Lemmiwinks Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 ok this is really frustrating for me... everytime I make a new track and I'm glad with the end result, then I compare it to "professional" stuff and realize that it somehow doesn't sound "tight" enough, it's like my sounds are all over the place whereas pro stuff just sounds well... clean-cut and tight. I tried fiddling with the EQs and delays/ reverbs but it just doesn't sound right in the end. Am I missing something here? Or is this sound just given by the final mastering once the track is put on a comp/ album? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karan129 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 The easiest thing I found which helped make a track more professinoal sounding was EQing each channel properly, for examples ensuring frequencies don't overlap. You have to mess around with the EQ settings till it sounds the way you want it to, say give the kick some gain on the higher frequencies and cut it at the bass frequencies etc...ofcourse this is very basic, I have no idea about advanced mastering techniques. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frozen dream Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 tight monitoring tight production aka fresh ears 10 years of experience in music mixing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veracohr Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 What do you mean by "tight"? There's a good chance what you're looking for is mastering compression. But it all starts with the writing and arrangement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supergroover Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Make sure you put every sound in its own place. Frequency, time and panningwise. If you want to see how far you are in your production quality. You can send a track that you are happy with to colin for example to have him master it for you. It ll cost you something but then you know if you have that 'tightness' already or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemmiwinks Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share Posted March 20, 2009 Make sure you put every sound in its own place. Frequency, time and panningwise. If you want to see how far you are in your production quality. You can send a track that you are happy with to colin for example to have him master it for you. It ll cost you something but then you know if you have that 'tightness' already or not. interesting idea but how much will it cost? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
needle ninja Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 I am thinking of sending something to a pro masterer aswell. I have also (finally) been using a new limiter for the final mix. But yea, a lot of it is just good EQing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin OOOD Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 interesting idea but how much will it cost?You can send me the track, I'll master it and send you a 3 - 4 minute clip; that should be enough for you to tell. If you like it and want the whole thing it'll cost €30 (I normally charge €50 for a single track). This is a special Psynews deal, limited offer as I'm pretty busy with mastering right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormion Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 You can send me the track, I'll master it and send you a 3 - 4 minute clip; that should be enough for you to tell. If you like it and want the whole thing it'll cost €30 (I normally charge €50 for a single track). This is a special Psynews deal, limited offer as I'm pretty busy with mastering right now. Just of curiousity, you must have different audio files for the kick, bass,l eads et.c or just a wav of the whole track to get the mastering? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supergroover Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 Just of curiousity, you must have different audio files for the kick, bass,l eads et.c or just a wav of the whole track to get the mastering? no then you are asking for mixing and mastering. I am sure he can do that for you.. but not for 30 euro's. Which already is a ridiculously good price! It's worth the money and effort if you want to see where you are with your production level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veracohr Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 I am thinking of sending something to a pro masterer aswell. Look up Freq Mastering. I had both my albums mastered there, and he's a nice guy and good at mastering. Right in downtown Portland. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supergroover Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 colin is a pro masterer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alleycat Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 Best advice is to just work on making your stuff clean and dynamic. EQ everything just right, its time consuming but it makes a world of difference. Trust your ears before you trust a bouncing green-yellow-red bar. (It should never be anything but green, though) Keep everything from clipping, but try to get everything as loud and dynamic as you can. If something starts clipping and you need it to be louder to match the rest of the track, instead of raising it and clipping it, lower everything else to fit it. Try to compress as little as possible and only if absolutely necessary (a lot of things can be solved with EQ rather than a compressor). Compress only individual tracks if possible, rather than the master track. Good tracks get ruined by master track compression all the time... (Highko Im looking at your Noise Brothers album ) DON'T get discouraged if it doesn't sound as full and spatial as pro mastered stuff. Pro stuff is usually mastered with high end equipment often including hardware that gives it a really warm sound. Its very not cheap to buy your own gear for mastering (but a nice cheaper software mastering suite is Izotope Ozone, runs about 250 USD and in my experience can give your stuff a bit more of a polish). Its also not always the best idea to master your own stuff. As an artist you have biased ears from listening to the song so many times, and this means you can miss some very blatant things (I know I have...) that a fresh pair of ears would get right away. Thats not to say there aren't artists who can master their own work, its just easier to let someone else do it. But above all try to get it clean and mixed down first and foremost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N2O Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 If you havent already get this mixing video from Synsun. Even if you know most of it you can probably dig out a nugget or 2 from it. I like it because its geared at electronic music and quite in depth. Good job by Andi http://andivax.33music.ru/index-e.htm <--- Url for the vid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buzzman Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 If you havent already get this mixing video from Synsun. Even if you know most of it you can probably dig out a nugget or 2 from it. I like it because its geared at electronic music and quite in depth. Good job by Andi http://andivax.33music.ru/index-e.htm <--- Url for the vid I just love the way he says "IZM Bassizm" Or anything ells for that matter.... I only watch ten minutes at a time, a tiny second beyond that and i loose concentration on what the guy is saying Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frosty Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 i found this help full at http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm Buzzwords. By boosting or cutting the bands on your equalizers, you can make your sound more or less "airy" (16khz), "bright" (3-10kHz) "harsh" (which is excessive brightness) "edgy" and "brittle" (2-6k) "sweet" (a slight but wide cut at 2-8k), "warm" (slight upper bass boost and slight 4k cut). You can make your mix sound "thin" by reducing an wide band of frequencies from around 200-400 hz and make it "thick" by increasing those. If you increase it too much you'll have a "muddy" mix. Your bass can go from "missing" to "buried" to "solid", "fat", "boomy" depending on how you set the low frequency controls. as all ready mentioned give every sound its own space & EQ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frozen dream Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 i found this help full at http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm Buzzwords. By boosting or cutting the bands on your equalizers, you can make your sound more or less "airy" (16khz), "bright" (3-10kHz) "harsh" (which is excessive brightness) "edgy" and "brittle" (2-6k) "sweet" (a slight but wide cut at 2-8k), "warm" (slight upper bass boost and slight 4k cut). You can make your mix sound "thin" by reducing an wide band of frequencies from around 200-400 hz and make it "thick" by increasing those. If you increase it too much you'll have a "muddy" mix. Your bass can go from "missing" to "buried" to "solid", "fat", "boomy" depending on how you set the low frequency controls. as all ready mentioned give every sound its own space & EQ what's the frequency for "like it should"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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