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So i was mixing some tunes of my own with some other songs i liked, making a mix on ableton, but i noticed that depsite the volume levels on my track appearing to be just as loud and powerful as the other songs, it sounded quieter and weak compared, and even other peoples songs that appeared quiter during the intro's could drown out my tracks. I'm wondering if this is something to do with the mixdowns or mastering, its not just a matter of turning up the tracks, i've tried that, not sure really..

Draffacake wrote:So i was mixing some tunes of my own with some other songs i liked, making a mix on ableton, but i noticed that depsite the volume levels on my track appearing to be just as loud and powerful as the other songs, it sounded quieter and weak compared, and even other peoples songs that appeared quiter during the intro's could drown out my tracks. I'm wondering if this is something to do with the mixdowns or mastering, its not just a matter of turning up the tracks, i've tried that, not sure really..

Yeah, your mixdowns goofy. If something is too loud, it robs your track of headroom that would otherwise be used for other stuff. its why you eq.

Ready that mixdown thread more, and what kinda speakers you using?

Erm i don't have money for decent monitors so i use my stereo, infact i think its similar to this, maybe a little older and different but yeah: http://www.teac.com/consumer_electronic ... /mc-dx32i/

i also use headphones sometime to check the mix, but not that often as again i don't have the money for a really good pair

Get these:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-MDR-V150-H ... 128&sr=8-1

They're free to the UK and only 10 pounds. I think they're pretty good, and had no mix issues since I started using them.

Teknicyde was right though, it's about your mixing down, perhaps it's all clear, but just lacking that depth to it. For such occasions, use band-compression.

zerbaman wrote:Get these:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-MDR-V150-H ... 128&sr=8-1

They're free to the UK and only 10 pounds. I think they're pretty good, and had no mix issues since I started using them.

Teknicyde was right though, it's about your mixing down, perhaps it's all clear, but just lacking that depth to it. For such occasions, use band-compression.

Those things are worse to mix on then his ipod hifi will be haha, awesome dj phones, suck for production...

all about what your used too I suppose, those just seemed to be missing some key frequencies.

ahh okay, but how would band compression help?

Edit: Nevermind i just looked up a couple of articles about it now i get it

Giving the track more body and volume. Assuming that your mixdowns aren't peaking...

Teknicyde wrote:

zerbaman wrote:Get these:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-MDR-V150-H ... 128&sr=8-1

They're free to the UK and only 10 pounds. I think they're pretty good, and had no mix issues since I started using them.

Teknicyde was right though, it's about your mixing down, perhaps it's all clear, but just lacking that depth to it. For such occasions, use band-compression.

Those things are worse to mix on then his ipod hifi will be haha, awesome dj phones, suck for production...

all about what your used too I suppose, those just seemed to be missing some key frequencies.

I dunno man, I'm serious, not had any mix complaints hahahaha, and more of "How'd you get it that clear". Guess it is what you're used to. Before I used them for production i always used to listen to stuff on my iPod with them, so I'm more or less familiar with what a good mixdown should sound like

Alright i'm all ready to go work on this mix, but can anybody point me in the direction of what i should be looking for, i've never attempted to fix these sort of problems before, so what sort of sounds cause these problems etc.

It depends on the tune really. The way I learned is by pushing the bands in Izotope Ozone, just a little then resetting them, seeing what worked.
This is more to the mastering side of things, can't remember who it was by, but someone on here was offering a free mastering service. What you can do is send him stuff you've been mastering and ask for feedback, build up your skills and knowledge on the matter

We would be able to tell you what htigns may be the culprit if you put a sample up on soundcloud and linked to it for reference otherwise there is any infinite amount of thigns that "could" be making your mix weak.


Also mixdowns and mastering are two seperate things and should be treated as two seperate phases in your workflow, IMHO.

Yeah, I meant bandcompression was more on the mastering side. Before I do it, I bounce the track to wav and load the file in a new project.

Soundcloud

Ok this was the track in particular i was working on, some moombahton thing not dubstep, i've already applied some multiband compression to the master and its definitely improved it, but its still not perfect, also its very quiet cause i am following the money shot thread mixing down techniques and i haven't brought the volume back up again...

Bumping this because i kinda needed some help, anyone?