cleaning up cacaphonous(sp?) mix???

[DonGraham]

Just looking for some general ideas for cleaning up a mix that sounds like 20 things are going on at once....I am not working on anything specific at the time but I have come across a few mixes lately that are rather noisy/muddy/overbearing in the midrange instrument mix......thanks in adavance.

 

[jgourd]

I think it was Bruce Blue Bear who said, "If it doesn't sit well in the mix, take it out". You don't have to have every track recorded, all playing all at the same time. Think of yourself as an arranger and approach the mix like an orchestra conductor, putting items into the mix when the music calls for it and taking it out when it doesn't.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

You don't have to have every track recorded, all playing all at the same time. Think of yourself as an arranger and approach the mix like an orchestra conductor, putting items into the mix when the music calls for it and taking it out when it doesn't.

I couldn't agree with this more. On one of the songs I mixed last month there were 32 tracks of different instruments and parts handed to me. Everything from accordian to kettle drum (seriously! Most of them were synth or MIDI'd, but nevertheless..) In the final mix I wound up using only 14 of the 32 tracks, and most of those I only used sections of them. When I gave the mix back to the artist he was extremely pleased with the sound and not at all bothered that they weren't all used. He never expected them to all be used; he just kept laying stuff down as the muse hit him with no real attention paid to the actual arrangement.

Listen to the basic tracks of the song like the rhythm section a lead instrument and vocal only, for example, and get a "feel" for the sound, mood and emotion of the song. Then get creative and start adding tracks that take their proper places in the sonic spectrum without elbowing into each other too much and that fit the mood you want to reenforce. When you get to the point where adding another track feels like trying to stuff 10 lbs of sound into an 8 lb bag and another instrument just seems redundant or making the mix too busy, stop adding. Don't be afraid to leave stuff out, even if the solo tracks sound good. It's easy to make a mix too busy.

But leave in the kettle drums, they sound too cool.

G.

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

Yup - often, the MUTE button can be your best friend!

 

[peopleperson]

Yeah, seriously. The arrangement of a song can doom you from the beginning. I'm mixing this one little dudes songs right now, and he's seriously got like three or four parts all fighting for the foreground at the same time. You've heard it a million times...it's all about the source.