What specifically do you need help with?
#need help with mixing
hearty socket
Are you using a reference track, or do you have any examples of the kind of results you're aiming for?
What headphones are you using?
What sounds good to one person might not sound good to someone else. So like, if one person thinks this needs to be more chill, another person might think it needs to be more aggressive, but what kind of vibe do you want to create?
And is there anything that you think needs work, or that you're not satisfied with, or just looking for feedback and a second opinion on? Like the drums or bassline or vocals or levels in general
Aight, I'll check this out in a few. If you can upload the individual stems, that helps even more, because then I can try some stuff and show you what I did and why.
I'll be back at my real computer in about an hour, so I'll give this a listen then.
All good, til then
shell osprey
IMO the ride is panned too left, its bugging me a little, else i see no issue.
hearty socket
The overall mix is a bit too hot. True peak levels are about +0.7dBFS, so you're clipping occasionally. The LUFSi (average loudness) isn't bad at about -11dB. The low end is very quiet compared to the rest of the mix. I'd boost everything under 100Hz.
hearty socket
Just some EQ and multiband limiting + compression/expansion.
The snare is a bit too loud/strong in the original, so you might want to fix that earlier in the mix.
hearty socket
BTW, would it be OK for me to post this on my site as an example of the kind of results I can get with my mixing/mastering process? Nbd, no pressure.
radiant zinc
this shit bangs, woah :0
radiant zinc
He added
hearty socket
This is a great idea! Testing on multiple playback systems helps you get a good feel for how the mix/master will translate to other people's setups.
hearty socket
Later today I'll send over some more info about the adjustments I made.
Basically it's just:
- Steep cut at around 15Hz, which cuts out stuff that speakers and headphones usually can't reproduce well, and humans can't hear anyway. You can also use a shelf instead, and in either case a high Q/resonance value will give the sub bass a tiny boost.
- Highs roll off at about 17kHz or 18kHz, just a smooth curve of about 12-24dB per octave. Most people can't hear past 17kHz, and you probably don't want to hear anything loud at such as high frequency anyway lol.
- Low shelf boosting from about 100Hz on down, just a 12 or 24 dB/octave slope, gain boosted just enough to make the low end sound even with the rest of the mix, which is still a large boost, but hopefully not too much...
- Dynamic EQ bell around the main guitar sound's full range, just a 1-2 dB boost combined with a -3dB dynamic reduction. This makes the body of the guitar louder in the mix, but keeps it from getting too loud at the peaks.
- KClip3 in multiband mode, with the highest band (10kHz and higher) set to hard-clip with a large amount of gain reduction, like 6-10dB. This hard-clips the cymbals and anything else that's above the range of pretty much any real instrument with a clear tone. You can hard-clip cymbals and other high-frequency transients with a surprisingly large amount of gain reduction before you get any audible artifacts, and the artifacts can actually enhance the "bite" of the cymbals.
- Multiband compressor/limiter with different settings for the low (about 120Hz on down), high (about 2500Hz on up), and mid (120-2500Hz of course) bands. All three bands are expanded and compressed at a 2:1 ratio, with different attack/release settings and high/low thresholds per band. This means that the low end gets flattened out after allowing kick and bass attacks to punch through; the mids where vocals and guitars and pianos usually shine is less compressed, mostly just boosted a bit; and the highs only get short attacks punching through while otherwise being tamed.
- Ozone 11 is doing some last-minute stereo imaging to make everything under 100Hz mono, mids mostly centered/unchanged, and highs spread a bit wider in the stereo field (about a 15% width boost).
- Ozone 11 is also doing final "mastering compression": true peaks limited to -0.2dBFS, and "maximizer" compression kicking in around -3dBFS.
No, I think this is a great concept. I know I posted a lot of details about stuff I did, but this is just the last bit of polish, just some extra stuff to make your original work shine when it's put next to official label releases that were mixed and mastered by paid professionals.
No worries, I'm posting a lot of details that are just related to the mixing and mastering engineer side of things.
True peak level = the loudest part of the entire song. If it's over 0dBFS, then you're going to clip, and that is usually a bad thing. So you use dynamics processing, like limiting and compression, to smooth things out and get rid of spikes that would otherwise clip.
LUFSi = integrated LUFS, aka average loudness. A Billboard top 10 pop, metal, or EDM banger made today is usually very loud, like -8 LUFSi on average.
Ngl this is honestly pretty good considering all of that!
I'm self taught as well. Nothing wrong with that! 10 years ago I didn't know any of this stuff.
I have a pro audio site where I post examples of remixing and remastering other people's songs. No pressure, but I think this song you've posted is a great example of a well executed concept that just needed a little bit of polish, and if it's OK with you, I'd like to post part of the original on my web site as an example of the mixing/mastering results I can get.
No pressure, totally understand if you don't want to.
It's noticeable for me, but I'm actively looking for ways to improve a song, and I'm using several different systems that are meant to bring out the details, so the differences might be noticeable in a club but not very noticeable on AirPods, for example.
Absolutely! I'll ping you if/when I post it, just to make sure it all looks good to you.
It's becoming my job, I guess I could say, lol.
I've been doing this stuff for years as a hobby, but I started getting so many people hitting me up to do paid mixing and mastering and collabs and so on this past year, I've finally made it official. My day job is usually tech consulting, but right now the audio engineering is way more fun, even if the pay isn't as good.
Yes. Even if you don't want me to post any of this in my portfolio, I just like to help out, so I'm down to help either way. There isn't any angle. This stuff is its own reward for me most of the time.
Maybe not right now, but I hope you gain the confidence to show your creations to other people.
I normally use DCA Aeon X Closed headphones driven by an iFi xDSD Gryphon, or Audeze Mobius headphones, or a pair of Focal Alpha 7 monitors driven by a MOTU M4, for reference. I test on a few other systems, like my car stereo, TV, phone, some cheap earbuds, etc., so that I get a good idea of how a song will sound on different playback systems.
Just throwing that out there for reference, not bragging lol.
It's definitely a good practice! It helps me understand how things will translate, so for example I know that if the bass is too low in my car, it's definitely way too low, because my car stereo has a dedicated sub that over-emphasizes the bass. And if the stereo spread sounds bad in my headphones, it's going to be even worse on everything else.
You don't have to post the full credits. It all depends on the arrangement you have with your team.
Also, pretty much everyone uses a mixing and mastering engineer, even if they're pretty good at mixing and mastering themselves. It's not just about expertise. It's also about getting someone to listen to the song with a fresh set of ears.
One arrangement is called "work for hire", meaning that even if you have someone else do 90% of the work, you control the final product, and it's your name on it, not the people you hired. So like if you hire a ghostwriter, but you don't leave it all to them, and you give them specific directions about everything, it's really your project, not theirs. The painter doesn't own your house. They're just someone you hired and told to paint some part of the house a certain color. They don't live there, and they didn't make any creative decisions like what colors to use. Same with "work for hire" stuff, even creative things.
No problem, and like I said, I didn't even know this stuff myself a ways back. There's a lot I'm still learning, in fact!