Phase Ghost wrote:
Also, if you have a thin or muddy sounding sounds to begin with, they're gonna sound shitty in your mix. You can compress them all you want, but it's not gonna help. The best way to have a track sound good is to start with quality sounds.
This alone can save you LOTS of time
And let me add, try to balance your mix. Make sure that all frequencies are represented reasonably, not too much bass, not too much highs, etc... If you want to learn on this, just compare your mix to a pro track of the same musical style in a spectrum analyzer. Just make sure that they are both sounding equally loud, which prolly means turning the pro track down, since it has already been mastered. Look how the frequencies are spread on the pro track and compare to yours. This kind of visual feedback is very helpful as long as you dont have the experience to judge by your ears.
Phase Ghost wrote:
Also, if you have a thin or muddy sounding sounds to begin with, they're gonna sound shitty in your mix. You can compress them all you want, but it's not gonna help. The best way to have a track sound good is to start with quality sounds.
This alone can save you LOTS of time
And let me add, try to balance your mix. Make sure that all frequencies are represented reasonably, not too much bass, not too much highs, etc... If you want to learn on this, just compare your mix to a pro track of the same musical style in a spectrum analyzer. Just make sure that they are both sounding equally loud, which prolly means turning the pro track down, since it has already been mastered. Look how the frequencies are spread on the pro track and compare to yours. This kind of visual feedback is very helpful as long as you dont have the experience to judge by your ears.
Thanks all for sharing your experiences, means a lot.
That's true. But when is a sound qualified to be good enough? Maybe I think my snares are tight and bright, some say it's sloppy or muddy. Is this a matter of frequencies? I can always take sample packs and edit them but that feels copying others effort and not mine, it's difficult to apply your signature to it. Well, I can keep reading and wondering. I'll take the advice of all at hand and keep on going.
i agree with the other guys who say just have fun, and be as patient as possible.
when i started there was no information, there was no internet, you couldnt make music on computers because they little better than calculators, and yet after starting with no knowledge and just a couple of machines, i was releasing records within two years.
the sectret was - simplicity.
i didnt have any choice, it had to be simple. drum machine, couple of synths, mixer, reverb.
i think theres almost too much information out there now, and too much choice of plugins / soft synths etc.
hardware is like a breath of fresh air after staring at a screen and fiddling round with a mouse, you've invested in it, so you get the best out of it, you have to learn to play your instruments.
keep it raw, and dont think too much, just make sounds, and dont worry about what everybody else in doing.
I would say, if you are just starting out, try to avoid overloading your head with technical jargon. All the dynamics processing/eq stuff can very easily be picked up in bits as time goes on, well at least the basic stuff.
When you are making your first tracks, i dont think there is anything more important than experimenting with ideas and just letting things happen. This will be far more beneficial and rewarding than getting bogged down with technical stuff at this stage. Ultimately, you are making music, not training to be an engineer. Yes these things will crop up but they shouldnt be at the expense of creativity and a flowing way of working. Get into the habit of finishing tunes and dont be afraid to experiment with whatever takes your fancy. Making professional sounding music involves a learning curve and theres no quick way around that. And make no mistake, its a constant learning curve. Theres no, '4yr course' which holds the key to everything. You will be learning everyday for the rest of your music making life.
So, dont worry at the moment about eq, different types of compression etc, just make music and enjoy the creativity that comes with it. Acquiring knowledge through your own experimenting is like gold dust or magic. You never forget it and it leads to techniques and ways of working that ultimately become unique to you as you grow. For me it was a wonderful experience making music in the beginning, id never heard of a compressor and an eq was a graphic device on a hi fi separate. Unfortunately, its easy to get bogged down into an almost sterile, scientific approach, just forget the control and let your ideas flow, they are way, way more important than eq'ing your kick or layering your snare.
you'll know when you're ready to release stuff, when youre happy with what youre doing.
like AK says you'll be learning new stuff everyday forever. nobody knows it all, nobody knows even a small fraction of it all, and thats the way it should be.
Phase Ghost wrote:
Also, if you have a thin or muddy sounding sounds to begin with, they're gonna sound shitty in your mix. You can compress them all you want, but it's not gonna help. The best way to have a track sound good is to start with quality sounds.
This alone can save you LOTS of time
And let me add, try to balance your mix. Make sure that all frequencies are represented reasonably, not too much bass, not too much highs, etc... If you want to learn on this, just compare your mix to a pro track of the same musical style in a spectrum analyzer. Just make sure that they are both sounding equally loud, which prolly means turning the pro track down, since it has already been mastered. Look how the frequencies are spread on the pro track and compare to yours. This kind of visual feedback is very helpful as long as you dont have the experience to judge by your ears.
Thanks all for sharing your experiences, means a lot.
That's true. But when is a sound qualified to be good enough? Maybe I think my snares are tight and bright, some say it's sloppy or muddy. Is this a matter of frequencies? I can always take sample packs and edit them but that feels copying others effort and not mine, it's difficult to apply your signature to it. Well, I can keep reading and wondering. I'll take the advice of all at hand and keep on going.
My experience is that all my early tunes lack a proper mixdown. The ideas are ok, and some are even good imo. But the overall sound is just shitty, which ruins the whole thing. To avoid this i would advice to look at the spectrum like i mentioned. And yeah, terms like bright or muddy are defo related to frequencies.
And nothing wrong with sample packs imo, you'll get rid of them a soon as you learn the joys of synthesising your own sounds or even using hardware like Steevio mentioned
And as a last thing, i mentioned the technical stuff because i asume you make music for your personal joy and satisfaction. This should always be number one. But to work on the final result you have to look at the technical side sometimes. I advise to start early with this, because i know i didnt and could have been more satisfied much earlier.
