Getting My Sound Better
- Thread starter jayhask
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Beat This!The next Beat This! Competition is from November 27-28th!
Producer_GyaL
IllMuzik First Lady
choosing good quality sounds, good samples, knowing arrangements, having a nice mix in the end.. there's no other way...
TRUTH! Speak sista speak!
In addition to what Producer Gyal said, it also can depend on your monitors/speakers on your setup, the bitrate that you're using, or even your speaker placement. If all these things are good, it all boils down to Quote "a nice mix in the end..."
MOF
MOF
hes right ..and so is evryone else .. actaully fl and reason have bad summing/rendering...more so reason than fl though ....its not anything that serious that it would make or break a mix, but u would be better off soundwise rewriing to another program like sonar/logic/cubase/pro tools etc... u will get better quality rendering of the audio.
M
mart85
Guest
one thing that is important is to have banging drums! (if you're making hip hop beats obviously)... loud, powerful drums will make your tracks sound more professional
so when you render a track from FL, in wave format... you lose quality compared to other programs?
so when you render a track from FL, in wave format... you lose quality compared to other programs?
NobleWordz
ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 4
paradigmshifter
Beatmaker
ill o.g.
Learn to EQ & Compress = Great mixes
I have to disagree with everyone that keeps saying to bounce/split the tracks and mix them outside of FL... the FL engine is just as powerful as any other DAW... the only DAW that would make a difference is Pro-Tools because the Pro-Tools engine is designed to work with Digidesign hardware and something in their tech. specs causes a 3db increase on the output signal... so it'll sound louder but not an improvement in sonic quality! Google this if you don't believe me...
If you want to get a better sound, learn everything you can about EQ, compression, expansion and how to mix all the elements of a song across the frequency spectrum... start by looking this up: equal loudness and how the human ear increases volume at certain frequencies... and then have someone else master the final mix for you... or do it yourself if you get good at it... whatever...
And also, what they said about your mixing enviroment and monitor is very important as well...
Bottom line is... if the track is not sounding good in FL, boucing it to another DAW is not going to do the miracle... in other words; YOU CAN'T POLISH A TURD!
I have to disagree with everyone that keeps saying to bounce/split the tracks and mix them outside of FL... the FL engine is just as powerful as any other DAW... the only DAW that would make a difference is Pro-Tools because the Pro-Tools engine is designed to work with Digidesign hardware and something in their tech. specs causes a 3db increase on the output signal... so it'll sound louder but not an improvement in sonic quality! Google this if you don't believe me...
If you want to get a better sound, learn everything you can about EQ, compression, expansion and how to mix all the elements of a song across the frequency spectrum... start by looking this up: equal loudness and how the human ear increases volume at certain frequencies... and then have someone else master the final mix for you... or do it yourself if you get good at it... whatever...
And also, what they said about your mixing enviroment and monitor is very important as well...
Bottom line is... if the track is not sounding good in FL, boucing it to another DAW is not going to do the miracle... in other words; YOU CAN'T POLISH A TURD!
Kontents
I like Gearslutz
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 5
In reference to the above this link has alot of info on mix down:
https://www.illmuzik.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20551
Truth! Both FL and Reason are excellent in the box or rewired. You just have to know what to use and when to use it. The sound samples you pick and choose are number one in getting "quality sound". Some things you just have to pay for or at least get a hook up to the good shhh. A lot of guys are messing around with shit they downloaded for free from another music "membership" sites. In most cases these sounds are shit that's been regurgitated around the net for years (re sampled a million times). My philosophy is "if you don't know where the sound came from don't use it". Can you trace the source that the samples or sounds came from. i.e big fish, triton, minimoog etc etc. In most cases if you can't do that leave it be.
I now approach mixing like a movie. Movies are filmed backwards right? I mix backwards....mix from the master buss back! Put a nice tape saturation plugin on your master buss. McDSP or PSP's Vintage warmer2, in dual mono split and throw a good compressor like waves Rcomp or Ozone3 (with modest settings, don't compress too much) and good Eq in the line but not on until later.
By doing this you'll find that you don't have to compress or eq each and ever track as much and things will sound cleaner and bigger from the start instead of waiting to the end of the mix. And roll off those lows! That piano may sound fine by itself with a little low end but amongst the other bass driven instruments your mix can get muddy real quick. Leave the bass to the drums and bass gtr. Roll off the lows and boost the mids for everything except kicks,toms and your bass guitar or bass synth sound. You'll give your instruments there own space by doing so. Some tasteful reverb (effects) and panning will move certain instruments further back and away from the center of the mix. This will leave plenty room for the vocalist/Emcee who should be the star of any production! A lot of us producers/beat makers lose focus of who the star should be. The track can be bangin' but if you leave no room for the lyric you're hustling backwards IMO.
i wouldnt mix with anything on the master buss ... esp a tape saturation plug ... unless i really really knew what i was doing ... plugins color and alter the sound in various ways ... thats the point of them.. it works maybe when mixing standalone beats.. but if ur tryin to mix vocals or do precise level matching or corrective eq prolly not a good look unless you have a really experienced set of ears ... any change u make could throw off the dynamics of your entire mix... a plug in also might "smear" the image ... my mixing theory is to first fix problems, then find balance, and lastly to enhance/color the sound to taste... i think mixing with stuff on the bus, esp plugins kinda fucks up the first two steps and goes straight to the third...
throught the years ive noticed that the most important tool in getting a quality sound is a really good set of monitors and a good listening environement... every major improvement to my sound has come from an upgrade in monitoring equipment/ or room treatment ... i just recently upgraded monitors and wow.. im hearing things i just wasnt hearing before real talk... its kinda scary .. ... its got me thinking what i would be hearing if i got some real top of line big studio mains monitors lol.
throught the years ive noticed that the most important tool in getting a quality sound is a really good set of monitors and a good listening environement... every major improvement to my sound has come from an upgrade in monitoring equipment/ or room treatment ... i just recently upgraded monitors and wow.. im hearing things i just wasnt hearing before real talk... its kinda scary .. ... its got me thinking what i would be hearing if i got some real top of line big studio mains monitors lol.
I think the most important part in my setup is the speakers, which were very expensive when I got hold of them, not expensive for me as they just fell off a back of a lorry and I caught them. But without them I dont think Id have the first idea about mixing, and Im always still listening and learning all the time.
The next most important part is time put in to gain the experience needed.
The experience and tricks can be quickly accelerated by checking out the other posts on this forum.
lol..I really know what I'm doing. It's not as extreme as you think, and I wouldn't knock it until you try it. For those who want to practice this philosophy pick up "MIX IT LIKE A RECORD" dvd. I'm not talking about making extreme adjustments @ the master buss and working your way back. Tape saturation does nothing more than add a little color to your mix in the form of an analog feel. Mixing thru a real SSL board does the same thing. That' the big difference between the digital and analog sound "saturation". I'm not spitting off the top of my head. It comes from two years of school,books, tutorials etc etc. Besides, it's one technique out of many that happens to give me the results that I desire. I thought I'd just pass it along. If what you do works for you I wouldn't change it.
^^^ i hear ya .. my repsone wasnt to you though, it was to the original poster ... when ur new to mixing .. subtlety isnt a part of ur vocab ... being a newbie he most likely has no experince making eq adjustments and applying compression... he prolly doesnt have a pair of quality studio monitors either... so as a newbie its prolly not a great look for him to be mixing with stuff on the master buss.. hes prolly gonna overdoit like most newbies do with the effects and compression. ... to be asking a question like he did he most likely has no clue to what any processing tools actually do .. in that case mixing with something on the master is equivalent to first learning how to drive in a formula one car instead of your pops chevy lol.
^^^lol....possibly! In that case he needs to just do beats and get his mixing learn on separately. Apply a little bit of what he learns along the way. It's always a good to find out "why" certain things are done to the mix as opposed to just doing it because someone says "do this and you'll get the sound right". Learn what the plugins and hardware is designed to do first. There are plenty mixing and engineering books,vids, tutorials out there.
Read and watch as many mixing books and vids as you can then connect the common denominators. He'll soon figuring out that it's not rocket science. Get the basics down and then everything else is a matter of taste.
Read and watch as many mixing books and vids as you can then connect the common denominators. He'll soon figuring out that it's not rocket science. Get the basics down and then everything else is a matter of taste.
paradigmshifter
Beatmaker
ill o.g.
I do a similar exercise with my stuff to... after getting a quick "rough mix" without any master compression/EQ that I'm happy with, I usually put a multi-band compressor on the master with very soft compression and then I put a signal analyzer after the compressor to have some visual feedback to what the whole thing is doing (ie. WAVES PAZ Analyzer), specially in "busy" parts of the track... then after getting an idea of what needs to be improved, I turn the master compressor of and continue working on the mix until it's finalized and then turn the master compressor back on and do some final adjustments before bouncing the mix... I really don't like to EQ on the master, IMO that should be done in the mastering process...
But I would definitely recommend for someone new at mixing to start without anything on the master... when you get more comfortable, then start experimenting with some of the suggestions here...
Peace.
But I would definitely recommend for someone new at mixing to start without anything on the master... when you get more comfortable, then start experimenting with some of the suggestions here...
Peace.
shadeed
Go Digital or Go Home
ill o.g.
Your sound quality is in direct relation to the knowledge you have of audio engineering basics and the quality of sounds you use.
To use an analogy - FL Studio is just a blank canvas: If you know how to paint, you can get busy on a mural, t-shirt, or whatever your painting on.
One thing I do recommend is to learn the program in and out- this means mess around with the top toolbar and explore every icon available - FL is a verrry powerful program in the right hands - but if you don't know its capabilities, you won't know.
Secondly - FOCUS on what you're doing when you're making the beat. Give your time on FL your undivided attention - if a certain track sounds too high - pop open your mixer and tweak it a bit.
Read, read, read - man and just dedicate your time and you'll be fine.