Muffled, supressed sounding mixes...how to fix in general....

Status
Not open for further replies.
Did my link work? Anybody hearing the music? Maybe we should wait until he comes back.

No, I'm not frustrated with asking for clips. Just for things where it wouldn't make a difference (like the example given). Must've come off like I don't like listening to clips...:eek: not the point at all!
Maybe a better example is which (insert kit here) is better, A or B? Don't know unless you've tried both, and then it's just your opinion.
 
Lol. I didn't even see it. You stalked out his music and posted it for him without permission? Bad bad form, but in a funny way. :D
 
Hello Vandy12,

All this conjecture about you using the wrong equipment is not helping. First you are not telling me what you are recording with. If it is tape the heads can be worn out or the calibration of the machine can be off- this is my job and I work on lots of decks.
If you are using strictly a digital format and each recording is clear- maybe you are mixing with some channels out of phase or with some unknown bandpass filter or maybe too low a bitrate. If each track sounds fine when played back by itself, then the problem is happening in the mixing.

To say that one can not make a finished product out of good home equipment is wrong as I see it done all the time in studios I work at as well as in radio. They even use Mackie mixers and I hate those just because they can not be repaired. They are junk but they do work for a while.
Give me more detail and I can assist further- I am a Technician, was a Chief Engineer for 4 stations in Chicago and did radio producing for 7 years. The job can be accomplished without spending a lot but you need to use equipment that is working well.
 
I got new for you. All the money and equipment will not replace good trained experienced ears. Stop trying. It is not working right now. Go back and really listen to those mixes you like. Start listening for what is different specifically. Now; and this is important. Go back to the individual tracks and apply a parametric eq. Narrow the Q until it only sees one tight frequency. Now turn up the gain and start a very slow sweep from bottom to top. Make notes on the instrument and the frequencies that sound like they are in a cardboard box and the once that sound like they belong. Type this into a computer word processor using columns set at frequency ranges 0-20, 21-30, etc. Now note the bad and the good. What you are doing now is training your ears and keeping notes so you will remember. Now go back, try cutting the offending ones in the instruments you noted and try the mix again. I think as you keep trying you will get more experienced and like your mixes more. It is all in the frequencies. Good luck,
Rod Norman
Engineer

Vandy12 said:
I am making a CD and I am a new to beginning intermediate mixer.
I am not able to figure out how to get more clarity, upper range,
not sure how to describe it well. The songs just don't sound
clear, they sound muffled. I use the four basics and not
a lot of them: equalization, compression, limiting, and
reverb. Somewhere between the recording and the
processing, or maybe incorrect processing, the
songs get more "subdued" sounding and I cannot
figure out how to get them bright and clear.
Any general suggestions? They seem to have a
pretty good spectrum. Just not the clarity
you hear on commercial recordings.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
Rod Norman said:
I got new for you. All the money and equipment will not replace good trained experienced ears. Stop trying. It is not working right now. Go back and really listen to those mixes you like. Start listening for what is different specifically. Now; and this is important. Go back to the individual tracks and apply a parametric eq. Narrow the Q until it only sees one tight frequency. Now turn up the gain and start a very slow sweep from bottom to top. Make notes on the instrument and the frequencies that sound like they are in a cardboard box and the once that sound like they belong. Type this into a computer word processor using columns set at frequency ranges 0-20, 21-30, etc. Now note the bad and the good. What you are doing now is training your ears and keeping notes so you will remember. Now go back, try cutting the offending ones in the instruments you noted and try the mix again. I think as you keep trying you will get more experienced and like your mixes more. It is all in the frequencies. Good luck,
Rod Norman
Engineer
Click to expand...

Man, I am so done with this...
 
Rod Norman said:
Go back to the individual tracks and apply a parametric eq. Narrow the Q until it only sees one tight frequency. Now turn up the gain and start a very slow sweep from bottom to top. Make notes on the instrument and the frequencies that sound like they are in a cardboard box and the once that sound like they belong. Type this into a computer word processor using columns set at frequency ranges 0-20, 21-30, etc. Now note the bad and the good. r
Click to expand...

Rod.....the last thing someone who is having trouble with EQ basics needs to be messing with is a parametric EQ and aggressive notching out of "all the bad frequencies".

You seem to be on a parametric EQ kick, 'cuz you keep mentioning it in other threads for other issues.
I use parametric EQ all the time when I'm initially editing tracks and doing "spot" fixing of things.
Yes, it's a great tool for certain situations.
However, that one thing that will not be easy for a newb to figure out is what are the "bad" frequencies to notch out....when they sweep with the gain up.
Take any source, dial up a narrow Q, turn up the gain, and then sweep....and it ALL sounds like shit.
Just about every frequencies you hit with those exaggerated settings will sound like it's "bad".
 
I never in my wildest dreams would have thought this simple question would generate so many answers. For those of you who have had some suggestive ideas, thank you for you response. For those of you like Bloodshit who are full of shit...I would appreciate if you would not respond to any more of my posts because you are obviously one of the biggest assholes on the site and based on your comments I won't be reading any more because I could give a bloodshit what your opinions are. I don't have to tell you what equipment I use, and I'm definitely not going to tell you what I've been doing the last ten years when you ask in a condescending manner. None of your French bloodshit business or whatever the hell it is you are. Go act like a dick somewhere else. Grumpy bear...I "practice" using subtractive eq. I rarely add to. Since I am a beginner, it is a work in progress. This is why I was seeking some "general" advice from this board. Of course I'm in over my head. But I don't care. I'm going to keep trying until I can learn how to do it right. Hell I'm tinkering with Ozone 5 and have no clue how to use it to actually make something sound
musical with it. But you have to start somewhere.

Armistice: Of course I'm the problem. Because I'm the guy who is not happy with the mix at this time. I take full responsibility. And, ahhh...yeah, it is something I don't understand. Again, is it such a crime to seek some general advice from a musical group? Geeze...

Grumpy Bear? How and when did you learn I had Behringer speakers? Long time since I've been on this site. Obviously
we've had contact before? Anyway...Behringers are long gone. Have Yamaha HS8's and KRK Rokits. Yamahas are both at
same level and measured distance from listening point sitting on Auralex pads. Adams sitting on console? Not sure what that
means. Man who built room did not treat it for acoustics. It was simple garage to room conversion with no thought of
it becoming a studio at the time. Equalization...yes. Totally agree. Maybe not using this important plugin up to par yet.
Very cool!!! You got September Lady on here!!! But guess what...it is not my song. It was a song I received and mixed
from the dueling mixes website. Appreciate the assessment. It has been assessed by many on the DM website and many of
the comments have been excellent. That is how the folks on the website learn. None of the guys there are dicks either.
We evaluate each others mixes in professional manner and get a little bit better month after month, and even accept the
evaluation of the new guys and have the maturity to appreciate it for what it is, knowing some of the guys are just
doing the evaluation to get into the "mix" so to say--even though their comments are not as detailed as the experienced
mixers. September Lady was one of my very first mixes. I've learned some things since then.
None of songs I have on the CD which generated the original question are on Sound Cloud. I was going to post one there
since this is where I post other mixes, and then see if I could link it to here. Kind of out of the mood now since this has turned into
a freaking circus. I have zero problem with you putting music from Soundcloud account on this site. I'm a desperate guy...what can I say.
I look as any exposure as good exposure. Thank you.

SkyWave: Really appreciate your response. In my simple mind, it was the kind I thought I would get from most
of the members here...or something similar. Jesus there are some assholes here. Little men trying to stir up shit
to make themselves look good I guess. Recording all digitally using Presonus Studio One 2 and Cubase 7.5. Phase
has been checked. Bitrate...ummm...I know...something I should know off the top of my head. Would have to look.
Don't know. Anyway...appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Rod: You are correct sir. It is the ears. It is all about the ears. And, the experience of the ears. My personal problem,
the ears don't like what they hear, and I don't know exactly how to fix it without a lot of trial and error.
Lack of experience. Working on it.

MJBPhotos: OMG--You actually took a shot at it!!! You are the man!!! I DOOO have foam shield around the mic!!!!
What can I say. I saw it on Amazon and thought it looked cool. Vocal booth...how cool is that?? It very well could be lack
of acoustic treatment.

OK Jimmy with long hair. You are done. Like a done turkey. I also have a Steinberg UR824.

Old bear. You are pretty cool. And I can see you have some experience. CD is DONE. If there is some
way I can send you a copy I will do so. And, if you have the time, and would be so kind, you could evaluate,
IN GENERAL, and see what you think. Oh man, you are in England. Maybe send you a couple
Waves via WeTransfer?

Next time I do this I'll just post a link to the music with it immediately. Learned my lesson.

Thanks.

Vandy
 
You may have thought your question was simple, but there are too many variables to account for any good guess.
AFA my information, I'm very good at researching on the internet. Most would be surprised. AFA my abilities, you would be much better off sending your cd to about 6 dozen people on the site. Give a listen to some of my stuff on the cloud (in my sig), and I think you'll agree. I understand the lingo, but am still fairly new at this myself. And I'm not in England, I'm in NC.
Sometimes people get bent out of shape on the strangest things, but Greg and Arm are two very valuable pieces of our HR puzzle.
You are correct. It is impossible to know what to ask if you don't know what to ask. Seems straight forward when you say it, but sometimes experienced people don't remember the frustration of not even knowing what to ask.
Jimmy and Rod go way back. His comment was no reflection on you, your music, or even your post.
Anyway, glad this is all working out.
Happy Recording! :D
 
Vandy12 said:
I never in my wildest dreams would have thought this simple question would generate so many answers. For those of you who have had some suggestive ideas, thank you for you response. For those of you like Bloodshit who are full of shit...I would appreciate if you would not respond to any more of my posts because you are obviously one of the biggest assholes on the site and based on your comments I won't be reading any more because I could give a bloodshit what your opinions are.
Click to expand...

Lol for real. Hey that's cool dude. Why would you consider my opinions? That would be crazy! My mixes sound awesome. They translate everywhere. I get absolutely nothing out of you reading my comments. You can't make me better so it's no skin off my back dude.

If you want answers to questions without providing useful information, then you deserve the shit generic scripted answers you get from anonymous nobodies that can't actually answer you correctly.
 
". I think it's pretty irresponsible to offer an opinion without actually hearing it"

Totally agree with you Greg (which happens more often than I think you believe!) Peeps MUST hear the music before they can comment on the sound quality. Of course I don't hear shit properly which is why I never comment on people's mixes or recordings generally. I just stick to the decibabble and electrons.

In the limit the guy seems a bit of a dick and I thought you were remarkably restrained Greg? For YOU that is!

Dave.
 
Vandy12 said:
I am making a CD and I am a new to beginning intermediate mixer.
I am not able to figure out how to get more clarity, upper range,
not sure how to describe it well. The songs just don't sound
clear, they sound muffled. I use the four basics and not
a lot of them: equalization, compression, limiting, and
reverb. Somewhere between the recording and the
processing, or maybe incorrect processing, the
songs get more "subdued" sounding and I cannot
figure out how to get them bright and clear.
Any general suggestions? They seem to have a
pretty good spectrum. Just not the clarity
you hear on commercial recordings.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Why a recording ends up muffled is a product of many things, there are a set of perspectives on this floating around. Various perspectives are presented based on a relative comparison of "my sound" vs "pro sound". Although some things are obvious, e.g., you can never have certain frequencies in the mix that were never recorded, the whole "my sound" vs "pro sound" debate is in my view a little distracting/potentially misleading, because without the underlying mathematical and physical understanding of it, you are not exactly going to understand how to get an efficient use out of these ideas, it's going to unbalance your work of steadily improving your product quality because of too little focus on too many aspects.

OP (and many others here including you Greg), here is at least a good start about lowering some of the mud you are experiencing: Improve your monitoring solution. After that, start trying to figure out a concept called signal-to-background noise. (not signal-to-noise) ;)
 
Last edited:
MusicWater said:
Why a recording ends up muffled is a product of many things, there are a set of perspectives on this floating around. Various perspectives are presented based on a relative comparison of "my sound" vs "pro sound". Although some things are obvious, e.g., you can never have certain frequencies in the mix that were never recorded, the whole "my sound" vs "pro sound" debate is in my view a little distracting/potentially misleading, because without the underlying mathematical and physical understanding of it, you are not exactly going to understand how to get an efficient use out of these ideas, it's going to unbalance your work of steadily improving your product quality because of too little focus on too many aspects.

OP (and many others here including you Greg), here is at least a good start about lowering some of the mud you are experiencing: Improve your monitoring solution. After that, start trying to figure out a concept called signal-to-background noise. (not signal-to-noise) ;)
Click to expand...

Your posts definitely add a lot of mud and background noise to this site.
 
Do you really think he'll stop on his own? :D
Yeah...I know he's trolling. It's obvious, since he refuses to explain with specifics or provide examples or samples.

Don't know WTF he's talking about.... "signal-to-background noise"....?
I'm betting it's just another term he's contrived from within his personal experience...and it only means something to him.
 
miroslav said:
Do you really think he'll stop on his own? :D
Click to expand...

No, but encouraging him to make up more bullshit is not good. The owners of this site encourage any old posts to happen because they don't care about content, just post counts. That's fine, it's their business model. But if we members that do actually record music want this place to be even a little bit useful, we need to self-police the bullshit. This site has been overrun with idiots.
 
I get what you're saying...but short of him getting banned....there's only so much we can do to self-police.
Anyway....I'm certainly not just trying to feed the troll.

I figured that by asking him to actually explain what he's talking about, give examples and provide some audio samples....he ends up in the corner with nowhere to go, and then even the newbs will just ignore his comments, and that will take care of it.
That fact that as yet, he hasn't explained, provided examples or posted samples......speaks for itself. :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top