Need Some Help, Really Holding Me Back (Mixing)

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Unknown Child

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The problem lies in the mix. Or better yet, maybe a lot of it lies in me. I'm an extreme perfectionist, and this has prevented me from releasing music for about 3 years. I have been recording and engineering for some years now, not as consistently (not daily) as I'd like, but long enough to have (what I like to think is) a good hand at EQ, compression, reverb etc. The problem I am running into is that I can never seem to get it to the point I'd love it to be.

I'm recording with Pro Tools, a Focusrite Preamp, an AT4033 into some Yorkville monitors. I listen and analyze acapella's from Drake, Ludacris, Eminem etc. and no matter what I do I struggle to get close enough to their crispness on my vocals. I've also noticed that they come through clean but with quite a lot of low-end, minus the "muddiness" that I seem to get from my low-end. Could heavy compression be the source of the low end? The vocal style is similar to say a Ludacris or a Busta Rhymes, where it can go from loud, to calmer all on the same verse.... I find it a lot more difficult to handle than say ur standard East Coast flow. Also, when I mix I find it lacking the same energy it was performed with.

I use the low-cut setting on the mic, and I also switch the Pad to -10, would this have an effect on the vocals energy? When mixing I always find myself trying to EQ the vocal to a pristine "cleanliness" which involves removing quite a bit of low-end and adding some boost in the 4 and 8khz range. Unfortunately, I don't know if this is the right move considering most of the acapella's I hear have quite a bit of low-end, however no muddiness?

Does anybody have any tips or has anybody experienced the same situation where u just can't seem to get the sound "good enough" for your ears when compared to someone else's work, no matter what you do?

Maybe I'm not asking all the right questions, but I'm getting desperate now, time keeps passing and I have failed to release anything in a couple years now. Getting frustrated and beginning to leave the studio stressed and unhappy, rather than smiling after achieving something I loved.

Some help, some tips, some motivating facts, I dunno, anything that can help someone in this situation out?

Not sure where to go from here... completely frustrated.
 
if you're comparing your mixes to professional mixes, then you have to ask yourself if you're working under the same conditions. For example, it's nice to list your gear, monitors, etc....but are you recording in a well-treated room? Even more importantly, are you mixing in a well-treated room? Because I guarantee you they are. The best gear in the world won't sound as good as the pros unless A) The room is good, and B) Your ears are as good as the engineers working on the mixes you're comparing yourself to. This is 100 times more true when it comes to mixing. Your monitors are lying to you if your room isn't treated.

Room treatment is the most over-looked aspect of recording/mixing, yet it never gets the amount of love it deserves. It might be because bringing home a nice new shiny piece of equipment is more exciting that bringing home a bunch of rigid fibreglass and wood. But it's so much more important than most people think.

So, what size room are you recording/mixing in, and do you have any room treatment?
 
Its not "properly" treated for mixing. Some blankets placed up on the walls of an approx. 10x8 room. I use the SE Reflexion Filter for recording also. Regardless I always get a very muffled recording. I hear a lot of people say they barely touch eq, which is mind boggling to me. I watched an interview with 40 (Drakes producer/engineer) who stated that they record in hotel rooms, back of tour buses (not studio equipped) with nothing but an Mbox and a mic... some of which tracks made it onto his album.... this was very frustrating to hear, especially considering that I've referenced his acapella's to achieve the same crispness but without lacking a "clean sounding" low end.

Can't figure it out for the life of me.
 
Unknown Child said:
Its not "properly" treated for mixing. Some blankets placed up on the walls of an approx. 10x8 room........ Regardless I always get a very muffled recording..
Click to expand...
I'm not sure why you say "regardless".....Your problem might lie in the sentence right before "Regardless"..

.What I was getting at before is that your room just might be the problem, and the reason why you're getting a boomy sound, reflection filters or not. On top of that, blankets cut everything BUT the bass. And it's a pretty small room. So, you have a small, boomy room to begin with, un-treated, with blankets that might be adding to the problem, since they're cutting your highs and mids while doing nothing for your low end. Like I said before, the room is a HUGE part of getting a good sound. Never mind what gear the pro's are using. One thing all pro recordings have in common is good rooms for recording and especially mixing.

Just throwing that out there......
 
Good info. Any idea what I could do to help the low end situation? Would taking some or al of the blankets down help the situation?
 
Posting a sample will get you more direct advice as to what might be the problem. Don't worry, we will judge, but in a productive manner. :D
 
Compression isn't going to create low frequencies that weren't there when you tracked. (oops hit post button by accident) Your voice has the low frequencies, use a filter or eq to take out what's necessary.

+1 to the answers about the room, the mix, the producer.
 
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