My mixing is trash and I'm tilted

[Azbest]

Okay I am a long time music maker but just starting to learn mixing/home mastering. Using Logic Pro X and making pretty spare and uncomplicated synthwave-ish stuff and some beats.

I've watched Music Tech Help Guy's Logic 101 series. He did a great job of showing me how to use the compressors and some of the other stock tools. What I didn't really get was why/when I should be reaching for compression. I've heard and read so many conflicting comments - from "on pro mixes everything is compressed multiple times" to "never do anything if you don't know why, not every track needs compression". etc.

I'm experiencing the following issues with my test mix:

- my bass sound is garbage. The bass sounds (both kicks and synth bass) are muddy and quiet. The only inkling I have is to highpass around 45 hz to remove muddiness. But after that I'm lost. It seems like every time I add bass-y sounds to a track they blow up my output dB and I have to turn them down. But now they don't sound loud! Is this one of those extremely counter-intuitive things where it's like "turn up the treble to make the bass sound louder" lol??

- along with not knowing when to apply compression, I don't know when to apply EQ. I tend to feel that the sounds I've chosen "sound good as they are" and so I often don't tweak the EQ. My songs are simple, instrumental, and there shouldn't be too many clashing frequency range instruments. How do I know when to employ EQ and Exciters etc.?

Thats all I can think of. Sorry for the rant.

Dude don't hihgpass bass heavy music at 45Hz. Also when trying to deal with the "mudiness", look into around 100-300Hz area of your bass instruments.

If you don't know when or how to apply EQ, don't bother with compressors yet. First and foremost, mix using level faders on your mixer, thats the most important thing.

[ATS]

I use EQ and compression much less than I did starting out. Azbest gave really good advice when he said start mixing just using the level faders. I think getting your levels right is the most important thing. I have found if something doesn't sound right, just turning it up or down in the mix can make a world of difference. And that is before adding anything else to it at all.

BTW I have been making music for like 30 years (as a hobby) and I still feel like a beginner so we are all always learning. I think that is part of the attraction for me.

[Bartizanier]

I use EQ and compression much less than I did starting out. Azbest gave really good advice when he said start mixing just using the level faders. I think getting your levels right is the most important thing. I have found if something doesn't sound right, just turning it up or down in the mix can make a world of difference. And that is before adding anything else to it at all.

BTW I have been making music for like 30 years (as a hobby) and I still feel like a beginner so we are all always learning. I think that is part of the attraction for me.

Thanks for your advice.
Since I first posted this thread I've learned a lot already, and I'm a lot more happy with my mixes.
I've always been subtle with my use of EQ and compression since I heard the same advice.
One thing I recently learned was that I need to use automation on everything for precisely what you said, making sure the levels are balanced...but before I was trying to balance for the full song, then I realized I can use automation to make sure its balanced in every section of the song. Seems obvious but I was ignoring the option.

[MrSardine]

As I am a trashy mixer myself, I find this thread really interesting
I will read everything carefully. And look up that Mike Senior book, loks interesting.
Thanks, everybody!