AudioJungle obviously demands top quality music from it’s composers and musicians in terms of the whole package, and ‘rightly so’ if I may say… But does it need a style of mixing and mastering to other styles/genres of music like Rock & Pop in the mainstream.
listening to Radiohead, apart from the music itself does it follow a different type of mix and approach, maybe a bit more LoFi in comparison. Also other artist like Air and Jamiroquai… just to name a few that I listen to.
If Radiohead were to stick a couple of instrumental tracks up here would it need a completely different mix approach?
That’s a cool question. I think at least they would have to make sure the low frequencies are always in the middle and they’d have to reduce the use of ping-pong delay as well as excessive hard left & hard right panning.
Mixing and mastering is a huge topic from all I’ve read and listened too, so the approach must vary for each genre, including music produced for film & video as we hear on AJ.
But when I mix I tend to follow a pattern for an music, but is the correct approach? I do the same for tracks I record with vocals, just regular pop/rock music (non-AJ).
Do studios fundamentally take the same approach for Rock & County music as they would Pop or Drum & Bass.
Do certain tracks need a more focused narrow mix compared to a mix with a wide stereo spread? Centre bass, wide stereo bass? One style more ‘HiFi’, another more ‘LoFi’? More high freqs. or more middle freqs.?
I think it doesn’t really matter. Just listen to some huge bestsellers here - some are soft, wide and full of bass, others are xtremely loud, flat, full of high freq. Buyers seem to care more about the content, pace of the track, idea. Sure, your track must meet some quality requirements but not to extent where it is a major selling factor. Again, there are some REALLY cool sounding tracks here with almost no sales to prove this point.
I personally think that stock music should be relatively simple, catchy, not complicated, with less vocals, or at least with instrumental version included. And sound good, comparable to commercial releases or close to that. My 2 cents, guys
Great topic. I do think mixing plays a significant part in the success of a stock track. When I started at AJ I tended to mix my tracks as if they were pop releases intended for listening. It was only later that it dawned upon me that I am making background music; secondary content, which for the majority of the time, would be placed behind a voice over or SFX, and supporting some sort of primary video content. This changes the game quite a bit in my opinion.
I tend to mix my music to sound warm and full with a slightly scooped mid range. I do this for two reasons: 1, because bassy music tends to be better received by average listeners, and sounds more “impressive” on small speaker systems, and 2, so that there is more sonic room for the midrange of the human voice in the case of voice overs. Although many customers may not be actively listening for these nuances, they will notice how well the music sits in their projects if they choose to download a preview version.
I also tend to make my tracks quite wide-panned with not too much audio weighted towards the centre. This is because voice overs will inevitably be placed in the centre, so by making room here the voice over will sit nicely with the music. If you listen to many of the all-time top sellers on AJ, you will notice a slight bias towards lower frequencies and a wide stereo image. Coincidence? Maybe so, but I personally think this stuff does make a difference.
I wouldn’t say mixing is the make-or-break factor in the success of a track, but paying attention to these small details (among many others) might just earn you those few extra sales.
That’s a really great piece of advice AurusAudio.
It makes sense to think in those terms, to be mixing with a slightly different goal in mind.
Maybe it’s possible to even mix with a vocal or talk over in the track then pull it out at a later stage?
On another note, you can even try pairing your music with a VH stock footage preview (similar to what kinds of videos you imagine your music being used in) to see how well the music fits the mood and tone of the video. This is a great way to fine-tune the emotional feel of your music while you’re still at the composing stage.
