Hello, I know that this topic has been posted about a million times because i have ran through each individual post from someone about it all the way back to 2008, but I am Struggling to find what's wrong.
I have been producing for a little over 6 months (3 of those months have been every day at least 5 hours a day) I am not trying to get views on my soundcloud i just need genuine help. I have ran through so many tutorials and on how to mix and master to see if that was the problem. But my songs sound boxy and so flat and dull with out any thickness.
I pulled the piano sample from Abletons sample library is it potentially the sound from that my guitar? I have also EQ'd everything and panned certain things so that there is at least a better spread of sound across the stereo space and added drum buss to the drums and glue compressed them and then glue compressed (just barley with all compression maybe 2db the master channel).Also put (R Bass)on the bass line and a host of other things.
This seems to happen every time I create something I get a very muddy thin dry sound and it's really starting to wear on me. Any feed back on any of it would be greatly appreciated, including suggestions on song writing style and literally ANY CRITIQUE is GREATLY appreciated. Thank's ahead of time to anyone who can help. https://soundcloud.com/chaplinstylee/c137happy-ending
Music i am referencing-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ctc2n3NGeA (i know they are quite different but its more about the smoothness of the sound it phonetically pleasing)
Production
Production
Last edited by CurFoat on Fri Jan 18, 2019 10:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
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jestermgee
- Posts: 4500
- Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:38 am
Re: Production
^^ as a start. No one likes to try and read a brick of words. Spaces between sections makes things much easier to read.Use punctuation
Well if you have *only* been at it for 6 months, prepare for a few more years/decades of pottering to begin to git gud. People at the actual pro level that can make things sound as you would want to hear them take decades and actually undertake years and years of training and working on stuff daily for years to train their ears. You will not get exponentially better in a few months using self-help techniques.
As a starter, by the sounds of it you need a lot of EQ on each track to boost and notch things to make them sit better. The bassline is pretty weak and the drum samples sound quite lofi compared to the rest of the track. There isn't much stereo field, the piano low end sounds like it is conflicting with the small bassline you have. Every track should have an EQ8 and each one will need to be adjusted to make each instrument fit nicely within the whole spectrum. Knowing what to boost/trim/notch/filter/sidechain comes with time and experience.
[*]Do you use a reference track at all?
[*]Do you analyse the frequency spectrum on the master and understand what it is saying?
[*]Do you know how different instruments frequencies affect one another and how to accommodate that (such as a bassline and a kick)
Best advice would be to look for a half-decent course (not youtube, a proper focused course) on mixing. Forget "mastering", that is not where your level would be looking at, you need to learn the basics of mixing tracks together then spend a few months focusing on just 1 track. You should be utterly sick of the sound of your own song by the end of it, that's how you know you are on the right track. By the time it sounds good, you will be ready to make something new and do it all over again until it
Also, throw out the notion of sounding as good as a commercial release. It is possible to achieve or come close but not without the experience.
I'm still learning all these techniques and new tricks all the time even after 20 years, thousands and thousands of hours and several focused courses. There is always something to learn and ways to improve.
Re: Production
I was trying to go with the lo-fi vibe. I guess whats just confusing me is that so many new producers are doing lo-fi with great sound. Is it because they are just buying stems which are already processed to get that? Then only needing to do little in terms of EQing.