How can I make my sound more professional?

[reflex99]

I feel like my beats are lacking, but I can't put my finger on what exactly it is. I try my luck at mastering, but I can never get a real FULL sounding track.
Any tips?

 

[Fade]

There's lots of things it could be. What kind of beats are you making - synths? samples?

When you say "lacking", do you mean you feel there's something missing or do you mean your mix is dull?

 

[Ruthless]

Hey reflex99,

Is there any chance you could send us a link to one of your beats so we could take a listen?

 

[DEWLA MADONNA]

i feel the same way as Reflex99, there is something lacking from my mixes. if anyone knows about mixing, please listen to a beat of mine and let me know what i could add or subtract. let me know if anyone's is able to help me with this

 

[OriginalNoGuru]

Without more info my guess would be a combination of your room and your monitoring set-up...

Good monitors will definitely help... But can only go so far in an inadequate listening environment.

If you already have good monitors you need to be looking at the positioning of them in your room and then at room treatment.

My attic room is really small so I'm pretty limited in where I can actually work... That said its a fairly good sounding room. Even so, I have a couple of rockwool 'gobos' in there that are moved depending on what I'm up to. Position 1 for recording vocals, position 2 for recording acoustic guitar, position 3 for mixing (and general use).

Really cheap, really easy to build, really effective.

 

[smmrT_15]

i think the biggest improvement for me mix wise was when i started getting to grips with new york style compression... that can bring your kit alive. i'm making a tutorial on it now, so i'll post it here when i've uploaded it

 

[smmrT_15]

here it is guys

 

[JayThunder]

First off.... Having good quality sounds to start with off jump is critical. It's mad hard, and an art form in itself, taking shitty sounds and making them sound better. So, number 1, get really dope sounding sounds. And make sure they hit like YOU want them to hit. I JUST found a dope kick with an amazing punch after a solid year of searching. Being particular about your sound sources and design from the jump will also help you create your own "sound".

After good sounds, mixing down your songs properly from the jump will take care of 80% of making sure you song sounds good. Most people just layer sounds on top of sounds with no thought to the nature of the human ear and how it perceives. Stereo exists so you can WIDEN the mix. Not everything needs to be in the center.
Also, not everything needs to be Godzilla loud as well. A good mix focuses in on the key elements of the song and brings them out. The beauty of a GREAT mix is that this can change over time, i.e., a hi-hat being more pronounced in the chorus, and smoothed/lowered down for the verse.

Also: you have to try your mixes in different environments. By that, once you mix something, make sure to listen to it in your car, from your phone, and every other audio source you can so you can start getting a feel for how what you do effects different sound environments.

 

[DiggyKratez]

not that im any athourity on mixing, but for me the biggest differences in my track are from panning and eq with a bit of compression where necessary. these are the most important things in my opinion because the will create a space for everything in the track. everything else is just frosting, but theres not point in frosting unless u have a good tasting cake to begin with? iunno of that makes sense. hope that helps. but id say eq compress and pan before anything else in a mix. also re-adjust ur levels after doing those edits cuz they wil balance everything different

 

[OriginalNoGuru]

Using reverb well can also be a massive game changer.

 

[Greg Savage]

Learn your gear, learn to mix. That's really all there is to it.

Easier said than down though. You will spend countless years doing both.

 

[Sucio]

Learn your gear, learn to mix. That's really all there is to it.

Easier said than down though. You will spend countless years doing both.

Basically....What really, really helps is that you have the percussion in the correct key. That helps a TON........ And if you're not sure...there's a program where you literally drop the sound in and it tells you the key...pretty accurate.... and it's FREE... Here's the link: http://www.ibrahimshaath.co.uk/keyfinder/ You could also invest in "mixed in key"...which is the best out there...but this free one would do more than enough...


There isn't really a shortcut to making your mix sound big. Reference, reference reference. There's a TON of tutorials online...MacProVideo.....Lynda....Groove3....youtube tutorials.......Learn the plug-ins you have and experiment with what they do...also widening your stereo field helps....panning.......

 

[Master Flip]

Make it simple. Dont try and mix something into your beat until it sounds good by itself.
Switching back and forth to different speakers and headphones makes a big difference to get things sounding legit. Even using laptop speakers helps match things up a lil bit!

 

[thedreampolice]

Without hearing the problems we cant give advice on how to fix them. So its kinda a wasted discussion. What does "more professional" mean? Who knows.

But if you want some gold here are the two keys to getting a good mix. Seriously they change everything.

#1 LCR Mixing. You can read about that here.

#2 High pass filters on almost everything See this.

Mixing alone is an art form that takes YEARS to master. Mastering is another art form all together. Don't try and learn both at the same time. They are different. Pay a REAL mastering engineer to master your stuff.