making a song full

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punkrcker32

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how do you make a song full, punchy and poppy. i have a refrence song that im doing my mix off of, and i cant get my song to have the punch or pop the reference song has. and im also having a problem when i export the song. its coming out all mono instead of stero. what should i do
 
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More details - What is the reference song? What instruments are you recording? How are you recording - equipment and recording/acoustic environment (ie the room you are in)

It's like saying "My painting doesn't look as vibrant as Monet's, what do I need to do?" (well that's more detail than your post as I mentioned the reference - Monet)

Short answer - Record a great song in a great sounding room with great equipment run by someone who knows how to use the great equipment. Without more details, that's about the best answer anyone can give you.
 
Gordone is spot on with the painting analogy, also with his "Short Answer".
There is far too much involved with getting that good sound for anybody to just tell you what to do.
Don't expect your stuff to come close to the big dogs until you at least develop a firm understanding of all of your tools, and all of your recording techniques. This could take several years of course.

(I am of course nowhere near that level....but I'm enjoying the journey.)

Do you fully understand what you can do with Compression? Limiting? EQ? Automation? Do you have a good ear? Do you have good equipment? Do you have a decent monitoring setup? A good mixing environment?

If you can say yes to all of that....do you continuously apply that knowledge in different ways in an actual effort to get the results you're after, or do you just call up a "punchy" preset and wonder why it's not working?

Surely you realize by now that this question is a bottomless pit. ;)
 
Just wanted to add one more thing to the above excellent answers -

A lot of getting a big "full" sound is in the arranging - a lot of times, a "less-is-more" approach helps. Arrangements need to have room to "breath".
 
Also, just getting a stereo image will sound way better than mono. Your software should give you an option on export, that will allow stereo.
 
Don't listen to these guys, Punk Rocker.

The whole idea behind getting "Punch" and "Poppy" isn't nearly as subjective as one might thing. In fact, there have been several scientific studies performed on this very subject ... and it has been confirmed within .0001% margin for error ... what we have come to know as being "punchy" and/or "poppy" in the music that we like.

And what's behind it all is a phenomenon called Psychoaccoustic Inflection. What happens when music is psychoaccoustically inflected is truly an exciting experience when one witnesses it firsthand.

If you would like, for a meager $400 sent via paypal, I can send you a VST plugin that will simulate this psychoaccoustic inflection that I have been telling you about. Right now, I'm the only one on the planet who owns it, so you would be in elite company. Just let me know if you're interested.

.
 
chessrock said:
Don't listen to these guys, Punk Rocker.

The whole idea behind getting "Punch" and "Poppy" isn't nearly as subjective as one might thing. In fact, there have been several scientific studies performed on this very subject ... and it has been confirmed within .0001% margin for error ... what we have come to know as being "punchy" and/or "poppy" in the music that we like.

And what's behind it all is a phenomenon called Psychoaccoustic Inflection. What happens when music is psychoaccoustically inflected is truly an exciting experience when one witnesses it firsthand.

If you would like, for a meager $400 sent via paypal, I can send you a VST plugin that will simulate this psychoaccoustic inflection that I have been telling you about. Right now, I'm the only one on the planet who owns it, so you would be in elite company. Just let me know if you're interested.

.
Click to expand...


hehe.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
 
Perhaps choosing a different reference song would make things easier? One that is mono and isn't so punchy?
 
NL5 said:
Just wanted to add one more thing to the above excellent answers -

A lot of getting a big "full" sound is in the arranging - a lot of times, a "less-is-more" approach helps. Arrangements need to have room to "breath".
Click to expand...

I just want to second this - it looks like such a simple statement, and is easy to gloss over, but its been the most important lesson I've learned so far. If you have too much going on, things start fighting for space in the frequency spectrum, and you get mush.
 
punkrcker32 said:
how do you make a song full, punchy and poppy. i have a refrence song that im doing my mix off of, and i cant get my song to have the punch or pop the reference song has. and im also having a problem when i export the song. its coming out all mono instead of stero. what should i do
Click to expand...



wow, man how do I say it...



That thickness you're looking for comes from a bunch of different factors closely tied together. I can't explain all of them because I would have typed up a book by the end of it.


I will give this hint:


In mixing, you have to think of ways to be thick without letting people know you are giving thick. EQing, fat compression settings and types, use of delays, reverbs, EQing reverbs, even eqing delays (if you can), possitioning things, layering things, recording things for the specific purpose of layering, FX tracks,

the list goes on.


Don't be afraid to try out things that will excite your songs. However, there is a fine line between exciting and fucking up a mix.

So get creative man, see if you can dive into some meth with coke and let your mind explode.



Ps.

I was kidding about the meth and coke, I don't condone the use of drugs.
 
punkrcker32 said:
how do you make a song full, punchy and poppy. i have a refrence song that im doing my mix off of, and i cant get my song to have the punch or pop the reference song has. and im also having a problem when i export the song. its coming out all mono instead of stero. what should i do
Click to expand...


hey man - dont let the info. overload discourage you . . . if you are, for instance, mixing (or "Working" with the music/tracks in a multi track recorder--like SONY VEGAS . . .

try doubling/duplicating the tracks . . . then you can for instance:

duplicate track 1 (two times) then pan the first dup. all the way left, and the second dup. all the way right . . .

its mostly experimental . . .
 
peopleperson said:
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.".
Click to expand...
1 of the best quotes i've seen in years!!!!
 
fraserhutch said:
Take it to Taco Bell
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I just jammed a beef supreme burrito in my hard drive. Those drums sound GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD.
 
gullyjewelz said:
hey man - dont let the info. overload discourage you . . . if you are, for instance, mixing (or "Working" with the music/tracks in a multi track recorder--like SONY VEGAS . . .

try doubling/duplicating the tracks . . . then you can for instance:

duplicate track 1 (two times) then pan the first dup. all the way left, and the second dup. all the way right . . .
Click to expand...


That will get things playing out of the left and right speakers I guess, but it will still sound the same as the mono signal panned straight down the middle; only louder. Not the same as a full stereo mix.
This is a gem of a thread, BTW.
 
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