Tips for clean mixes?

[koncide]

Hello
I'm new to these forums, and I'd like to get established and start posting regularly as I see there's a wealth of information lurkin round here that I can learn from and believe me I wanna learn everything i can

I've been gettin into producing music. Not just dubstep, but also Dnb, electro, drumstep, anything that comes into my head and I think i can take a shot at turning into a tune. Trying to get a clean mix is doing my head in though. I think i'm chasing my tail, where I'm cutting EQs and boosting EQs everywhere and seemingly not getting anywhere close to what I'd accept as a clean mix.

Any knowledgable producers here who have any tips on getting clean mixes? I'm using reason 6 on a windows 7 laptop. I don't have a decent pair of monitors (yet) but I'm using a pair of sennheiser HD 25 1-II headphones which have decent reviews and sound crystal clear to me. My audio interface is a focusrite saffire 6 usb.

Any help would be much appreciated . cheers guys

[Gewze]

http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=74832 that thread

[eldoogle]

What Gewze said. Also simplicity. Make sure everything has it's own space. Snares often conflict though. Whatever sounds good do it, on my last song I messed around with my snare because it wasn't cutting through the mix and now it is even at the same volume. I did that on my own, no reading or tutorials.

[cmgoodman1226]

Hello
I'm new to these forums, and I'd like to get established and start posting regularly as I see there's a wealth of information lurkin round here that I can learn from and believe me I wanna learn everything i can

I've been gettin into producing music. Not just dubstep, but also Dnb, electro, drumstep, anything that comes into my head and I think i can take a shot at turning into a tune. Trying to get a clean mix is doing my head in though. I think i'm chasing my tail, where I'm cutting EQs and boosting EQs everywhere and seemingly not getting anywhere close to what I'd accept as a clean mix.

Any knowledgable producers here who have any tips on getting clean mixes? I'm using reason 6 on a windows 7 laptop. I don't have a decent pair of monitors (yet) but I'm using a pair of sennheiser HD 25 1-II headphones which have decent reviews and sound crystal clear to me. My audio interface is a focusrite saffire 6 usb.

Any help would be much appreciated . cheers guys

http://www.dnbscene.com/article/88-thin ... tutorial/6
There is a wealth of priceless info in that article. Read it. As far as EQ goes, I tend to stay away from boosting anything just because it tends to sound unnatural. The only exceptions are I usually boost my snares a bit around 200 and my kicks around 100. I usually just use subtractive EQ. Ill take a notch with a narrow Q, raise it up all the way, and pan it until I hear loud and obnoxious screetching and then I'll take out a good chunk of sound in that frequency range. But yeah, typically I stay away from boosting. Please take these suggestions with a grain of salt, because although my mixes sound better than they used to, they still sound pretty shit.

[Phase Down]

Getting a clean mix is just about the hardest thing to do for a beginner I think, definitely with my experience the thing about starting music production is you start listening to sounds a lot different, and only over time you know what frequencies a sound needs and doesn't need, you can't use the same formula on different sounds, good luck!

[paradigm_x]

turn reverb, delay etc down until you cant hear them, then turn it up just a smidge. Reverb and delay are always too loud in beginners tracks and cloud everything. And HP them!

[masterjr]

I find just making sure that nothing is ever fighting for space only EQ when you feel you need to make a certain sound shine through a bit more of corse this is only the case with Synths, Bass etc. Drums just all think about making a little space for them in all of your tracks as their what make the track really pump, it gives it that soul. Also only really take away unless the sound that you have isn't exactly as you picture it as adding always properly modifies the sound. Just make a lot of music and with a little promoting from the fine people of this forum you'll have mixes sounding fresh in no time

[paravrais]

Reverrrrrrb

[mad processor]

Don't mix on headphones, they're good for focusing on details, but won't help you getting a balanced mix. If you can't afford monitors, get some hifi speakers. I used to mix on mid 80's pioneer ones when I didn't have proper monitors, and it was not that bad.

[blinx]

Things that helped me where the moneyshot thread, learn gain structuring it works all the time . Stop compressing/eqing thigns unless your absolutley sure it needs compression/eq. Keep it stupid simple for the first couple mixdowns. Dont try to use to many melodies/synth parts in your song that conflict, so you dont have to eq/battle shared freq's. Got to learn to crawl>walk>run>sprint>mixdown like a boss.

[Sharmaji]

try mixing with NO eq-- seriously. getting a good mixdown is all about balancing levels; everything else is the icing. stay away from unintended distortion and get your levels right, and the rest will come much easier.

[paradigm_x]

in the stav book, he reckons you can get 70% of a mix done purely using panning out of interest...

[koncide]

This has helped alot thanks guys, I will check out those articles that have been linked and will definately start playing with reverb more, I'm aware that it's used for mixing but so far I've been using it as an effect and not much else. Other than that I'm just gonna have to trust my ears I guess

On a side note, can anyone recommend a half decent pair of monitors? I am looking to buy some. Price isn't that much of an issue unless we're talking quadruple figures, and I don't mind paying alot for them if I can trust them to be quality.

[das_raunchy]

everyone talks about space and making sure there is space for one thing or another. i think my engineer friend or a tutorial gave an analogy comparing mixdowns to a set of drawers. something about you have to put away your clothes in their respective drawers. i dont understand it too much, but maybe you can benefit from it.

better to cut than add?

[blinx]

for some eqing nad mixing reading try this link
http://dnbscene.com/article/88-thinking ... q-tutorial

[psychedelicatessen]

I've never used anything more than shelves and a triple band parametric eq for the most part. I've used filters for creative purposes though.
Don't use reverb/delay on every track, one or two is usually fine, if you want a tune swimming in reverb make a reverb bus and just use sends on all the tracks you think need reverb, keeping in mind that a little per track will go a long way.

Also, http://www.kraftmusic.com/catalog/audio ... oduct=5322 saw these mentioned in a thread a while back (yamaha HS80M) and took a look at them. The link is for the bundle, but they aren't super expensive monitors.

Tutorials and such are nice, but you'll find you are your own best teacher. Find a workflow that suits you best, then practice, experiment, get creative, and don't be afraid to challenge yourself, set limits or use tools for unorthodox purposes.