|Subfunction|

Ive written some new tracks, some help with why the mixes sound muffled would be great. Here is the megaupload link.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WYGL0F79

Thanks in advance

–Kris

You just have bad mix. Usual problem, you mix all the things too close together frequency wise, that they choke eachother. In reality you should try too keep some isolation for every instrument. Even a highpass filter on everything other than bass and kick will help a lot. But in long term you want to be more precise.

I’ll take Solitude as an example, cause I can see most obvious mistakes here:

  1. Kick is too loud. You are probably just using wrong kick. Instead of this trance kick you should maybe use something with more mids and bottom. Then you don’t feel like cranking it all the way up, but it will sound powerful even then.

  2. Where is the bassline? You can’t just use those trance pads for bass, although they may have powerful bottom, it’s too hairy to work as a bass. There are plenty of bass instruments around. For this kind of music something bit more percussive rather than droning might work.

  3. Now the backing pads and the arpeggio. Apply lowcut/highpass to them. (Exact cutoff depends, but you should start from at least 100Hz, this will keep it away from bassline, if you go too far, you will lose the warmth and power of the pads, experiment) EQ some highs and mids to them. EQ’ing is delicate business, if you find dragging the sliders all the way down or up, then you are definitely doing something wrong.

  4. Where are the hats? It’s common to use some noise loops and other weird stuff instead of the hats, but the point remains the same. You need some small things in highs to draw contours to the rhythm, else the music is literally like a blob with no shape. I can see you have some anvil sounds there, but they are too quiet compared to the kick.

  5. Same goes to snare.

  6. Vocals need some lows removed too. And maybe get that hair together a bit. Passing the stuff through cabinet sim can create good results.

What is exactly your monitoring setup? Those kinds of bad mixes are usually caused by bad monitoring.

Also, note that the mixing is rather delicate work. People tend to do too much and jump from one extremity to another. Be careful and consider every thing you have done. Take breaks from listening and come back later. Compare the track with other popular tracks of the same genre, you can see what what needs to be changed to get that right sound.

Nice to see EBM/Industrial heads in these forums too BTW! :)

Indeed my monitoring situation is ‘Less than desirable’ (a pair of preamped $50 head phones). Thanks for the reply and I will certainly give these things a shot. I really appreciate the response and looks like its time for a pair of monitors, and thanks for taking the time to help me out. Seriously Renoise is The tool. I started when I was very young using FastTracker, then FT2 and eventually was lucky enough to find Renoise. Not to mention its the most used tool I have while being the cheapest bit of Software I have, Just need more experience Mixing. Thanks a ton

–Kris

Just a quick follow up. These tips are golden. If your songs sound low and dull read up on mixing, follow the advice from the more experienced members and get a decent pair of monitors or monitoring headphones. I will be picking some up! I added some High-Pass filters and a little EQing and the sound was maximized exponentially maybe 3-4x louder with much less distortion, Some of those ‘Lost instruments’ reappeared and sounded great. Once the mixes are complete I will upload a new file and you can see the difference a little mixing makes. Absolutely amazing, thanks a ton Suva!

–Kris

I wanted to add that I got a set of M-Audio BX5a deluxe and the music is MUCH louder, clearer and I wanted to provide a link to the mixed versions. Still any comments are welcome and well received :) thanks a million. Oh yeah everything I have done is in Renoise (except vocals, which are recorded in Logic and added back into Renoise for mixing / FX ).

Here is the link
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SNUMZ3QR

Maybe you want to add more midrange instruments to the song to create louder wall-of-sound type stuff. Bit more crunch to bass? (that’s a risky business, I recommend to create another instrument on mids that plays in unison with the stab bass, instead of distorting bass itself). Maybe you should look into compressor usage bit too for finer tweaking of the loudness and soundscape.

Kick and snare maybe could use more oomph. 100Hz on kick, 200 on snare or something similar. Not sure right now, I had to listen at very low volume (night here).

Other than that, pretty cool sound. :)

You can record vocals inside renoise too if you didn’t notice. Usually there is no need for external programs.

It is never a bad idea to plug your mix into a cheap boom box and a nice stereo (both ends of consumer electronics, you prolly already have them).

Call it beta testing.

I love headphones myself, but it is so hard for me to get a good mix out of them it is almost pure luck if i do.

I forgot to say that i like your music and it sounds good in my headphones, but everything shares so much of the same sonic space. I don’t know if it is, but it sounds so much like a headphones mix, which can cover up some arrangement issue. Most of your problems would be solved with an alternative arrangement, in my opinion.

I really appreciate the suggestions. I will get on a better mix soon. Honestly I need to listen to more professional music on the monitors and get used to them. Also thanks for listening and your comments on the Music itself.

-Kris