How to get a crisp and tight mix?

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I have been noticing how many of the pro DJs have this tight and crips sound in their mix, but I can't figure out how to do it. I've thought that it might be saturation but that didn't give the same type of tight sound. I've gotten close but I'm not sure really, so please tell me if you know how :)

Examples of this crisp sound:
https://soundcloud.com/revealed-recordi ... e-download

https://soundcloud.com/protocolrecordin ... -exclusive

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Have you tried using loops?
There is also, well, equalizers, and stuff.

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Why would using a loop help? That's just like building legos

How would you EQ to get this really tight sound?

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Just keep trying, you'll figure out what you need to EQ.

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https://soundcloud.com/kvromusic

Here is my music, maybe you can help me with what I need to change to get my tracks more tight

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I'm not a beginner/noob I just really would like to know how they get their tracks to sound like that

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Quality sources and almost perfect tweaking and processing, good room and speakers, enough taste, experience and confidence to know where to stop and where to cook more.

Some of that sounds are really carefully tweaked and than went into chain of plugins that do barely any heavy lifting's, but actually work as whole adding to each other, every sound is cooked like that, all that make better overall result :tu:

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KVRO wrote:I'm not a beginner/noob I just really would like to know how they get their tracks to sound like that
Send them to professional mastering :tu:

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Processing like compression and boosting certain frequencies?

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Many channel strip-type plugins have a "tight" preset. Also, transient plugs do this too, mainly by taking away errant transients (I think). Look into a few of these and compare.

On the EQ side, reigning in the extreme highs and lows will also contribute to a tighter sound.

I'm not a sound engineer, and I rely on the brains of others to do the heavy lifting on this stuff. But I think this is what is behind much of what is labelled "tightening."

Cheers
-B
Berfab
So many plugins, so little time...

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KVRO wrote:Processing like compression and boosting certain frequencies?
Knowing nuances&quirks of every tool and than having a vision what every of them can bring to the table, picking tools that are most suitable for the job, even if the difference is not that drastic, that's how magic comes together.

There's point when you need to start relying on your vision, taste, ears and everything you know to make what you want exactly, that's why A list mixing engineers earned their tittle.

Enjoy, better than soaps :tu:

http://www.pensadosplace.tv/

Oh m/s processing :tu:
Last edited by Passing Bye on Wed Apr 15, 2015 6:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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KVRO wrote:I have been noticing how many of the pro DJs have this tight and crips sound in their mix, but I can't figure out how to do it.

Do you mean DJs playing professionally mastered tracks as part of a DJ set? Or are you talking about mixing / mastering techniques during music production?

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Maybe your vocals could be more "compact", I don't call it tight. But the plus side of the way they are mixed is intelligibility, which is always a plus. Try doing something different with the vocals EQ/Compression/Tone

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That crispness comes from having pristine source material. FIf you're using mp3's forget it. You want to be using lossless source material and it needs to have no defects. If one of your samples has a raw top end you can high pass it but its a destructive process in many cases and it makes things a little unnatural. Best thing I ever learned was getting my mix right pre fx. If im using synths i'll start with oscilators work through to the onboard fx then add layers. I only stop once it sounds great. Then the fx are just there to add extra tightness and crispness. The more plugins you have the harder it is to identify whats causing problems. When you have a dry mix you can home in on problem areas quickly. The sum of all that adds up to the crispness you seek.

Comparing pre and post fx constantly is always great too. Rule of thumb is that your track should sound amazing without fx like compression and gating. Things like ring modulation and frequency shifting might be integral to your process so you have to make a judgement call about what constitutes the dry mix

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dewgong wrote:That crispness comes from having pristine source material.
I respectfully disagree. Good source material is important, sure. But I'd wager that there's no one that doesn't wind up with a pile of FX and processors on most, if not all of the tracks in any given project. That "pristine" source material gets eroded in dozens of ways before the final buss. And many of those processors are there solely to add "dirt."

Tightening the mix not only requires managing those tracks, but managing how those tracks interact with each other, sonically speaking. As others have said here, it's a balance of art and science to get it right.

-B
Berfab
So many plugins, so little time...

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