Hi,
still not mastering mixing, I just can’t get it
but I managed to release this track.
I don’t know how you guys make such awesome stuff…
maybe one day
the problem is that I use Renoise differently
a bit like an instrument and maybe I have bad design habits…
in any case, thanks for listening
see you later
It’s not a bad effort, the mix is quite off. Before anyone could give advice, what are you using to listen to the track as you’re making it? Don’t be disheartened, people will generally be prepared to offer help.
Nothing wrong with using Renoise as an instrument, in fact, if you can master Renoise for production and sound design, you’re setting yourself up for success.
Yeah, it’s clear but I really can’t manage it. Do I have to do it track by track… I’m sure there’s not much to it…
Maybe my ear isn’t sharp enough…
And it’s hard to follow advice from other people remotely…
Otherwise, I work with headphones and my sound card is just a basic one…
what exactly is a good mix, that’s my question of the day, how to use the different tools Renoise has like the spectrum…
you don’t learn that from manuals or books
You can find countless videos and tutorials regarding the basics of mixing on YouTube. Some really talented (and occasionally legendary) producers share their techniques and workflows there. Trust me, you can learn a lot from these guys.
Some useful info in this old thing 
That’s a great idea; I’m sure many of us have gaps in our mixing knowledge or would like to know the different steps involved in getting a good sound.
The actual mixing advice starts around here and continues:
I’d probably tweak a couple of these suggestions if you asked me for my take on it today, but overall I think this largely still applies for dance music
I use the built-in Windows player for listening, but the problem is that after listening to the track repeatedly, your ears get tired and you lose your objectivity.
self-explanatory: balanced instrument volumes, no clash of frequencies, no distortions
Thats very useful.
I learned a golden rule of start with all tracks turned down and only have melody and bass.
Then turn up all other tracks untill they fit in.
But then I saw a video with legendary Michael Tretow that mixed ABBA, where he did the oppsite: he showed his workflow that was to start with only drum track, then turn up bass and then do the same with the other tracks after that… no question if that also works 
So what is best? It might depend…
(I learned in art-class to ‘never paint wet-in-wet’.. but then I have seen Bob Ross videos where he painted beautiful landscapes using wet-in-wet technique… he also dipped the brush into multiple colors and made 1 stroke that made a stone in one stroke… things you learn you must never ever do. but the real masters do that and it works! :D)
Here you can find many great tracks with some great mixes, most of them use only the native plugins - which are more than capable for a great sound. Download them and study the DSP chains, their settings, play around to see what each does and how much contributes to the sound of a track or the overall mix. Also, have a look at the chains in the master track… compressors, limiters (Maximizer), saturation (Exciter) and EQ, are very important and shape the sound of a track dramatically.
Keep in mind though that if a tutorial says that you should have this and that with these specific settings, doesn’t mean that this applies to all the songs and sounds. Learn the basics, learn the frequencies and then use just your ears to decide what is best for each track. Don’t feel bound by the instructions that for example you MUST have a limiter on the master chain, just because producers say that you should.
Remember, it takes time and patience - and regular breaks to rest your ears.
the problem is that I use Renoise differently
a bit like an instrument and maybe I have bad design habits…
This doesn’t matter much… the basics apply to any DAW no matter your goal and workflow.
But it’s by far the best way to avoid clipping, to make your song “loud” and to manage your LUFS value, isn’t it?
If I were a beginner and I just want my song to have balanced instrument volumes and to be loud enough without clipping, I would do only this, which I would call the “switch off and relax” method:
That’s it.
Additionally: In order to avoid muddiness in the mix you could basically put the native digital filter as a high pass filter at 150 Hz (Butterworth 8n) in every track except kick and bass.
That’s also my way. Minimum speaker volume (1%), only listen to kick and snare (aka the loudest sounds in a song) and adjust their volumes until both are equally audible, then turn on the other stuff instrument by instrument, adjust their volumes and slowly increase your speaker volume in order to recheck everything. But don’t forget to also recheck at max speaker volume. Adjust everything until it sounds good at both low and high volume.
Distortions are sometimes psychoacoustic rather than intrinsic to the waveform itself, and after all these decades I still haven’t figured out how to deal with those. Usually happens with resonant sounds. I don’t even know the real terminology for what it is I’m talking about.
Then again if Aphex Twin doesn’t care (this thing happens pretty much throughout much of SAW2) maybe I shouldn’t either.
@olivier For now, ignore tips and tricks regarding specific chains, frequencies etc… what works for an EDM track doesn’t mean it works for an ambient or an orchestral or a piano piece.
Learn what each tool does, its purpose, how it affects the sound, and try to understand the basics of how it works. Only then you will be able to put together the pieces necessary to reach what you hear in your head.
The tips and techniques are useful only if you understand why a certain advice or tool works, and only after understanding it you’ll be able to “break the rules” and have the desired result.
What’s important is to understand why you put that effect or that chain, that way you can decide whether you need it or not in specific situations.
Easier to say than to do though, but the idea is to try learning “what it does” instead of “what to do”, just for that reason, avoid any short form content (youtube shorts, tiktoks, …) when watching mixing content. (Yeah, there might be a few good ones where they go straight to the point, but most of it are “THIS IS THE WAY”).
Hello. The hardest part is making choices regarding the composition—and especially deciding which instrument to bring out in the mix.
I’ve certainly grasped the need to fill the musical spectrum without having the instruments clash or overlap.
I also need to look into frequencies and instrument levels; it’s true that I tend to set everything to the same volume…
I don’t have a specific method, but I feel the mixing process should happen organically as I go.
As a long term Renoise user of at least 14 years you seem to have trouble processing (basic) informations about production. It looks like you’ve tried several approaches but kinda got lost. At this point you probably should ignore EVERYTHING except what’s absolutely necessary, and that’s balancing the instrument volumes. So ignore all devices and use Renoise like an oldschool tracker that doesn’t have any devices. Pushing the mono button on your hifi system or using the stereo expander set to mono in your master channel would help a lot, because in mono all instruments need to share one single channel. If all those instruments are audible in one single channel and no instruments are standing out in terms of loudness, you’re good. And check through speakers rather than through headphones!
Just pick instruments that sound very different.
Which isn’t completely wrong! Just make sure that the rhythm instruments are the dominant ones without drowning everything else. Your current mix isn’t too bad, only hat, snare and second kick are way too loud. Why are you using two different kicks anyway?