Do you guys ever feel totally inadequate when it comes to mixing? I've been totally down today because my mixes have been sounding muffled and lifeless compared to other cd's. It seems like they sound so much better with a high shelf on the master fader. Is that something I should just leave to the mastering engineer, or should I fix it now? I think my levels are ok....

Any tips or just a kind word?

quote:

Any tips or just a kind word?

So your mixes suck donkeys, huh? (sorry I couldn't help myself)

Don't leave it for the mastering engineer. You are on the right track to compare your stuff with commercial CDs and try to analyze how it sounds different. I have found this exercise to be invaluable in learning how to record and mix.

Sometimes when I was starting out I would completely ditch a mix and start over. Then I would try all kinds of radical stuff to get the sound I was after.

The first thing to try is to put a low shelf on some of the individual tracks instead of the whole mix. Better yet, experiment with high pass filters and completely remove the bottom end of anything that might be muddying up the sound. Get aggressive on the individual tracks. Then see how your mix builds.

Another trick is to notch out certain frequencies in some tracks to leave room for other tracks. Get crazy with the eq and see what happens.

To build on your doctor comment, remember, surgeons practice on dead people before they tackle the live ones. I bet some of those cadavers are pretty ragged when they go to the crematorium but that's where the doctor should try new things and make mistakes.

Take your frustrating mix and hack it to pieces. Frankenstein that sucker. Let the blood fly. Yeah, that's right. I'm a doctor. Whee!

Mike, post an MP3 so we can hear what you're doing and give some pointers.

Great post, 8th_note! mikeb, humility is the beginning of wisdom. If you want to mix music, then keep at it. I expect if you wanted to be a doc, you'd be in med school.