When A Song In Renoise Sounds Too Crowded

When a song in Renoise sounds too crowded. :)

How do you guys solve this when you encounter this problem? :unsure:

I have it sometimes, especially when i want it at a certain “mastering / pro” kind of level.
Even when i know i dont use too much sounds or tracks, it still sometimes sounds too crowded,
Then i ask myself is it me that im doing something wrong (because i compare my song-quality to like DJ tiesto for example, nasty habit of mine), or is it the way Renoise handles the mixing of all channels together. :blink:

I mean there are alot of Multi-track apps like Cubase, Reason you name them.
If to compare all these multi-track apps inc Renoise is the internal sound-engine / mixing (Software or Hardware) the same or different when it comes to dynamics? :huh:

Or is it just me that it needs a mastering trick, strategy to make it sound “full” but not “overcrowded” at the same time? :guitar:

What i do notice is that my ASIO setting along with “Limit to Stereo in/out” sounds better (dynamics) then the normal Directsound setting. :walkman:

if you can define your sound also as “muddy” probably the problem is with your reverb settings, if you use any; try lowering the delay duration and raise dumping.

hmm yeah Reverb is probably the only sound-effect that might give too much sound-mixing when applied too much.

Some reverbs has Low / High freq damping, which one is occasionally better?

there is no real rule I guess (I’m no mastering pro at all), but in general there should be more damping on low ferquencies.

you should avoid applying reverb to bass frequencies; for example, unless you are into downtempo or similar, no reverb for bassdrum!

Renoise’s mpReverb2 has even a lowpass and a low gain parameters which serve for this purpose

EQ is the key to muddyness (and ofcourse, if you have too much reverb as mentioned earlier, that is a killer as well). make sure to remove all “unwanted” frequencies. for instance, for most pad sounds, you dont need the lower range freqs - do a high pass EQ until it sounds nice and fluffy. do this on all tracks, add some compression where needed - and voilla. your mix sounds ok.

cheers,
klaus

xerxes, while we are at it: does doing this on send tracks or on each individual track which is sent to a send track make a difference?

the question may sound silly but the answer may not :)

in that case it-alien, why not put yet another EQ/hp filter on the send track

Also, where you place the different sounds in the stereo field might play a part.

The thing that improved my quality the most was to actually start thinking about panning so that all the sounds aren’t fighting to be the loudest in the center.

Thanks for replies, those are useful.

Anyway i never used the “Gate” effect tbh? what does it do exactly?
i never really understood this effect out of all effects.

the gate cuts out all sound above or below a certain level,
try running it over a drum break and you’ll see what I mean.

eq and panning as already mentioned should do wonders for “crowding”
high passing around 120 hz (or whatever sounds ok) instruments that you didn’t put in the track for purposes of bass helps. or using the EQ10 and doing a cut somewhere around 300-600hz on tracks that feel muddy. those are things i do in most every track.

i lost all my bookmarks but i had a few EQing guides like
http://www.recordingwebsite.com/articles/eqprimer.php
that referenced for ideas when something didn’t sit right

PM me if you want me to take a look at your mix, I might be able to give some advice there.

Remember too: there are only so many bits of data you can use for fidelity in digital audio. The more sounds you throw in there the harder it becomes to translate all the sounds. It’s only made worse if the mix is bad, which is generally what everyone here is saying. Mixing ain’t an easy thing, nor is mastering.

Best approach is to keep consistently playing with your tools, and always get advice on your mixes from others.