When one piece of music seems outstanding next to the mediocrity of another it is commonly not because of the melodies involved. Instead, one track sounds better than another because it has a balanced and sweetened mix while the other has been patched together with in an amateur and guesswork fashion. The list below gives some tips to consider when mixing a piece of music that has professional aspirations.
1. Use the most professional sounding recordings and samples to build your track in the first place. Bad audio recordings is the surest way to have a terrible sounding track.
2. Use EQ to cull out spaces for each instrument. For example, cut the bass drum at 80Hz so that it doesn't interfere with the bass guitar and cut cymbals around 1KHz to keep their noise from interfering with lower instruments.
3. Pan most of the tracks either left or right to varying degrees to build an interesting stereo mix. Strings and percussive elements, for example, add much depth when tilted left or right, although certain elements such as the bass drum should remain front and center.
4. Learn how to employ compression to give punch and power to each instrument. Without compression, instruments always sound weak and flimsy.
5. Compare the overall sound of your track next to favorite CDs in the same genre before you master. Make sure your track sounds as close to possible as the professionally made track and if it doesn't, then figure out why and correct.
6. Let your track achieve maximum loudness by employing a limiter on the final mix which smushes down the highest peaks and allows you bring up the whole mix.
After you've mixed down to CD, play your fresh new track in a variety of speaker systems to make sure it holds up in all listening environments.
1. Use the most professional sounding recordings and samples to build your track in the first place. Bad audio recordings is the surest way to have a terrible sounding track.
2. Use EQ to cull out spaces for each instrument. For example, cut the bass drum at 80Hz so that it doesn't interfere with the bass guitar and cut cymbals around 1KHz to keep their noise from interfering with lower instruments.
3. Pan most of the tracks either left or right to varying degrees to build an interesting stereo mix. Strings and percussive elements, for example, add much depth when tilted left or right, although certain elements such as the bass drum should remain front and center.
4. Learn how to employ compression to give punch and power to each instrument. Without compression, instruments always sound weak and flimsy.
5. Compare the overall sound of your track next to favorite CDs in the same genre before you master. Make sure your track sounds as close to possible as the professionally made track and if it doesn't, then figure out why and correct.
6. Let your track achieve maximum loudness by employing a limiter on the final mix which smushes down the highest peaks and allows you bring up the whole mix.
After you've mixed down to CD, play your fresh new track in a variety of speaker systems to make sure it holds up in all listening environments.
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