A little help here....

  • Thread starter Thread starter brokenwindow
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brokenwindow

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For some reason all of my songs sound kind of muffled...Like I drooped most of the mids out of it.

I use a pod with a strat with hot tex mex pickups and an Ibanez soungear bass and never cut the mids out of the eq on the pod.

When I'm mastering..I always gotta boost the mid to mid/high's by a few db's to make it sound good.

I go from the pod into my Darla 24/96 into CEP. Is this normal to have to jack the mids at the mastering stage to get it to sound good?

Any suggestions would be great?
 
I don't know exactly what it is that is causing you recordings to sound "muffled" but my quess would be that you just have to adjust the POD or amp before it gets recorded. Maybe you have to INCREASE the mid FREC. instead of decreasing it on the amp setting.
 
ummmm

just tell me to shut up and sit down, but, wouldn't boosting the mids be the reason your mix is sounding muddy?
What are you using for monitoring?
(I'm honestly asking, coz that was the first thing that occurred to me, I'm still learnin' about this stuff.)
Macca
 
I don't cut any mids out at all during the recording or mixing process...

I kinda figured that maybe it was just a pod preset or something, but all of my songs are like this..( some more than others) most instruments too..

I'm using Fostex PS1's for monitoring....

Basically it goes like this......

I record drums, guitars, bass, noises, etc.. and at the time.they all seem like nice clear crisp tones(if thats what I'm after)

Then I'll mix it down then go into wavlab and start screwing around with some eq for mastering and I'll boost the mids a little to see what it sounds like and every time, the song sounds 10 times better....

I'm not complaining....just wondering if this is normal...to have to boost the mids in almost every song to get them to sound nice and crisp during mastering...

thanks for the replies....
 
No it isn't "normal" that you would have to boost mids all the time...

Most likely, there is something amiss in your monitoring path that is causing you to misjudge your sound - for example, if you track with headphones, and select a POD setting that way without checking what it sounds like on speakers, you're guaranteed to have problems when listening back later...........

Could also be your recording chain, or your mix balance (masking of tracks causing some tracks to overshadow others), or over-EQing somewhere in the process....

Without hearing something, it's difficult to pin it down specifically...

Bruce
 
Well, I'm thinking if you're having to boost the mids every time you mixdown there's somthing wrong somewhere.
You mentioned you didn't cut any mids during tracking or mixing.
You also mentioned in your first post that your songs "sound kind of muffled, like I dropped most of the mids out". I'd have though that too many mids would cause that problem. But you say that when you boost the mids at mixdown it sounds better! (that's why I initially asked about your monitoring.)
Are your "drums, basses, guitars" etc overlapping in the mid freq area? Sometimes cutting mids from the bass guit. and cutting a little bass & top from the guitars (leaving the mids) gives each of these their own "space" to sit in. They may sound very ordinary or even "bad" soloed, but sit together well in the mix.
It's been said by others far more accomplished & knowlegable than me that if you get the tracking right, the song will almost mix itself.
just my 2 cents (Australian, which isn't much!)
Macca

( wow Bruce, you beat me to it by a submit button click!)
 
brokenwindow , if you post an mp3 up for us to listen we could help you much better.
 
try another set of monitors and get back with us.

If you are using that sub sat system that may be to blame.
 
Thanks for the replies....

Here are 2 clips of a song I did.

Clip1 is just after mixing down.


Clip 2 is after I did a quick mastering job. (upped the mid/hi's, and a lil' compression)



You have to right click and "save target as" to get them to download

To me, there's a huge difference...Clip 2 sounds like it should when I mix it...(I think) maybe clip2 has too much mids??

I'm kinda wondering why you think my monitors would be the problem. (their not that bad..:p) When I eq the song afterwards..I can hear the difference..on the same monitors..

The only time I were headphones is whene I'm tracking acoustic, or if the kid fell asleep on the couch...

I think maybe it is a problem of masking like you guys mentioned..but I just don't realize it until I'm done...I really don't eq much when I'm mixing. The main thing I eq is the acoustic( my mic costs about as much as my shoes...and that aint much) I am trying to get better at scooping freq's out of instruments that don't need it....And the thought had ocurred to me, but I thought maybe it was something else..cuz everything else is fine except the midrang on every song..


Thanks again for the advice.

Any other comments about how the clips sound on your monitors would be welcome...
 
I think your problem is mix balances - the drums in clip 1 are too weak in the mix, causing you to want to add the lost energy back by boosting the mids.

Clip 2 sounds overprocessed and harsh compared to clip 1....

I suggest picking up Bobby Owsinski's "The Mixing Engineer's Handbook" to get a solid handle on mixing techniques...

Bruce
 
hmmm...both clips are the same mix...the second one just has a little eq and compression on it 1 1/2 db's ...1:1.2

So the second one is too harsh?

Is the 1st clip how my mix should sound?
 
The mix in clip 1 seems unbalanced as far as the drums go - they are too low in the mix, and I was suggesting that because the drums are too low in the mix, you are trying to compensate by adding excessive mids post-mix.

If you mix the drums higher to begin with, you probably wouldn't feel like you have to add any mids after mixing.

Bruce
 
So if I mixed the drums higher in clip1, it would be fine? No eq would be needed?

It doesn't sound a little muddy?

Thanks for all the help BB....
 
That's right - my opinion was that clip 1 was fine, except for the drums being a little too low in the mix for my tastes.... I think if you bring the drum levels up a bit, everything will sit better...

Bruce
 
ok...I'll just bring the drums up a bit. The second clip doesn't sound harsh on my system...I'm sure it's the lack of midrange in my monitors that are causing me to boost the mids..Soon I'll be getting "real' monitors..hopefully the event ps8's..

I'll order that book you mentioned...

Thanks for all the help....
 
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