Dubstepforum.com

I'm at the point in my skills as a producer where I can make good sounds from scratch, I know how all my VSTs work like the back of my hand, and making a good amount of good-quality sounds for genres ranging from dubstep to brostep to electro-house to genrecore-step-core-core-style-step-core and beyond isn't far from reach.

My problem is my mixing. My sounds clash a LOT, even when I think I've got them all sorted out.

If anyone could be so kind as to outline some general guidelines for mixing synths(basses, pads, leads, melodic stuff mainly)/EQing/etc? I'm a complete noob in this area and any advice at all would be GREATLY appreciated.

Whatever I try ends up sounding muddled and blah, so much so that I never get anything done.

So if anyone at all could help me out in this area, I may FINALLY be able to finish some tracks.

there is this thread on the dnbforum called "Mixing Inside The Box" I believe and has a lot of useful information that has helped me. sorry about no link i have tried searching on google to no avail. here is my input. if you bring in a lead in your drop of say dubstep and want it to stick out yet retaining the midrange bass you should get some analyzer to see where your bassline sticks out the most which for me it is usually around 500hz and analyze your leads frequencies. so if your lead peaks at 1khz and your bassline peaks at 500hz. EQ out around that area for the lead slightly and EQ out the 1khz area on your bassline slightly and of course measure volume levels like have your bassline at say -11dB and your lead at around -15 or -16 dB. well that's what I do and it seems to work out fine. unless you have a pad, lead, and some other synth going on as well then of course have the pad the most EQ'd but yet still able to hear and whichever lead you want the most dominant or sticking out in the mix to be a little louder than your other elements or other synths. Of course your kicks n snares will be louder at least they should be around -10dB or -9dB. if i am wrong at all please macc or someone else correct me. some of what I wrote was told to me by macc himself

here's a link to some frequency charts that should give you a general idea of how to eq the individual elements in your mix

http://djfrobot.blogspot.com/2010/04/eq ... ments.html

@Hypefiend

http://www.dnbscene.com/article/88-thin ... q-tutorial

is this what your were talking about?

your getting mud because your synths are probably all fighting for the #1 spot in the mix, use your eq and analyze where each synth peaks and such, adjust your eq on each synth so your freq's are not clashing and adjust gain levels

analyzers are your friend

http://www.voxengo.com/product/span/


That'll tell you everything you need to know.

Instead of making your track and then trying to EQ each element into a separate range in the mix try thinking about where each element is going to sit as you make the track. That way your only going to be selecting sounds that will fit easily with the others already in the track as you go along and the whole EQing business should become much easier when everything is already sitting comfortably in separate parts of the spectrum.

I'm just going to say this, as you'll probably get a lot of advice about eq'ing and whatnot.

Think about your arrangement. Do you really need all of those synths playing at once? If yes, then carve out some frequency space for them. If no, then think about having them play off of each other, by have one going out when one is coming in. Working with layers and then deduction.

Something to think about.

Stafford wrote:here's a link to some frequency charts that should give you a general idea of how to eq the individual elements in your mix

http://djfrobot.blogspot.com/2010/04/eq ... ments.html

@Hypefiend

http://www.dnbscene.com/article/88-thin ... q-tutorial

is this what your were talking about?

yes. Omg it was dnbscene.com not dnbforum.com I was seriously getting very frustrated with not finding that site

Another n00b question.....

If you use a Pad that covers the whole spectrum of frequencies, doesn't it clash with pretty much every other synth and instrument? Or is this remedied by moving it into the background?

.onelove. wrote:Another n00b question.....

If you use a Pad that covers the whole spectrum of frequencies, doesn't it clash with pretty much every other synth and instrument? Or is this remedied by moving it into the background?

Select the most important part of the sound and EQ out the rest.

But don't pads require that spectrum of frequencies to generate that specific sound, otherwise how are they different from any other synths?

mks wrote:I'm just going to say this, as you'll probably get a lot of advice about eq'ing and whatnot.

Think about your arrangement. Do you really need all of those synths playing at once? If yes, then carve out some frequency space for them. If no, then think about having them play off of each other, by have one going out when one is coming in. Working with layers and then deduction.

Something to think about.

This guy knows

@.onelove. it wont clash if you don't play conflicting notes. if your pad is completely on pitch with the rest of the song, there shouldnt be any major conflicts.

Well read that freaking article you were referred to, the mixing in the box, it will tell you. Not every sound needs to be completely independent from every other sound. Sounds should overlap to an extent. Yes a pad will have a wide range, but it will also likely be lower in the mix. Figure out how to take your pad out of your middle, and put it on the outsides, keep the middle of your mix for power sounds, like sub, bass, kick and snare. It's a three dimensional box. Amplitude, frequency and stereo position. Read the article.

Or don't?

Forgot to mention, yeah the stealth elf is right up there.

And don't get it twisted, I constantly pile shit on top of other shit. I've always done it, my mixes are always cluttered and muddy. It's my thing , but do yourself this favor, read the money shot thread here in the dsfp, get your kick and snare in the right place, then start inviting other sounds to the party, when you bring them in, put them where they are going to go in the mix, left right or center, quiet or loud, high or low pitched, get them squared away, then invite the next sound to the party, so on and so forth. This is a total vibe killer, but as you learn, you can do most of this work in your head, then just execute with your wideners, eq, and compression instantly, and you can keep rolling.

The apprentice does eventually, what the master does instantly.

Master your craft.