How to get so clean sounds ? Like Nicky Romero, Hardwell, Mark Knight

[smalternative]

Hi guys,
I'm wondering how this guys get so clean sounds...
For example, here Saxxo's music (it's Nicky Romero & Nilson project)
http://www.beatport.com/track/sudoku-or ... ix/1652133

And all the hihats, claps, basses, plucks are so CLEAN, I tried to cut the low freq on every channel, and put little reverb on it but if i EQ'ed for example hats - to have it clean as i want, it sounds like without mid frequencies if you know what i mean...
Then if I put reverb on it, it sounds very "metallic"
I also use Waves S1 Stutter for stereo imaging but it doesn't work

Maybe it's contribution by using delay or UAD2 plugins ? Because these guys use it a lot if u saw the videos ?

Thanks for the advices as well, and sorry for my english guys !

[murnau]

learning to mix is a process over years and years.

excellent stuff to get a feet in the door:

http://therecordingrevolution.com/

[TIMT]

Alot of these "Big Room" producers abuse the haas delay effect to unfunny levels.alot of the cleanliness you are hearing is because of some of the frequencies energy in certain sounds is phase smeared across the stereo image.this gives the impression that things sound cleaner because the sounds due to the delay take a little while longer to reach your ears so it's perceived as less sharper i suppose.which again could be interpreted as "cleaner"

so put simply,there's not alot of energy in the centre channel other than low frequencies.though sometimes they do opt to spread the low mids out the centre.that could be seen as cleaner but i personally myself think it sounds piss weak horses for courses

Get something like ozone and have a play with the multiband stereo imager.it should do what you're after.if not set it up yourself with a short delay on a pre-send.if you need it multiband grab the rs-met crossover or de la mancha's "threesome" for less phase smear at the crossover (namely because threesome uses inversion rather than a crossover to split frequencies)



TIMT

[smalternative]

Thanks TIMT for ur answer, it's really useful, but what about bass ? especially sub ?
If i listen to Saxxo's and Nicky's, Hardwell's track's the sub sounds like it's playing also in stereo area, but i read that all low frequency have to be mixed in mono ;O so ?

[Sendy]

Either you create a wide sound and then use a stereo imaging tool to collapse the bass range to mono, or you layer two patches, one a mono sine or triangle type bass and the other a wide layer with little bass content.

[kkbombax]

great topic... about the Hihats Tracks, its look so "clean" , with a good frequencies. the sound is "in your face". i dont know if this is work of mastering or the pre master is also very, very good in frequencies levels...

[kenobi77]

Great sounding track, and it is VERY clear.

Part of the reason is that all the sounds, except the FX and bass line, are very short, so they take up very little space in the track.

So shorten your percussive sounds, for samples move the end points back, and even moving the start position forward (thinking claps in particular) on your sampler can achieve this, or gating them. Similar the main synth pluck is very short so that would be achieved via the synth amp envelope or gate.

I find compression particularly with standard DAW plugins or other 'neutural' compressors can make a sound more upfront and tighter with less dicernable low end.

I've found the above helps me to get part of the way there, I hope you find it useful to.

For clarity in general, and this has been reflected on earlier in the thread, exciters/saturators can make us perceive sounds as clearer (even though the opposite has occurred), so I'm sure they are at play on this track.

[schnapsglas]

Why don't people use an expander more often? Is gating a forgotten art?