you have a song and after the mix you feel instruments are not sounding distinct as distinct as they sound when soloed (in best mixed songs I observe that even when all instruments are playing it feels every instrument is distinct ), and beat doesn't sound as punchy as it sounds when soloed what would be the first thing that would come to your mind about the problem
1) MUDDY SOUND - I do everything that can be done to broaden the sound , compress, eq , cut lows, dip muddy freq , choose best of sounds while programming , use very little but best plugins , YET when I compare my sound with others, neither it sounds as powerful nor as sharp at mixing stage ..... this power all I can think of achieving might be by increasing loudness... and sharpness by increasing the high frequencies in mastering .....what do you all think how can it be achieved .....?
2) NOT SO MUCH DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MIXING AND MASTERING :Teachers say you should be quite close to the final mastered sound at the final mix stage , and not wait for mastering to make it sound good .....as far as I am concerned , my final mixes are nowhere close to those professional mastered reference tracks..... mine seem far unclear and muddy in the final bounced mix....is this the difference of hardwares in professional studios and limited softwares in home studios..?....or truly all magic happens in mastering and I am bad at it may be ? your views plz
3)ALL VSTS HAVE PROCESSED SAMPLES NOW A DAYS ..... and sometimes mixing engineers expect you to get untreated uncompressed dry sound ....does that mean you all programmers remove all effects (compression , reverb, delay etc)of the plugin and then record the sound ?, but you would not have chosen that sound had it been so dry .....so do you all remove all effects before giving for mixing ? is it unprofessional to give sounds with effects to the mixing engineer...?...but sometimes there are no options to remove certain effects that you can hear in the vst.... What do you do ?
Plz help ,thanks.
Don't depend so much on plug-ins. Try recording and mixing without them, and then only use what you really think you need (and always save a copy of your original, as insurance).
... this power all I can think of achieving might be by increasing loudness... and sharpness by increasing the high frequencies in mastering .....what do you all think how can it be achieved .....?
A few simple things I learned here that were foundational:
a) Tracks may sound good alone (solo), but when in a mix, they have to find their place. Use LPF/HPF's or some EQ to give each part of the frequency spectrum, and reduce overlaps This is a big part of how you can "hear" lots of individual parts in a very pro mix. You may need to use automation to control this if you have parts where an instrument or vocal is solo (i.e. acoustic guitar alone in an intro needs entire freq spectrum, but once bass and stuff kicks in, it typically needs to be squeezed into the 250/300hz->6k range (and I often will cut it at 1k when lots of other competition).
b) be aware of compounding frequencies, especially low frequencies. Use HPF's to cut lows out of tracks that don't need them (I sometimes only let my kick and bass go below 40hz). I learned that buildup of lows, even un-audible lows, can cause your track to peak and make the mix unable to get louder.
c) layer your tracks as you build your mix -- but always keep in mind, getting one group of tracks sounding 'good' may not work when you layer in more tracks, you may need more separation (see a) above)
d) Solo/Mute are your friend and reveal much. EQ/Effects "sweeping" is also a huge friend to find issues, sweet spots, etc.
Be patient young padwan.
A Carpenter should have no problem with that with a $10 saw and a $10 hammer
....". the carpenter foreman will, by necessity, dismiss any worker who presents the card but does not demonstrate the expected skill level".
I suppose one could get a skill level by mixing 32 live tracks to the cutting disk. Planned setup for each song, etc..
I don't think one has to be experienced, just competent . Rather than B_H's carpenter, most of us have been through schooling and can observe its evolved form, today. hah haha. mew hah hah hahahaha Bless the teachers that made a diff..
Believe me, it is harder to drive a nail with only one eye. With a pirate patch, you might be a few days or a week, before you are competent to one hit.
One engineer can loose his monitors on a flight and rebuild his monitoring from what in laying around in the studio, while another with the same experience has to wait for new monitors
Anyway... You are an odd one garww. Still trying to figure you out.