The sound does not sound good after Export.

[DJCHARLIE]

I do not think the soundtrack corresponds to how the product was in production. Nothing is distorted, but the volume itself is low and when I've tried to play / DJ mix the song with another, my song needs to get up to almost max volume. But then the bass level appears unclean and violent. At lower volume it sounds ok, even under Ableton. I've also tried to send the track to professional mastering, but I'm still not happy with end products.

What should I look at. I understand this probably has something about lack of knowledge about sound images during production. But everything seemed to harmonize well during production. If you wish, I would like to post some screenshots if there is something you want to look into. Please send me some youtube links, if you think any of this may help.

[Shift Gorden]

I do not think the soundtrack corresponds to how the product was in production. Nothing is distorted, but the volume itself is low and when I've tried to play / DJ mix the song with another, my song needs to get up to almost max volume. But then the bass level appears unclean and violent. At lower volume it sounds ok, even under Ableton. I've also tried to send the track to professional mastering, but I'm still not happy with end products.

What should I look at. I understand this probably has something about lack of knowledge about sound images during production. But everything seemed to harmonize well during production. If you wish, I would like to post some screenshots if there is something you want to look into. Please send me some youtube links, if you think any of this may help.

I think that says it all, mate. If the mastering still has problems, then the issue is with your mix. Typically, and not all the time, your track will sound quieter than a professionally released track since those guys are likely to have mixed and mastered.

You mentioned your bass sounding violent - that's probably distortion. Even if the mixer channels are showing good levels, you're probably distorting it in the VST or FX chain somewhere.

Pics would help!

[jestermgee]

As pointed out, lack of mixing is probably the issue. In mixing you will tame the frequencies and make all your tracks and sounds fit together. Too much fighting together in the low end will cause things to sound muddy and lifeless. You need to do a lot of things life EQ, filtering, notching, M\S processing. All of which are separate topics of discussion so start YouTubing how to mix and just spend time doing it over and over and over until it starts making some sense

[jlgrimes]

I do not think the soundtrack corresponds to how the product was in production. Nothing is distorted, but the volume itself is low and when I've tried to play / DJ mix the song with another, my song needs to get up to almost max volume. But then the bass level appears unclean and violent. At lower volume it sounds ok, even under Ableton. I've also tried to send the track to professional mastering, but I'm still not happy with end products.

What should I look at. I understand this probably has something about lack of knowledge about sound images during production. But everything seemed to harmonize well during production. If you wish, I would like to post some screenshots if there is something you want to look into. Please send me some youtube links, if you think any of this may help.

Probably need to mix with a reference track or two.


Mixing without a reference is mixing blind.

It is pretty easy to come up with a mix you thinks sounds great until you put it side by side professional releases.

This needs to be done as early as possible before the mix goes too deep where problems can get harder to manage.

[dewaldo]

^^ what he said

MetricAB (new plugin) is fantastic for mix referencing. I like to use it with Sonarworks (room correction software) on the master channel. These two tools will arm you with all you need to diagnosing your issues. I.e., is my sound too quiet, too muddy, too uneven in volume, too thin, etc.

Once the issues have been diagnosed you can think about solutions via general volume balancing, EQ, compression, saturation, limiting, etc.

Hope that helps.