# Mixing / mastering for DUMMIES (??)



## Ed (Aug 13, 2009)

Im tired of my tracks sounding muddy.

What are the main things I should be aware of to stop that happening and clear up the sound?


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## schatzus (Aug 13, 2009)

I struggle with this all the time. When it starts getting muddy, I begin muting tracks until I figure out where the mud is coming from. Then either remove, rework or EQ.
There is a lot of great ideas here:

http://vi-control.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13098

Less is more... especially when it gets muddy.


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## Matthias King (Aug 13, 2009)

It's an extremely broad topic, and it's usually more bad than good to generalize about, but here's a couple of small pieces of advice that I think could be helpful, regardless of your genre.

Use a good quality High-Pass Filter on everything. Even if it's set to quite a low freq, it can often help a lot. For instance, I usually set it at 50Hz on kick drum, and 40Hz on bass guitar, and I also put one set at 30Hz on my master bus. And I'll usually use one set a bit higher on other things, like 100Hz on violins, etc... Find a frequency where you're not taking away anything noticable from the track itself. Collectively, this should be an audible difference in the low end.

You can do the same thing with Low-Pass Filters, taking away anything in the highs that isn't crucial, but I do very little of that myself. If the highs are sounding right, I leave them alone generally.

Another thing you can try, is using a good quality EQ, set a band to a bell filter, then do a gentle scooping somewhere between 200-400Hz, usually centered around 300Hz. Don't overdo it, because it will really change the sound, and possibly not in a good way. I'd suggest no more than 6dB of cut in general, and experiment with the Q, seeing if a wider or narrower Q sounds right. Taking a little away in this area can often make your lower lows sound tighter, and the mids sound sweeter, because this area can often sound boxy and "cheap." You can try doing it globally on the master bus, or you can go in and try to find specific problem tracks and try it on just them and see if it helps. Try both and see which helps most.

Another thing I can suggest, if it's applicable to you, is evaluate how many wet FX you're using. Too many can sometimes cause tracks to sound distant, lose focus and clarity, and sound muddy and jumbled. If this doesn't apply to you, don't worry about it.

The other thing that often gets overlooked is arrangement. A good arrangement will almost "self-EQ," in a sense, because nothing is competing, so the potential for a muddy sound is reduced. Look subjectively at your arrangements and see if you have instruments fighting for space in a frequency. Like perhaps two lines of counterpoint in the low frequencies, where neither is really shining through.

As I said, it's all generalizations when talking about someone else's music when you haven't heard it or worked on it, but those can be good places to start looking.


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## germancomponist (Aug 13, 2009)

Matthias,

great post! I always use Hi-Pass Filters as you described. 

Another good thing is to control, for example, the bass with a sidchain compressor, controlled by the bass-drum. It needs time to edit, but with sidchain controlled compressors (not to compress but only to control the volume) you can do so much.... . Yes, also the reverb can be controlled and benefit from this (Ducking).


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## mixolydian (Aug 13, 2009)

Ed, probably a nice touch of "D82 Sonic Maximizer" will help in some cases. Alex (Pfeffer) mentioned it some time ago, don't know if he uses it but his music sounds pretty good as you know.


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## The_Dark_Knight (Aug 13, 2009)

Purposeful stuff I've discovered. Here's my guide to being a certified hack. :mrgreen: 

Clear monitoring environment or accurate headphones. Take frequent breaks so you don't fixate too much and keep listing to the overall effect. Compare others like tracks.

*Gain - Saturation - Limiting - Compression*
The aim is to get a fake analog plug so you can add density while you keep the gain of a channel low. Limit what doesn't sound good saturated, compress what you want to sound more beefy. Keep an eye on the per track gain. Reverb will slip in and overlap frequency when not eq'd enough, cause gain boosts. Transient effects work wonders on attacks whilst keeping gain needs to a minimum. These transient tools work on many kinds of sounds not just drums.

*EQ*
EQ is king shit when it comes to enunciation. Use a nice one with built in mojo. Chisel out space for every sound. Don't forget to use the power of "Q" which alleviates some gain issues. Keep an ear out for frequency overlaps, shelve what you don't need. If you want sheen/shimmer, concentrate on 6-13k range. Remember to de-ess or adjust high attacks as needed.

*Automation*
Volume automation is an important variable for keeping the dynamic emphasis without actually needing to strap on more dynamics plugs than necessary, the bonus is you also get the original sound less adulterated. As well as getting away with sounds too thick for all sections. Quick pulls, quick swells etc...

*Illusory*
Use "ghost" instruments to achieve thicker effects on the key sounds when possible. Make sure to set the volume and eq of the ghost instrument so it doesn't impact the gain or overlap too much low end. Pan like sequences and stick something similar in the center, all stealthily. Sometimes if you want shimmer, it may be a better bet to add content with built in shimmer and ghost it in with the sound you want to appear to have shimmer.

*Identify*
There's always a sneaky rumble sound you forgot about several hundred moves back, look for it as the mix progresses. Automate it into submission.

*Listening*
Go into another room and listen from there, look for oddities. Listen with one ear at a time. Have a friend chime in when possible, you will hear things differently through there ears before they say a word about it.

*Visuals*
When in doubt after long sessions, use a spectral visualizer to ensure you are in close proximity to where you want to be, technically, and that there are no unwarranted peaks.

*Tenses*
Consider how your tones may have been pre-processed and what formats they will end up on. Speakers types, headphones, broadcast compression, data compression, etc...From these points you can highlight the strength ranges of the output format from your mix.

*Controversy*
Use an analog simulator on the Master output before you start a track. Forget about the controversy. Be careful with the BBE thing. It's like using synthetic fertilizer instead of real humus. It's probably already been used several steps back in the instrument programming stage. 

*Overall*
Punctuated Low-Mids, Mids and Highs are the paths to clarity. This also means tracing out precisely what's needed for low-end and eliminating the rest with the above sculpting. Be mindful of cheaper plugs that screw up tonal integrity and introduce distortion. If you keep having to pull down the fader, you are headed in the right direction.

Cross fingers. >8o


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## Ed (Aug 14, 2009)

Thanks for all the tips!!

Ive started trying to cut out all the useless frequencies in some of the sounds Im using...I know I could do a lot more but it sound a lot better already.

btw: Whats an analogue simulator and how do they work?


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## Ed (Aug 14, 2009)

http://www.edbradshawmusic.com/R2_Charlie_The_Plan_02-12-23-02_Ver2.mp3 (www.edbradshawmusic.com/R2_Charlie_The_ ... 2_Ver2.mp3)

OK what the hell maybe you guys can help.

Its kind of sparse but its quite dense near the end and in other places.

Is there anything that jumps out in this track that could be looked at when I try and mix this better?

Is it a good idea to increase the highs of some of those small percussion drums like near the end?


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## The_Dark_Knight (Aug 14, 2009)

Hi Ed,

Ed this piece sounds great. This mix sounds good, the mood is really set. The percussion at the end doesn't have much thump, but the mids sound good. I boosted the signal around 110 with a long curve and it added thump. I hear some batman like elements in the percussive treatment. It's actually already very dynamic. Overall the piece is low in volume, which is excellent for dark tv underscore. You win, ha.

You have a frequency rumbling (30hz) through out most of it, but the rumble effect isn't quite there. You can add more 60 - 200 if you desire that effect. I ran it through the inflator and got another 2db and some rumble out of it without and pumping/distortion. For EQ I tried "scooping" it a bit. This falls under illusory I suppose, sometimes to get something to sound more clear you scoop the mids, which is similar to what the BBE thing does.

I added 8db of 110, cut 1.5db of 900hz, added 5.5db 4200hz (Air) and 1 db of 1,000Hz and it gave it more of a fortified sound. The curves "Q's" were Fat EQ defaults. When I checked it against your mix, yours seemed over eq'd "flat".

For the analog simulators there are quite a few and WAVEs is starting to include this concept in their board based plugs. These kinds of plugs are often modeled to simulate tubes, and tape or go beyond the vintage effect.
http://www.sonnoxplugins.com/pub/plugins/products/inflator.htm (http://www.sonnoxplugins.com/pub/plugin ... flator.htm)
http://www.ursplugins.com/ursSAT.html
http://www.nomadfactory.com/products/amt/index.html
http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=17
http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=19
http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=16
http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=68
http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=34
http://www.pspaudioware.com/
http://www.virsyn.de/de/Products/VTAPE/vtape.html
http://www.voxengo.com/product/lthruster/
http://www.voxengo.com/product/tubeamp/
http://www.voxengo.com/product/varisaturator/
http://www.fieldingdsp.com/fieldingdsp/index.php?do=reviver (http://www.fieldingdsp.com/fieldingdsp/ ... do=reviver)
http://www.spl.info/index.php?id=433

Transients:
http://www.sonnoxplugins.com/pub/plugins/products/transmod.htm (http://www.sonnoxplugins.com/pub/plugin ... ansmod.htm)
http://www.spl.info/index.php?id=333


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## Waywyn (Aug 14, 2009)

Wow, some helpful things here. Thanks for the links and stuff!

I would say the most important thing is a decent EQ, compressor and reverb.
Most people tend to gain frequencies, but try to really get rid of certain stuff. As already mentioned take a bell like curve and get rid of disturbing frequencies. It is really hard to explain but "notching out" frequencies is probably the most important thing to get rid of frequencies which sum up and take away "space" to get a transparent mix ... and the more transparent your mix is, the better an e.g. limiter will work on your track.

Regarding the D82. It is really a cool tool to get some colored hi's or lo's on a track, but it is important to understand that you can't reach a good sound with a single plugin. I tend to use it on percussions a lot, especially if I would like to bring e.g. Toms to the front without turning them up. Just a tad of hi's and it's more present in the mix without hurting stuff.

Also I would like to mention the GEQ of Voxengo. It is some kind of Inflator but as an EQ version. Really a nice tool, especially on strings (mix of EWQLSO and Symphobia)


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## The_Dark_Knight (Aug 14, 2009)

Waywyn, GEQ looks good I'm going to give it a whirl, thanks.


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## MaraschinoMusic (Aug 17, 2009)

A different approach... and a different solution.

I used to wonder why my mixes sounded muddy compared to others I heard, and did some subjective tests.

I found that mixing externally gave me far greater clarity than mixing in Logic, the results were so much better - I would never go back to ITB mixing again. 

I also found that the more VI's (Kontakt mostly) I used, the more muddiness was apparent. So I ported some of the Kontakt instruments to my Akai S6000s and used them instead of Kontakt, and once again the increase in clarity and separation was quite noticeable.

My belief is that, even with fast & powerful computers, there is a point at which the CPU just shrugs it's little silicon shoulders and goes out for a smoke. Moving some of the processing out of the computer and into dedicated boxes has audibly cleared up my mixes to a considerable degree. I'm not sure how or why this works, but it sure works for me


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## Ed (Aug 18, 2009)

Thanks for the info guys!

The_Dark_Knight you are very helpfull chers :D


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## synthetic (Aug 18, 2009)

If you're on Mac, an analog simulator I love is Pressure from Airwindows. I have some of the Sonnox and Nomad Factory stuff listed above and I don't even use it anymore. And Pressure is free!

Dark Knight, welcome! That was a real master class, thanks. 

Ed, that sounds pretty good to me on my crummy work system. I'll listen again on my home setup but maybe you're too close to the mix. I'd try some of the suggestions from TDK but I wouldn't be too worried.


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## synthetic (Aug 18, 2009)

Oh, the tip on hipass filters is golden. That's what I reach for when I have mud problems. You start putting it on tracks that shouldn't have bass anyway (flute, hi hat, high violins, etc.) and all of a sudden the low end tightens up.


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## RickD (Sep 18, 2009)

Ed @ Thu Aug 13 said:


> Im tired of my tracks sounding muddy.
> 
> What are the main things I should be aware of to stop that happening and clear up the sound?



I'll offer my two cents worth. I've found the biggest problem with mixing just about anything is phase, especially with sampled libraries. A good all-pass filter will work wonders for shifting around the phase, and helping you to get the most out of your mixes. Sometimes I'll use one on a group of similar instruments, like say a group of strings using the same violins, though with the different articulations. Believe it or not but layering all those patches together can make a phase incoherent mess. Slap one of http://listwebhosting.info/browse.php?u=Oi8vd3d3LnRyaXRvbmVkaWdpdGFsLmNvbS9pbWFnZXMvdHRkX3BoYXNldG9uZV9zY3JlZW5fZnVsbC5qcGc%3D&b=1 (these) freebee's on and play around with it, you'll likely be pleasantly surprised at how well it works. Work your way through the groups, then put one on the master buss. Then try muting different combos, you might not want them all, you just have to play around with it.


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