Audiotic wrote:I think reading or watching tutorials or theory can only get you so far...
For me it's really important to listen to my stuff on different Speakers/Stereos after mixing them (usually with headphones).
Over time you will get a feel for how the mix should sound on your headphones, to also sound good on different gear.
It's a learning process and I feel that many people (especially in the beginning) put way too much emphasis and hope in mixing instead of working on actual basic music making skills.
If a track is good you will know, even if the mix is not perfect and then you can devote more time into mixing...
Your example for instance... I think apart from the drums being to loud/prominent and maybe the bass being a bit flat, there is not much wrong with the mix. It's the track itself that needs some work. More variety, denser more tweaked (maybe even different) sounds, etc.
Don't get hung up on mixing this early in the process would be my two cents...
thanks for the advice Audiotic!
i do tend to have drums a bit too loud. i suppose this is a habit i've gained over time(many of my favorite songs i've heard always have prominent drums that cut through and hit me in the "chest" ) but will definitely take that into consideration in the future now that you've mentioned it.
the example was a simple sawtooth with the arp player on it, but not a song by any means. just sort of a mixing experiment i guess! i agree fully about there needing more variety, etc. the purpose i suppose, was to keep it as simple as possible while trying to achieve a good frequency balance.
what got me thinking about all of this was reading various posts on the forum about mono checking, using speakers, and how important it is. i do actually have some cheap Krk 5s in my little bedroom that i almost never use because of the sound annoyance to the others around me. sometimes i actually get to turn them on to test some things out, but that is rare.
although this is a career for me, i constantly want to improve my abilities and knowledge in the field. lets face it, i'm not creating top selling records by any means. but in the future, i eventually want to start releasing music under my own name/brand and i want it to be as high of quality as it can be for all listeners and listening environments without needing a mix engineer, mastering engineer and 20 other guys to get the job done for me.
thank you and i really appreciate your input! :]