KVR Audio

LordRushx1 · Post by **LordRushx1** » Thu Jul 23, 2020 2:00 am

I have been battling this track from sub to kick to mids to muddy highs. This thing is all over the board and for the life of me I am trying to figure out where I am going wrong.
Just when I feel I am getting somewhere and the mids start gelling, the sub or my kick decides to take over again.
I keep cutting frequency , low passing where I can and It all still wont gel
Any suggestions,advice or plain critique would be extremely helpful
Thanks in advance

https://soundcloud.com/systematictest/binaural-4

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Thu Jul 23, 2020 2:31 am

Okay, first of all, reading your plea for help, I was expecting to hear a train wreck when I put this on. So imagine my surprise when it sounds "passable" to me. I'd be perfectly content with this track. Now I haven't taken SPAN to it to see what's off but if the frequencies are bothering you, the fix is simple.

1. Take each track in solo and find the offending frequency.

2. Then, either EQ and/or multiband compress it until it's where you want it to be.

3. After each track is finished, put SPAN on the 2 buss and see if it looks good. If not, repeat the process or, as a last ditch effort, fix it on the 2 buss with either EQ and/or multiband compression.

That's what I do and it never lets me down.

Good luck.

LordRushx1 · Post by **LordRushx1** » Thu Jul 23, 2020 2:45 am

wagtunes wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 2:31 am Okay, first of all, reading your plea for help, I was expecting to hear a train wreck when I put this on. So imagine my surprise when it sounds "passable" to me. I'd be perfectly content with this track. Now I haven't taken SPAN to it to see what's off but if the frequencies are bothering you, the fix is simple.

1. Take each track in solo and find the offending frequency.

2. Then, either EQ and/or multiband compress it until it's where you want it to be.

3. After each track is finished, put SPAN on the 2 buss and see if it looks good. If not, repeat the process or, as a last ditch effort, fix it on the 2 buss with either EQ and/or multiband compression.

That's what I do and it never lets me down.

Good luck.

I appreciate the vote of confidence at the same time I have a confession as well. I am, at best a bedroom producer with no setup whatsoever. I use high fidelty (haven't heard that in awhile I presume) speakers. With that said, I am fortunate of one thing. My car.
Practically it is it's own iso cab pushing around 6ooo watts. At the moment as I use those for reference, my cab is shaking from the thunderous bass. And I do not mean that in a good way.
Your points of reference are pretty much what I have been doing. That is where I run into problems. On their own, they sound great. I even draw the sub and mix frequencies and match them with a full percussion bounce and it doesn't punch me in the head like a full mix.
I keep trying to keep the rule of thumb as well. If it is to loud....just turn it down. I keep deleting as much sub frequency in my bass lines as well as my kick in order to bring out more mid range. This just seems to fubar everything up and sounds like a lesser version everytime I make a change.
Oh and Thank you so much for the reply,really appreciate your time

Frantz · Post by **Frantz** » Thu Jul 23, 2020 2:51 am

I think the track takes too long to get going. I find the lead that comes in at 1:44 too loud and irritating.

You are probably overdoing the EQ cuts. Having some frequency overlap, as long as they are not clashing, helps the mix to gel.

Also try playing keyboards with your fingers instead of your forehead.

thedeadsoul · Post by **thedeadsoul** » Thu Jul 23, 2020 12:14 pm

You know, I gotta agree with wagtunes, it doesn't sound bad at all, just need a bit of balancing, I guess. I understand your frustration as I faced this kinda situation a lot myself

What I did is I just left the song for some days and away from making any other songs. After a short while, I revisit the song, and surprisingly my ears were able to catch those small adjustments that need to be made.

Hope this helps.

Best,
Adi/Thedeadsoul

empphryio · Post by **empphryio** » Thu Jul 23, 2020 1:25 pm

Everybody clap your hands!

I thought it sounded fine. I listened on car stereo, bose headphones and JVC monitors. If anything the bass may have been slightly low but fine really. This subject interests me as I have noticed my car can't handle bass as nicely as my headphones or monitors. Car makes it thunderous and drowns out the rest for a recent track I made.

JeffLearman · Post by **JeffLearman** » Thu Jul 23, 2020 3:46 pm

Do you know about ear fatigue? As your ears tire, you hear differently and it leads to creating mixes that sound terrible the next day. To combat:

Make a habit of doing most of your mixing at the lowest level you can manage. This has a lot of benefits:
- Reduces ear fatigue
- Makes it harder to hear quieter parts. This is a benefit in disguise: it forces you to make hard choices. If you can't hear something until you turn it up, you probably shouldn't have it in there anyway, unless it's just a little icing on the cake.

Take frequent breaks and give your ears a rest

Just before a break, turn it up 6 dB or so
- because it's fun
- and now you'll hear stuff you don't like that crept into the mix but was too quiet to notice
- and did I say, it's fun? Mixes sound better the louder we turn them up, so at the end of the day, crank it up! ... really, it's fun. But don't overdo it.

A good mixing level for a small room is 80 dB SPL-C where your ears are.

LordRushx1 · Post by **LordRushx1** » Thu Jul 23, 2020 5:22 pm

Thanks All SO much for the replies.
I ended up going to a friends house this morning and referenced the track on his monitors.
I guess all in all I have been so distressed on this track that my ears were bleeding (not literally of course but..)
As it was mentioned..fatigue
Thanks again very much for all your helpful tips. I shall take this and learn

::Bangs head against keyboard:: Need serious advice