FMiguelez wrote:.
My questions are:
1.- How come that, despite the graph is showing so much bass energy, it still doesn't sound muddy, and the bass is clear and powerful??? They have so much stuff going on in the 30-30 Hz region, yet it sounds great.
If I dare going anywhere near those bass levels, my stuff sounds like CRAP...
Many things contribute to a technically well done mix and mastering job.
But mastering is not the total answer. Starting with the right sounds, the right mics, etc., to begin with will be paramount. Sometimes these things can't be determined until a desired result has been missed later on. At that point, you must be willing to go back and to swap out one kick or snare for another, or to even re-record a vocal with a different mic. Start with the right sounds!!
First of all, some things are indeed fine-tuned in mastering, so don't be "too" hard on yourself when making comparisons.
Second, there could be any number of tools at play. Among these tools are the Multi-Band EQs Multi-Band Comps, and notch filter EQs which are used relentlessly to sculpt every micro element of these mixes into shape. Understanding exactly what was done and how it was done will lead to an understanding of what needs to be done and what tools it will take to accomplish the desired results.
Continue doing comparison listening and make a *detailed* list of what you notice that is desirable and undesirable about your mix and your reference CD track. This alone is great ear training, and that's where the sun rises and sets with everything.
FMiguelez wrote:.
2.- They limited the crap out of it, but this style calls for this, I suppose. What is amazing to me is that almost ONLY the kick takes up all the headroom, yet when all the instruments and her voice appear, they somehow fit in what's little left. How do they do this?? How can they manage to make everything audible? It's like every instrument is confined to it's own frequency range...
Again, the tools used are as important as the specific purposes for which they are used.
While collaborating with an engineer on a project, I tracked tons of things at his studio and then brought the project home to add to the arrangements. These included guitar tracks which were flown out in stereo. In some cases, the stereo guitar tracks worked very well and were kept. In other cases, it worked out better when the stereo tracks were folded into mono, reshaped with EQ, and then slotted into specific locations in the mix to keep it from interfering with other instruments and vocals which were panned across the listening spectrum.
A Strat guitar can interfere with a cymbal. A hi-hat can interfere with hard consonants used by a vocalist A bass part for pop mixes adds a lot of boom to a mix and can sound muddy-- but often the kick that compliments it can interfere with it as well. The kick and bass work together, so adding the right amount of "point" to the kick drum by notching up frequencies in the 400-500 hz range can help this. It's much more complicated than that, but when most people think of a kick drum they don't even consider what's going in the upper mids or how it might help or hurt their mix.
Another tool that comes in handy is some sort of spectrum or frequency analyzer. If it's possible to isolate just one guitar chord or one bass note or to isolate as many individual elements in a reference track, you can get some visual sense of what's going on with that particular instrument in terms of its dB level and frequency.
It's been said before, but it's also important to make sure that your mixing environment is working in your favor. If mixes sound top-heavy could be that your room is emphasizing lower frequencies (and you crank the high end to compensate for it). Same is true in the other direction-- a dull mix can be the result of overcompensating for a room that emphasizes the high end more than it should).
Types of monitors, of course, come into play as well.
The important thing is to find a CD track that offers you a lot of isolation with certain instruments so that at least for the sake of an excercise you can see how closely you can manually match EQs and other settings; to mix and match settings, and to compare these sonic behaviors to other instruments in the mix.
Start with one instrument at a time (usually the kick or bass to build a foundation) and don't be in a big hurry to add everything else in too soon. It can take a full day to get a good drum mix alone-- a couple of hours or more to get the snare drum right. The good news is that the more you do it, the more often you'll nail it. The more often you nail it, the less time it will take to get there.
Watch out for the reverb trap! The mix should sound well balanced without any reverb at all, and not every effect needs to be gratuitiously in stereo.
And yes-- it is true: there are many questionable artists out there whose CDs thrive on some of THE VERY BEST engineering in the business.
But seriously, some great information.