Hey everyone
I’m having an absolute mare with my mixing techniques (or lack of) i’m pulling my hair out, how can i get my mixes to sound pro, i’m fed up reading and watching tutorials, i know there are no hard and fast rules to mixing, and no right and wrong, but my mixes sound raw all the time, i’ve spent a fortune on gear, so its not that my equipment is inferior, it’s really putting me off going in the studio, and working on songs, because i dread the mix down stage, some of the author’s mixes on here sound really really good, and mine just sounds awful in comparison, any help would be greatly appreciated, i think the only thing that would help me is to look at a finished project that sounds professional and get an idea of whats going on…i would be willing to pay someone to mix one of my tracks just in order to see what they have done to make the mix sound great and not raw as shit like mine!!
well, firstly you ain’t shit ! don’t say that !!! you need to constantly try and put here on the forum and we’ll tell you need to constantly constantly constantly try and not give up !!!
Hi @KBullasMusic. Its difficult to say anything meaningful without hearing a note, but in general, by the way you describe it, maybe you just deal with mixes which are too complex for your skills. Try to get back to just 1-2 instruments in a piece (for example, leading piano, and some other element which is much less important in the mix) and move on from there. Take it step by step, adding stuff to your next piece only when you feel confident about placing it right, and making it sound good. Best wishes!
Thanks @WildLion_Production 
@Soundlufs Hi dude, but I’m writing fairly big projects with 20+ tracks, I just can’t seem to get the cohesiveness that a quality mix should have, maybe I’m being too hard on myself, but can’t help but feel I’m way off the mark
Thats exactly my point, get to writing some less cluttered tracks - your mixing skills will thank you for the great exercise 
Be sure to damp up behind the monitors to hear all sounds without shadow trails. And then deep dive in to them and start calibrate. Have a reference track open in a separate player with good sounds. Then blend. Its a training thing. 
@Soundlufs thanks dude!
@atlemusic Hi Atlemusic my room is acoustically treated, and I have bass traps also, I think what I’m getting is how to use reverb and compression to blend the tracks together, at the minute, I’m mostly using factory settings for reverb / compression / delay etc etc
Sounds cool! Try edit the reverb with headphones and you can get it more exact to the tempo. Remember to have some dry sounds also.
That’s the thing though dude, what do you keep dry generally, do you add reverb to distorted guitars, or just delay, or do you keep them dry?! Also drums, do you just add reverb to snare and overheads and leave kick dry? Just so many questions that I know are not straight forward, and I know they vary from producer to producer :-/
If you have monitors i think all you need is to practice every day and watch tutorials and result will be fine. If you work with headphones I suggest you to buy monitors (not cheap). Good luck in ou mixing work!
Hey there, I totally understand your problem. I doubted my ability to mix music properly so I payed a couple of pros to mix some stuff for me. After hearing their work, which was fine enough, I decided to take a class from one of the guys I hired for mixing. He really helped me understand that (among other things) a- it’s not the gear, it’s the ear, and b- it takes time and practice to get good, so be patient, and c- use reference tracks: which is really difficult for me but absolutely helps! After that I discovered an app called Quiztones that helps train your ear (I do a couple challenges when my ears are fresh right before a mixing session) and I found a library of stems to practice mixing at www.cambridge-mt.com. I hope it helps - feel free to hit me up with more questions - we can learn together! Cheers
Hi everyone
Here’s my latest track, i’ve mixed and mastered to the best of my ability, still sounds raw to me, any thoughts on what i’m doing wrong?
https://soundcloud.com/kbullasmusic/rock-song/s-41qM7
Cheers
K.
@LongShadow - Thanks dude, this is really helpfull, can’t tell you how much i appreciate your help, thank you!!
@LuckyBlackCat Thanks dude, i have a decent set of monitors (KRK RP6’s, and i use Beats pro headphones which cost more than the monitors, ha!)
Like i said, i have pro gear, just need to learn how to get the best out of it all i guess!
Hey there, @KBullasMusic. I am not entirely sure of what are your mixing/engineering skills and if this thread is still relevant almost 7 months later.
From your entire thread, I understand few things:
- You are using good gear but not professional gear for “headphone mixing” (Beats is not a brand you use for the mixing stage. You can def use it for your listening stage (depending on the genre).
- The fact you are using reverbs, delays and other fx in their default settings may be the main cause for the “RAW” sound.
- Regarding compression and EQ, how do you use it? if you wish I can go the extra mile and ask you to send me a Pro Tools project of yours and I can check your settings and see what went wrong.
- All in all, the fact you have good gear and an acoustically treated studio makes a major difference here in the approach. All you need to do now is just focus on the belief of how you reach the sound YOU want. Like you and others mentioned here earlier - there is no right or wrong in mixing/achieving the “right” sound. If it sounds good - it is good.
Another great tip I got from Chris Lord-Alge is his famous approach for dealing with frequencies and dynamic ranges - “Don’t be afraid to play with the knobs or push it to the max - NO ONE IS GOING TO DIE”.
On that note, I hope these few tips will help you better understand what is the right approach here.
Again, if you want - you are more than welcome to send me a MixTrack of yours or a project you want to be checked by a professional mixing engineer.
Cheers mate!