I'd like to apologize for the rant, but I've grown quite tired of this issue. Nothing seems to make a difference anymore, all sounds like crap eventually...

As the title suggests, I've wondered, how the heck do artists achieve that clean finish but retain the way it hits and the clarity... I know a lot of it has to do with subtractive EQ + compression + effects (saturation, reverb etc), but to me these are not the answers. I also know that a lot of it is the work of very good mastering engineers, after all I've checked out their original projects on splice and saw how simple and crap their work sounds too. Most of the time I can't even hear the tiny differences gentle saturation does, yeah its good for generating more harmonics in the upper mids, but does it give it that awesome finishing sound? Nope, does cutting out everything below 180hz to clear up the low freq make it sound better? Nope, it just clears up space and makes it sound cleaner, but not better. In fact whenever I eq I subconsciously feel like I'm actually ruining the sound by even touching it.

I feel like I suffer from the "hating your own work" syndrome, because any loop, even the worst possible melody or simplest sound will sound better to me than my own made processed sound...

I've been producing for 3-4 years now, back then I didn't used to get stuck on simple parts of the track, but now I get stuck even building a simple loop out of synths... I feel like my confidence at producing is at an all time low. Everything I make sounds like crap to me! Is it just me, or are soft synth sounds in general ugly and need a lot of rework to be made into something that can be actually useful in building tracks? I get stuck applying effects to a simple pad in a track, and it annoys me how horrible the pad sounds and how it doesn't even fit at all into the track, even though I'm pretty sure I've recreated it 9/10 the way another artist uses it...

It's frustrating, not to mention when you aim to create something a tad bit more complicated than the usual chord structures and end up spending 3-4 hours on sound design just to scrap it all and throw it away, start a new and then repeat the cycle x 100 just to realize you've wasted 4 years of your life on this shit with absolutely no results...

 

Attention to every detail. I mean every single detail: from sample selection, sound design, composing (if a certain melody has 1-2 bass notes that are too low in the spectrum, change the melody or do some trick, until it sounds perfect), arranging, automating everything, variable velocity on the notes etc.

As for the confidence, this is a very important skill and one have to learn it. At the end, a good producer is the sum of patience, confidence, good ears and arguably decent equipment. A successful producer on the other hand will need connections, advertising skills, a good mastering house etc.

Seems that you're confusing composing with sound design - you sure you spent those 4 years for the best?

 

I guess all producers have/had the same thoughts at some point but trust me .. time, a lot of exercise (like ear training) and push through will eventually result in (at least) SOME understanding how things work. I agree that a lot of 'original' tracks just sound avarage but mix engineers will polish it and after it's mastered you here that clean sound. But don't forget: you can't polish a turd. So the original track has already good basics which you'll find in sound/sample selection, ADSR tweaks (attack, decay, sustain, release), cleaver writing and working in key. My experience is, when your ears are trained well (and they will after a lot of practising) you know for example what sounds will fit together and what not .. or what notes match others. Removing unwanted frequencies, making it bigger (compression, distortion, saturation), side chaining, adding effects (reverb/delay) etc. glued into a steady arrangement will finish everything in a way it supposed to be.

Nowadays you can find a lot of info on the internet. Tutorials, tips&tricks, templates and so on. It will take some time but it's a learning process.

 

What sort of music are you into? who are your favourite producers, care to share what you consider is great music.

 

You are now at the position everyone was once and that is good,means you are progressing,your ears are developing.
I suggest you go back and re-learn the basics of EQ and compression,without a strong foundation your progress might be very slow and you might lose a lot of time.
Watch some tutorials of how engineers work from start to finish,recording revolution makes imo the best tutorials.
The frustration and anger,been there it gets only better after that,trust me,you need to fall down and reinvent yourself to get better there is no other way.
Good luck

 

The fact that you're so concerned about it means you're on the right track but don't ever overthink these things or it'll block off your creativity, in reality, no one cares what EQ you used on a song , they care about how it makes them feel, this is why studying your tools (EQ, comp, harmony etc) is important, as Von_Steyr said, go back to Sound 101 and see what you think you are missing.

If all your individual elements work together rather than against, you'll have way less to do in post production, I know a few acoustic recordists who will only use maximizers on their mixbus, they adjust the mic's to perfection, in the digital world it's the same concept, great sounds = great music.

Take a break if you feel like everything you make sucks, every writer, musician, film director will go through these things, we are human and not machine.

Remember that no time is ever wasted if you're doing what you felt was right at the time. A true professional, to me, is someone who can consistently channel all their pain and practice into a finished product, No audio mix, movie, painting is ever truly finished, it's just reached a level where they're comfortable to let it go (That's the hardest part).

Just some thoughts
Good luck

 

Last edited: Jul 23, 2016

Each mix is it's own journey. You have to have some sort of destination, but you get there one step at a time. And you may not arrive in the exact place you wanted, but find you like it there anyway. Using VST is like learning to play an instrument. Practice and experience will make you better over time. Lessons and tutorials will help, but not replace practice and experience. Big name artists hire big name engineers and producers. Those big name producers and engineers got to be where they are by experience and practice. http://therecordingrevolution.com/5minutes/

 

I''ve been mixing for almost 10 years now and all i can say is that these questions are pretty common.
It''s not a bad thing for sure to question your tools and how you could use them better. But don''t be afraid to try out and experiment.
Ofcourse there are general rules but allot of personal guidelines are made up by the So Called big names but they don''t have to work in every case.
Some producers actually know allot about the physical part behind it and how you can analyse it mathmatically but this doesn''t have to mean that that works for you. Finding out what suits you the best is quite the journey and probably the hardest part out of all (Analyzing your own workflow).

The best tracks have been made by accident most of the time. Even though i don''t know anything about your musical skill.
I can understand that you want to overthink every little detail but this is where is most of the people get stuck (Even myself).
So try to go out a little more, relax a little bit. Get some collaborations going with people that you think are skilled enough to work with.
Learn and don''t be clinged up by every little thing because it will block your creativity. See your music more as a therapeutic type of thing than really as work. It needs to fun and relaxing. Make it easier than it actually is

Hopefully this helps you out in some way

 

Thanks for the replies guys, I guess it all comes down to practice and attention to detail. Its nice to know that the fact that I'm bothered by this is probably a good thing, but at the same time its also tiring to not be able to enjoy your own work the same way you used to. Then again, with each hobby, the more time you spend with it, the more you expect from it. One of you mentioned something about sound design vs composing, and I guess there's some truth to that too. I didn't spend enough time analyzing other tracks, spent most of the time on trying to compose my own things and sound design. It is easy to get lost if you're working on your own sound. After a while you realize that there are some sounds that just do not fit into certain genres, and while experimentation helps you find your own unique sound, it could also hinder ones efforts.

I'll probably take a tiny break, then my next step will be to go over all the mixing techniques again just to get it set in stone and prove to myself that I understand the basic concepts. After that I'll try to finish as many songs as possible, even if I don't think they're great, might as well finish them for practice.

ps. Its great that there are so many tutorials available on the internet nowadays, but sadly a lot of them are sub-par quality, either by producers who are not that good themselves or then by artists looking to make a quick buck who don't really share anything useful apart from the very basics (I'm also annoyed that a lot of the so called "how to make" are just a dude going "yeah so i opened up sylenth/serum/massive, got this preset here and i just play these random notes, add this kick I stole from a sample pack (which requires no processing), we got a melody now lets *insert basic mixing step* wow sounding good already!"

 

I forgot one thing that is really, really important: you must train yourself to love the process of making music. Most of the people (me included) we put down (not necessarily in this order) a chord progression, then a melody and a bass line, construct a kick and a groove, then maybe just a little bit of sound selection/design and arrangement. And the track is literally done in half of a day.
But then it comes the tedious part: sound design to get that sound that makes the track just a little bit different in the genre, percussion selection, kick vs bass so they fit perfectly together, original fx (rolls, downers, risers, impacts, accents) applying reverb can take hours ... work days. If you hate this part (because it can be boring, uninspiring and repetitive) you won't make it - this is a job after all.
Above all, stick to a deadline: 3 weeks is generally enough for a track. If you can 8 hours a day, make 8 hours a day. If you can just 4 hours a day then you have to learn to be efficient in the given time frame.

It's like going to the gym: you have to finish your workout in one hour (otherwise bad shit happens to your muscles), you have to be disciplined so you will eat only the foods that your nutrition plan require and you have to be patient as it takes years for that perfect body to finally appear.

 

@Nimbuss
Heard your song you posted the other day,liked it.I also checked out your 2nd song on youtube,its even better,well produced

 

Roll off under 30hz, Keep your sound short, and mid side processing. They are the three biggest things to a clean sound.

 

Accurate room treatment. Also you want to make sure that everything on your front end is pristine and clean. From your Mic, to your A/D converters. Good A/D converters will make your plugins sound better, create more separation amongst sounds, and minor eq cuts and gains on top of dynamic processing, will be a lot more audible. You'll hear people say " Doesn't matter what equipment you're using" but that's a lie. Better equipment will help you achieve what you're trying to do more efficiently.

 

you might not believe it ... but, they hire pros!

 

@AwDee.0 has a point. Since I registered here, I read many threads. And I realized that many if not all think of making music as producing music. That's a difference. I think people should answer this question for themselves before proceeding. "Do I love creating music, or do I enjoy mixing it?" If you love to create music, concentrate on that part and find partners who are better than you in mixing/mastering. Or, as I do it, just be pleased with the limited abilities in mixing/mastering. If your music is good, you will find people who'll love to mix it to a AAA title.
For example, this is what Rammstein provided to their producers. Not a very impressive mix, right?

 

saw this vid the other day as it was posted by @focusrite

listen to what they say about mixing. (Steve Hodge) @2:45

 

In short, they work with professionals every step of the way, and these guys are rarely multi-taskers, they specialise in one thing and focus all of their time and effort in being the best at that.

 

Last edited: Jul 24, 2016

Don't trust these guys, they got fired by Prince!

 

Last edited: Jul 24, 2016

I love listening to demos, they inspire me with confidence On the the other hand, I have shared ideas with people that took me about 5 mins to make and not heard back from them, presumably because they have no musical imagination about what something could be.

 

You get discouraged because you have expectations of how it's "supposed" to sound - expectations which come from outside you, from the rarefied realm of more-experienced and better-funded producers and artists than yourself. Such expectations are the cause of "writer's block," whereby nothing even gets initiated, much less completed then trashed. Strike a balance between letting ideas come to you and dictate what they want to be, and paying attention to the details of each element in order to make them sound "as they should" or "at their best." The overall result will follow from that. Also, let yourself be imperfect but always learn from mistakes and to welcome improvements. And stop comparing your work to laboratory-grown specimens. Give it a chance to please, surprise or impress you - and thereby encourage you to keep "making."