How to get "professional" mixdown

[RmoniK]

Hello,

I'm struggling a lot to get a professional sound. I'm fairly certain it's due to mixdown/mastering but i don't exactly know WHAT the problem is (i know my tracks sound bad, i just don't know why). Compare my track to the madeon track and you'll see what i mean. How do you get a sound like that? What am i doing wrong? I realize the madeon track is very compressed, but my track is too. And it also sounds wider than mine, eventhough mine is really, REALLY (too) wide.

https://soundcloud.com/r_monik/maison-francaise

comparison:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHs99iVpnXU

I don't know what obvious mistake i'm making, because i seem to be the only one of my producer friends having this issue. I use mostly sylenth and stock ableton effects, Imageline maximus for mastering.

If anyone can help me, i'd be eternally grateful.

Rmo

[ChadDub]

wtf your track sounds a ton better than my stuff

[Capture pt]

Your snare is way too loud.

If you listen to the Madeon track over half of the weight of the "snare" is just the kick below it. Maybe because your snare is slightly out of time with the kick (sample or artistic choice?) it makes it sound thinner.

Then your synth is quite narrow. Bring some mid/low mid back into the synth. There's hardly any body to it - no offence but I reckon that would wreck your ears on a soundsystem as it is. It really is really, really bright.

The sub is all over the place - too much side chain. When the kick stops it's quite round and balanced - then when the kick drops it's almost just thrown out the window. Decide what you want here - your kick is hardly subby to begin with so I don't see why it needs such an aggressive sidechain. If you need to sidechain that much something is wrong before you get to the EQ imo. Sidechain (unless used for creative effect) is to put a final little plaster on a small mistake that can't be avoided - not to EQ your whole kick and sub around each other.

So your main issue to summarize:

1: This is a MIXING issue. Mastering IS NOT to fix your mix. EVER.
2: Synth to bright, needs more body. Either your EQing is too gun-ho or you need to think about layering chords here to create body.
3: Kick and bass need serious attention. Bass is ducking too much with a kick that's not really subby in the first place.


This is all, IMHO of course.

[RmoniK]

Wah, thanks man. That's more than i had hoped for! I'll try that stuff out.

[Sharmaji]

kick needs some energy an octave lower than what you've got going on. less 100hz, more 50.

likewise, too much 200hz in the kick, not enough in the keys.

too much transient info going on in the backbeat, distracting from the synth and thus the emotion of the tune.

[NinjaEdit]

I think he compresses the synths together. Try multiband compression.

[Curfee]

Annnnd followed

[mthrfnk]

Madeon does a lot of layering, compression and subtle volume automation. He also makes use of sidechaining heavily and "masters as he goes"... I'm guessing he runs stuff hot into a brickwall limiter. I remember he posted a screenshot of a track, I think Technicolor, and he was using nearly all 199 tracks in FL - most of them had automation of volume/filters/effects etc.

Most of his tracks also have really thick basses underneath and random arps/perc/foley panned super wide which gives the tracks a full sound imo. And yeah his snares imo are mostly a kick with a white noise transient.

[nowaysj]

I found this forum where the people are really talented, really helpful, and they helped me work through some of my mixing issues.

Check it out.

Forum

[Electric_Head]

[bassbum]

Lots of good advice in this thread.

Your mix dose need a little work. The biggest thing I heard was your percussion is braking out the rest of the mix. It sounds like some of the transients in the drums are wrong and the compression is for sure. There seems to be something wrong with the panning in the percussion also.

[Electric_Head]

He should use some real stick samples hey bassbum.

[nameless133]

Send to a mixing/mastering studio.

[bassbum]

He should use some real stick samples hey bassbum.

I'm guessing this is a reference to my constant spelling mistakes. I have trouble with spelling and I try as hard as I can. What more would you like me to do about it?

But anyway... No the samples are fine he just needs to use a transient shaper and some kind of envelope to give them a better dynamic shape.

[Electric_Head]

[bassbum]

You know your dancing africans are really annoying. I'm trying to be angry with you but how can I with guys dancing at me like that.

[Electric_Head]

Are they annoying?
I didn't know.
I like them.
And they're Aboriginals from Australia fyi.

[nowaysj]

Why does no one seem to realize that?

[Electric_Head]

They see Africa in my location and their nasty racist tendencies kick in.

[bassbum]

Reminds me of this...