low cut about to about 200Hz. The 500-100Hz region is another problem area, again cut that range out from guitars and synths to give room for the vocals.

When mixing kick and bass first decide which one you want to dominate the sub bass area. If the kick is sub heavy you'll want to low cut the bass, and vice versa.

This is a huge topic and starts all the way from sound design and choosing the right sounds all the way to the notes you pick to play. So EQ is only one of the things you can use to make your mix less muddy.

Do you have your song uploaded somewhere to listen to?

 

If you've a decent headphones use them as monitors to control the lows.

When it comes to muddiness the most important thing is EQ wisely as fuad has said.

Perhaps would help too a good use of panning. Double track guitars and hard pan them left and right. The bass in the center. The drums too. Again, as fuad said, you've to take decisions about drums vs bass.

Good luck with your project! =D

 

I had to link the song here, I just forgot! Sorry *yes*

Here's the link to the song [media]https://soundcloud.com/abhinavjoshua/my-reason-for-as[/media]
(The song is totally unmixed).

Let me know what frequency areas to aim while Eqing coz the monitor sucks at low end!

 

Don't forget to consider your composition as well.
Too much stuff running together can make it hard to achieve a "breathing mix".

Less is more.

 

Soap and water always removes the mud for me, but don't let the song dry in the sun or the length might get shorter.

 

It got shorter, so much heat here these days... Now only left with the intro!

 

Nice song.
Is the Bass Played or is a VST?

I use Scarbee MM Amped but I am looking for a better natural sounding Fingered bass with needed articulations.

 

Played! *yes*

 

Short answer: Mud is around 300Hz. Try cut some.

Longer answer: Learn gainstaging. Let every sound have its own seat to sit comfortably in (both dynamically and frequency-wise). Find the sweetspot(s) for each sound/channel. Lowcut/highpass everything that doesn't need low end (voices, guitars, hihats, overheads, etc). You can even go so far as making two groups, where kick/bass/toms goes into #1, and all the other instruments/voices/sounds goes into #2. Then low shelving cut the group #2 until you have a clean and dynamic blend.

 

I don't hear a lot of mud on this song. Just the bass volume needs to be lowered and EQued to make room for the kick, because while I can hear the bass clearly, I can't hear the kick drum.

 

What he says, or the opposite; maybe some cutting on the kick and boost the overall volume would do the trick

 

The main offender is the intro lines that get played and continues during the song, the rest of the instrument's need attention as well but as you say its not mixed, its also not tracked properly either, if you have access to the musicians re do the offending tracks rather than spend time trying to fix.

Thanks for the listen

 

the mix isnt muddy perse more like constipated...guitars need more definition and less 100-250Hz(make it thinner and compress it well)...the bass needs more (sub)beef and a little bit of growl(Waves CLA Bass / Waves Maserati B72 will do the trick im sure the playing/sound is good, you will get good results)...melody lines lower in volume and again thinner at the low-mid...you will need a hole here for the vocal fundamentals...some transient enhancer on drums/ harmonics generator will bring out the attack without eq...try to start with the bass(after waves treatment) and add drums, guitars and the rest...keep bass prominent until you find that the mix is clear then roll back a bit for safety and then add some air with Maag Eq(air band at 20/40kHz, use sub to balance the body)..youre almost there *yes*

 

well that could be a really nice ambient thing. It's nothing at all muddy but the sound is, to be honest, horrible and the bass isn't wery well played and composed for me. It's a cool song, needing to be developped. But EQs alone won't solve the problem (just my opinion). There are some strange panning issues going on and other things. Get you some friends somewhere to fix that and to make it glance. Shouldn't be too hard (besides the bass). I love the unagitated vibe of that sound. Evolve it and it will be very good. But by now it's just a good idea. Not working at all, sorry to say that. Just do the next step !

 

Try Ilya Efimov Classic or Modern (which I haven't tried yet) Bass. I used to use the DI versions of Scarbee Pre-Bass and Jay Bass and pair it with the same DI version on another track run through an amp sim, but could never get it to sit right. The DI version alone also never sat right -- I think they actually have too much bass and zero midrange. The Efimov bass sounds like a real DIed P-Bass, has better articulations (slaps and palm mutes, fret slides, auto legato, etc.) and has a built-in amp sim, which you can turn on or off (though you'd be better off running the DI on a separate track through a better amp sim). Also, the Yamaha SR-5 Rock Bass isn't bad, especially since a decent picked-bass sample set is hard to find. I think Scarbee's stuff is more funk-oriented.

 

I actually think that, as-is, it lacks bass.... Maybe it would be better if you mixed it and re-posted it. How would you know if it lacks somewhere for sure unless you have a go at mixing it?

Also, at about 1:45 the bass has such a slow alteration of notes that they break the flow. I'd try some triplets or something faster/different there if i were you. (Or maybe a two 8ths-one 4th figure - a pair of these on a 4/4 figure)

 

high pass filter

drumloop : 35-50Hz , for oldradio effect up to 800Hz
e-gtr's : 100-150Hz , lp filter at 7-8khz.
bass gtr : 40-50Hz , main energy lives higher , 80-130Hz range. lp at 10khz
vocal : 80-140Hz, boost some 3k, lp at 15k
synth : hp/lp

also, from every instruments and the vocal, bad resonant frequencies must be taken out. they usually around 250 and 450hz. from my experience of course ;)

also, muddiness can be taken out at the mastering stage. i use ik's linear phase eq hp filter usually at 40hz, low pass usually at 17.5khz and most of the time i find resonant frequencies , around 250 and 470, i boost with a narrow Q until the resonant is screaming, and if the boost happened to be 8db, i notch it down by 6-8db at that very same frequency.