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For Trained Ears: Is it bad EQ, Freq Spread, Compression, etc?
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| DJMikeyP |
Hey all,
Well just basically I have been producing for about 4 years and I can still tell a big difference between my tracks and "Pro" tracks... Even pro tracks with the simplest of elements still sound much more full than any of my tracks. I'm wondering what it is I'm doing wrong. An example song can be found at www.soundclick.com/djtransducer , clicking the 'music' link, and the song called, "He Walks Tonight".
Am I using bad EQ? I have a tendency to make huge spikes when I EQ things, rather than the general "only 4db cut or boost at most" thing... I don't understand how it could though (i'm not too keen on this yet).
Am I not compressing enough? Too much? Need some kind of tube warmth thing? Not using instruments that cover the entire frequency sprectrum (i'm pretty sure I'm getting dang close).
WTF is all I have to say. Any advice appreciated.
mike
EDIT: Or maybe using too much hall rever, not the right kind, or not using small room reverb on more channels or anything else like that? |
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| hey cheggy |
Kick is pretty average mate and the bassline ain't much better. I would say to me, they were the biggest problems to the overall sound.
Some of the effects and synths and stuff were quite nice. The pluck sound was quite hard to make out through the rest of the mix, which might be fixable with some eq cleaning of the other channels to give the plucked sound some space.
Vocals sounded good, niec fx on them. Kick seemed like it ws in the greatest need of improvement. |
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| Massive84 |
yes a good kick and base, fills the track alot, since you keep those 2 instruments useually in the center of the mix..
your kick lacks, sample is just not good imo,base needs more drive.
i don't know how compressor works in the way of making a track more pro sounding..
EQ is a way to clear sounds like cheggy said, but panning as well |
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| Strep |
The low - mid range sounds a little muddy. Maybe taking a bit of reverb off the bass end will help (or attach a highpass filter on the reverb return to take out some of the lower frequencies there). You could also try cutting a few db's off at around 300hz to clear it up a bit. Other than that maybe a little boost at around 13-16khz to give it a little added 'air'. I agree with the previous comments about the kick sample. Liked the synths, fx and arrangement!
:D |
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| Limit |
to tell you the truth mastering does a massive change to your tracks. Yes you do need a good product from teh start just about perfect but trust me when i say mastering "properly" will change the whole tune. The TC finalizer or Finalizer Express are amazing tools to use but expensive, and you need to know your dick from your ass about mastering too. SO what I can say is research mastering techniques to help you out. It's funny how even the library has this kind of material and they are up too date too. If your strickly software though, like many here are I would highly recamand the Yamaha Final Master VST plug-in. I use it and I lov eit to death...it takes an amazing track and just makes it dynamic. It will bring your tracks too life. Again you should still read up on mastering techniques. But remeber even before you head into mastering you always need to have a foundation and if that foundation is crap so will the final master. I didn't listen to the track? I don't even see one up here? whatever, what I said still applies. If it's not mastering your after yet then take a look into mixing techniques.
Limit Out! |
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| josh |
Yeah mastering changes real alot of stuff. Better you can compres on ur kick to be alittle more pumpin. IMO.
But in fact I like the arrangement you did. Nice bongo. Am I right or..?:D
I prefer to have the bassline more strong and alittle upfront. :toothless |
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| Damie Mckeown |
| Just needs to be a little more upfront Id say |
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| Limit |
to remedy this I suggest, and you should always in fact, record and/or keep your kicks and bass line in mono so they are right in the middle of the action and will sound more upfront.
Limit Out! |
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| DJMikeyP |
Thanks for all the comments and help guys!!! I will definitely look into that plugin and more kickssssss
Mike Out!
(just kidding) |
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| /I\ |
Been having the same problem getting that 'pro' sound here. Had loads of tunes at one point but I found the quality of my perc samples did not cut the mustard, even found myself mixing my sequences to fit in with the average quality of my samples.
My answer was: archive everything I got, got rid of a bunch of fx and vsti that I will never use (kind of like a spring clean) and start again, but this time spend more time getting the right loop and one shot samples.
Im larking about with compressing and layering one shot Kicks with some success and now Im going through a bunch of HH, Snare and Clap Samples. Hopefully I will go back to those tracks and kind of remix them after I have got this fine art of percussion down :)
Somebody posted a link to the free kick samples @ http://www.time4base.com/vipzone/index_en.html
So far I like those free ones the best and got some great results layering them then putting them thru a compressor with a good ADSR.
Still have not found good quality HHs, Claps and Snares Samples on the web yet .. meaning they do not cut through and elevate my tracks ... any thoughts .. anyone :) :) :) |
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