r/audioengineering • u/imVeryPregnant • 10h ago
No clue what I’m doing wrong
Mixing techno - I’m constantly told my mixes sound muddy even though to me, they sound totally fine. I listen with multiple reference devices and can’t find a single thing that should be altered. What do I do?
So I make ambient-ish techno. It’s in the realm of Skee Mask, Andy Stott, Priori, Floating Points…
I try to limit myself to one mid range element which is usually a pad or something similar. Then I have other higher frequency elements in the background going on and a big booming bass. With this specific song I have in mind, I only have 7 layers for the entire song. Kick, hat, bass, pad, high end thin synth, percussive glitchy synth, and a distorted glitchy noise layer for texture. So everything is above 500 hz except for the bass, kick, and pad. So I’m just not understanding why my mix is considered “muddy”
I just don’t get it. I do everything that I think is right for years and think I’m finally a pretty decent mixer and then I get flamed the second I share something that I thought was amazing. It just makes no sense to me. Also, I listened to my reference track and my track side by side and I don’t get how the reference track isn’t considered muddy…. its New Romantic by Andy Stott and it’s considered one of the greatest electronic songs of that subgenre yet to me, it sounds so muddy compared to my song. So what do I even do here??
5
u/Public_Upstairs1035 10h ago
Post some music/examples so we can listen to what you are referencing. Generally, all or most of these instruments will be adding frequencies across the spectrum, and any of them can add to muddiness.
1
u/GWENMIX 10h ago
It’s hard to say without hearing it.
Either people are telling you this because they’re mindlessly repeating common clichés, or they actually know what they’re talking about. In either case, you could ask them to clarify the reasons behind the criticism.
If I find a track sounds cluttered, it’s usually because either too many instruments are fighting for space in the foreground, or specific frequency ranges—often the low-mids or mids—are overcrowded, making it hard to hear clearly.
You should pay special attention to these two points.
You can experiment with spatialization—panning instruments wider to open up the center—or soften the transients of certain instruments to push them back in the mix so they don't clash as much.
You want to avoid the "class photo" syndrome: when everyone tries to stand in the front row, the result is that you can't make out anyone clearly.
1
u/a1JayR 8h ago
The class photo analogy is amazing! Not everything is supposed to be heard loud and clear up front. Some things should just be felt where if they were muted it would feel like something is missing. Once I quit trying to make everything sound clear and up front in the mix things started to play nice together. Also most samples were using today have been mixed, compressed and EQ to the umpteenth degree. Most of the time they don’t need much to fit perfectly in the mix but a little EQ and or compression. Like 1-2 db cuts or boosts. Buss compression and 2mix compression makes a subtle but extremely important difference with making everything feel together.
1
u/a1JayR 8h ago
The class photo analogy is amazing! Not everything is supposed to be heard loud and clear up front. Some things should just be felt where if they were muted it would feel like something is missing. Once I quit trying to make everything sound clear and up front in the mix things started to play nice together. Also most samples were using today have been mixed, compressed and EQ to the umpteenth degree. Most of the time they don’t need much to fit perfectly in the mix but a little EQ and or compression. Like 1-2 db cuts or boosts. Buss compression and 2mix compression makes a subtle but extremely important difference with making everything feel together.
1
u/OAlonso Professional 10h ago
You need to specify what you are using as your monitoring, because that's the only answer. When you don't have an honest monitoring system, that's exactly what happens, your mix sounds perfect in your room, but then sounds different and worse everywhere else. So, there is nothing you can do in terms of mixing to solve that. You have to work on your monitoring system. That means building a room with a professional acoustic engineer, or using proper planar magnetic headphones with good amplification and EQ.
I can't say this apply to you, but I think we have to start telling the truth and stop believing that spending a couple of hundred dollars on monitors and hanging some acoustic panels in your spare room is enough for mixing, because it's a less than decent environment to judge sound. Reference mixes don't work if you don't have an honest monitoring system, because you are still hearing a poor translation of them and comparing it with your mix. It's like doing color grading on a bad uncalibrated screen. The professional feature film used as a reference is going to translate great to your screen, but even when you try to get your skin tones close to it, your characters are going to look like aliens everywhere else, because you are missing information, so every decision you make is flawed.
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u/m149 9h ago
just heard your clip in one of the other posts.
Can kinda understand why you're getting the muddy comments. Lotta low mid sounds playing there. There's nothing going on in the midrange to help balance out those low mid sounds.
That said, it sounds cool to me, and if it sounds cool to you, I wouldn't worry too much about what other people are saying.
although I should mention I'm listening on a small BT speaker, so if there's any real subby stuff going on, I can't hear it. But I'm very used to listening on this thing and it does a fine job of pointing out mix issues above about 80hz.
1
u/Styrant 9h ago
I listened to the reference and I agree I do find it muddy, but idk if thats how the genre's intended to sound. comparing your track to the reference, the reference has a lot more sub energy going on, the kick in particular sounds huge, that or its layered with a bass everytime it hits, you don't have an element that feels that strong it sounds like a driving bassline with a kickdrum that mainly has a knock sound in the mid-range
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u/j3434 8h ago
Use A/B referencing . A/B reference mixing is when you switch back and forth between your mix and a professionally mixed reference track to compare things like volume, bass, treble, dynamics, stereo width, and overall balance.
The key is to match the loudness of the two tracks so the louder one doesn’t automatically sound “better.” Then adjust EQ and drum levels and such . Pick a track that is similar to what you are after in a sonic footprint.
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u/No_Waltz3545 7h ago
Music, you need to like (and eventually understand) music. This is not music and no amount of 'I should do this or this' will compensate for it.
0
u/variant_of_me 10h ago
Consider the source. If you like how things sound and a bunch of random people don't, then who gives a shit? There's no accounting for taste.
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u/Public_Upstairs1035 9h ago
I don’t know, when it comes to frequency buildup and ease of listening, I tend to listen to peoples’ opinions.
14
u/brokenspacebar__ Professional 10h ago
There's a bit to unpack here but there's no practical advice that can be given without an example. Share an example to what you're talking about that you thought was amazing but have been told otherwise. Maybe it sounds fine, maybe the issues are very obvious, maybe it's one small thing that can make a big difference.
'Everything is above 500hz except the bass and kick' does NOT sound like a good thing, you aren't supposed to just delegate instruments to specific frequencies and slot them in. It's supposed to be cohesive, there's a lot of info between 200-400hz that would be very valuable on lots of instruments that aren't just bass.