My apologies

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
jasper
Posts: 402
Joined: Fri Feb 09, 2007 10:57 am

My apologies

Post by jasper » Sat Jan 17, 2015 4:53 pm

Sorry. You're right. I am dark, and I have failed.
I've been trying for years to make a clean sounding mix
and I cant.
And I watch as everybody else is doing it effortlessly.
Knowledge I have, practice I have too.
But no matter what knowledge I employ,
no matter how I process each individual instrument
No matter what software I use, I have never gotten
even one song to sound clear and good.
Even when I experiement with ONE KICK and ONE BASS using
my (14 year old) event studio monitors.
Car stereo tests show that everything I play on spotify radio for example
Is yes louder...even though my mix sounds decent in my room and it is
limited at -.1 all that...friends tracks, tracks done by people who started a year ago...
My stuff sucks. And I'm bitter because of it. I failed at it.

I mean I'm cutting lows to make headroom and limiting. whatever dude I'm doing
it all correctly and there's the same amount of headroom for every producer.
Some people have it and some people don't.
Even watching a tutorial video I'm like "this guy is using the same daw the same plugins as I am and why are my speakers emitting louder cleaner levels that I'm getting, lol.

I got great at music theory and songwriting and became totally discouraged from music all but completely because my mixes are horrible.
I have tried EVERYTHING I've seen on respected tutorials
on mixing, for YEARS (probably for the same number of years as many of you have been alive,lol)

It has made me into a dark, pathetic, chain smoking, angry man with no hope of ever making a good sounding track.
I am what you do not want to become.
I'm sorry for venting it on these forums and being a troll.

ANONRSS
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Re: My apologies

Post by ANONRSS » Sat Jan 17, 2015 5:07 pm

post a track and stop bitchin'

login
Posts: 1870
Joined: Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:41 am

Re: My apologies

Post by login » Sat Jan 17, 2015 5:51 pm

If you can write great music the let someone else mix it and master it.

tedlogan
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Re: My apologies

Post by tedlogan » Sat Jan 17, 2015 5:52 pm

Perhaps the actual music you've composed and performed so far is the problem, and not the mix. I find this to be the case most of the time. You just can't get it to sound right, nothing works, you add layer upon layer, you strip back down and mix from the start, and then you realise the core problem is that the music sucks.

OR - maybe the music is great, but it was played/performed/programmed out of time/horrible.

Why don't you post a few tracks or even rough ideas that you're least unhappy about? I'm sure some of the people around here who know what they're talking about could critique constructively. I'd hope so at least.
Last edited by tedlogan on Sun Jan 18, 2015 1:39 am, edited 1 time in total.

dna598
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Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:42 am

Re: My apologies

Post by dna598 » Sat Jan 17, 2015 6:33 pm

just get some balls ffs.
ctrl + left/right = select transient

ctrl + shift + left/right = select between transients

ctrl + space = play selection

Mr-Bit
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Re: My apologies

Post by Mr-Bit » Sat Jan 17, 2015 6:42 pm

Well you realize your results are not what you want that's at least one win. Throw away the rule book maybe... fuck everybody else. Harsh too bright too loud music is too common these days. Allot so called remastered music in my opinion is ruined by this. Maybe keep some elements dull instead of trying to maximise everything ...contrast can be your friend.

Sounds like you need a break too banging your head against a brickwall is no fun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbd4t-ua-WQ

timothyallan
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Re: My apologies

Post by timothyallan » Sat Jan 17, 2015 7:08 pm

Get a bunch of acoustic treatment for your studio = no more guesswork in mixing. #protip

jbw
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Re: My apologies

Post by jbw » Sat Jan 17, 2015 11:10 pm

Why are you letting this defeat you? There are some really great albums, classic albums, that are horribly produced. I honestly think that's part of their charm.

Try this: limit yourself to just volume levels, don't even worry about fades or anything, and force that shit to work. If it sucks, give it the middle finger and say fuck it I'm leaving it as is. Can't let little nitpicking crap keep you back, or else you're just making excuses.

Angstrom
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Re: My apologies

Post by Angstrom » Sun Jan 18, 2015 1:24 am

I was listening to Sly Stone's Riot going on, and Fresh the other day, and really those mixes really are abominable. Just all-round weird with whooshy mushy muffled mixing, and very strange levels. But I've always liked them! They are distinctive, and because the playing is so good he gets away with it, they've got personality.

I guess my advice is either become Larry Graham, or just do an ungodly amount of cocaine so you hear all your terrible mixes as majestic golden ear sparkles and convince everyone to go along with it.

tedlogan
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Re: My apologies

Post by tedlogan » Sun Jan 18, 2015 1:41 am

Angstrom wrote:I was listening to Sly Stone's Riot going on, and Fresh the other day, and really those mixes really are abominable. Just all-round weird with whooshy mushy muffled mixing, and very strange levels. But I've always liked them! They are distinctive, and because the playing is so good he gets away with it, they've got personality.

I guess my advice is either become Larry Graham, or just do an ungodly amount of cocaine so you hear all your terrible mixes as majestic golden ear sparkles and convince everyone to go along with it.
Haha +1

So many older recordings were produced just plain strange compared to contemporary ones, yet so many of them are badass. The music, groove and performances were so good that the mix became irrelevant.

stringtapper
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Re: My apologies

Post by stringtapper » Sun Jan 18, 2015 2:06 am

Angstrom wrote:become Larry Graham
Best advice I've ever read on this forum.
Unsound Designer

mrdelurk
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Re: My apologies

Post by mrdelurk » Mon Jan 19, 2015 9:51 am

Most reverbs don't add space, they just "mushify". If your mixes don't sound great, trying losing some reverbs and see what happens.

Sometimes it's more important what *not* to do. :D

jasper
Posts: 402
Joined: Fri Feb 09, 2007 10:57 am

Re: My apologies

Post by jasper » Mon Jan 19, 2015 3:38 pm

mrdelurk wrote:Most reverbs don't add space, they just "mushify". If your mixes don't sound great, trying losing some reverbs and see what happens.

Sometimes it's more important what *not* to do. :D

I'm just not getting the loudness and clarity of EVERYTHING else I hear like everywhere.
A YouTube tutorial for example where the guy is making a track from scratch.
Same sample, same eq settings same everything.

I'm making a trance track.
So my mix peaks at -6db and it sounds alright.
Following a basic procedure like a low cut everything except bass and kick.
Making sure every element lives in its own space, both volume wise and spectrally
and applying a limiter to bring everything up. Sounds decent here.
Live's limiter is just about keeping everything at -0.1
And I export.
And even though live's limiter said we're peaking at -0.1, there's no way this exported audio is even close to that.
I put on somebody else's track (a good trance track) and right off the bat their kick sounds louder than my entire song!lol
I have to turn the volume down. Then put on mine and I have to turn the volume all the way up to hear it.
Are they actually monitoring at this volume or just visually limiting to this volume?
Whatever, man, it has become a lifelong problem. Totally distracting and discouraging from music making.
0db is 0db and everybody gets the same amount of headroom.
"What am I missing here?", the same usual question.

Start all over mixing with the kick. Sounds good. Peaks at -10.
Add bass. Sounds good, sidechained...
At this point I can't get the depth or punch I can get out of Logic.
I'm going to put the tracks into Logic.
(By the way, I just watched a YouTube vid where Laidback Luke says it takes him about two hours to finish a track, lol. And another where a different guy is making a track from scratch and it sounds loud and clear from start to finish)
Is it this daw? Just not getting levels out of it. Have to cut bass, whatever! Ugh I'm driving myself crazy with this shit!
Last edited by jasper on Mon Jan 19, 2015 6:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

re:dream
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Re: My apologies

Post by re:dream » Mon Jan 19, 2015 4:21 pm

What you really need to do is sell off your high end converter and replace it with a $25 Soundblaster card.

jasper
Posts: 402
Joined: Fri Feb 09, 2007 10:57 am

Re: My apologies

Post by jasper » Mon Jan 19, 2015 4:45 pm

re:dream wrote:What you really need to do is sell off your high end converter and replace it with a $25 Soundblaster card.
MOTU 2408 mark2 audio i/o

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