How to balance Kick, Snare, Hats, Bass, Synths, Vox, etc ? please help....

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First off, I’d check any impulse to buy some product thinking it’ll help. You probably already have the tools. Second, those presets you’re surfing were created for someone else’s sounds for their songs. Chances are slim you can blindly apply them and expect good results. With time maybe you can use them as starting points to be tweaked and that might save some time.

My humble advice is to go back to your arrangement. Without any eq, compression, or shenanigans, it should sound 90% “there” just by setting levels and pan. If it doesn’t, your parts aren’t complimenting each other, either where they land in time, what notes they are, what frequency range they’re in, or the space they take up in the stereo field. More basically, does the tune resonate emotionally and aesthetically? Be honest with yourself about that, you can’t fix it in the mix.

If you get that stuff right the mixing problems are way fewer and even a bad mix won’t ruin the tune. For a good mix I suggest doing as little to the sounds as you can get away with, and that may mean avoiding presets as they’re often way over the top.

Edit, last piece of advice: post the tune. It's pointless to tell you in the abstract what might be going wrong because if it's an arrangement issue, worrying about the mix is polishing brass on the Titanic. But if the tune's a banger I won't waste your time telling you to fix the arrangement and some of the serious engineers on this board can weigh in. Won't know which it is until I hear it.

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I cant believe the laziness of some people. I've been writing / producing / mixing for 30+ years. I learn something new every session.
I wonder what happens if I press this button...

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ramseysounds wrote: Fri Jul 26, 2019 10:55 pm I cant believe the laziness of some people. I've been writing / producing / mixing for 30+ years. I learn something new every session.
Not to mention how much fun mixing is - The doing and the learning - Mostly because they go hand in hand and reward can be instantaneous.

Learning how the different processors work, outside the context of a mix, would be a great place to start.

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olevish wrote: Fri Jul 26, 2019 9:42 pm bottom line, I think that's the #1 issue that kills any creativity, as instead of being busy creating, you're busy tweaking and EQing :(
Again, no. Mixing is something you do when you have completed a piece.

Sometimes you might do a rough mix before you consider it complete, but there's no real need to create a mix at all if something isn't completed.

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Things like this are for people who can’t mix and don’t want to learn. IMO
I wonder what happens if I press this button...

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I'll give you a very good tip.

But first a few words:

There are, of course, no rules. It's all up to what you want the mix to sound like.

You've probably already noticed that there are mixing "trends" from period to period. Like putting the kick in the front and use snappy snares in the 90s pop music. Or big fat snares in the front and the kick more in the back in the early / mid 80s.

But, again, it's up to what you want. In Bowie's "Heroes" you barely don't hear the drum at all. Especially not the kick. One would think that more dominant drums will bring more energy to the track. But in the case of "Heroes" it's the opposite.

Anyway - the tip:

This is a classic and a very good way to check the balance.

Listen to your mix in the monitors (not headphones).

While listening start lowering the volume until a point where it's nearl ynot audible at all.

In a well balanced mix all sounds should disappear, more / less, at teh saem time.

In a less well balanced mix some sound(s) will dissappear after all other sounds ar eno longer audible.


You'll probably discover that the kick is often to loud.

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Mushy Mushy wrote: Fri Jul 26, 2019 9:44 pm twerk then create
Yup...
that's what I told her...

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olevish wrote: Fri Jul 26, 2019 8:02 pm people, thank you for your replies, but it's not really helping .
like for example I have this SSLChannel Stereo vst, cool ? there's Bass, Kick, Snare setting so in "perfect world" it should send each to it's own place, yes ? but it doesn't sound right, some presets do what they're supposed to, but some (like Kick in there, it's too thin), I need help with finding some Vst like SSLChannel Stereo, but one that does the job without too much tweaking . thanks
Seriously... what bass is your source for this preset... what is your kick and snare.. a preset to do it for each

It takes time to learn this...
I started in 1967 recording skool bands...
I still have no idea about these presets you look for

However, along the way, I might just have learnt a thing or 2...
there ain't no better way than fffing up and finding the reason.. ;)

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mjudge55 wrote: Fri Jul 26, 2019 10:27 pm First off, I’d check any impulse to buy some product thinking it’ll help. You probably already have the tools. Second, those presets you’re surfing were created for someone else’s sounds for their songs. Chances are slim you can blindly apply them and expect good results. With time maybe you can use them as starting points to be tweaked and that might save some time.

My humble advice is to go back to your arrangement. Without any eq, compression, or shenanigans, it should sound 90% “there” just by setting levels and pan. If it doesn’t, your parts aren’t complimenting each other, either where they land in time, what notes they are, what frequency range they’re in, or the space they take up in the stereo field. More basically, does the tune resonate emotionally and aesthetically? Be honest with yourself about that, you can’t fix it in the mix.

If you get that stuff right the mixing problems are way fewer and even a bad mix won’t ruin the tune. For a good mix I suggest doing as little to the sounds as you can get away with, and that may mean avoiding presets as they’re often way over the top.

Edit, last piece of advice: post the tune. It's pointless to tell you in the abstract what might be going wrong because if it's an arrangement issue, worrying about the mix is polishing brass on the Titanic. But if the tune's a banger I won't waste your time telling you to fix the arrangement and some of the serious engineers on this board can weigh in. Won't know which it is until I hear it.
Great advice here :tu: Also there is no quick way. It's a skill that takes years of practice. Things like muddiness,flat sounding and/or boxy mixes are all things that you need to be able to understand how to change. There are 100's of great YT tuts available by some very experienced engineers but overall you need to practice, practice and listen. I understand why people get pi@sed off and say your lazy because there is no special plugin or preset, you've just got to put in the hard/fun work and learn. :wink:
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music is a need in my life...yes I could survive without it but tbh I dont know how
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sfd wrote: Sat Jul 27, 2019 12:08 am I

Anyway - the tip:

This is a classic and a very good way to check the balance.

Listen to your mix in the monitors (not headphones).

While listening start lowering the volume until a point where it's nearl ynot audible at all.

In a well balanced mix all sounds should disappear, more / less, at teh saem time.

In a less well balanced mix some sound(s) will dissappear after all other sounds ar eno longer audible.


You'll probably discover that the kick is often to loud.
This is always a good one, as is its counterpart in the opposite direction - turn it up quite loud then leave the room and go and listen from a distance. If you can still hear the individual instruments it's good sign you're there or thereabouts.

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donkey tugger wrote: Sat Jul 27, 2019 6:21 am ...leave the room and go and listen from a distance.
If 'distance' is hard to achieve, a closed door will do the trick :D
CrimsonWarlock aka TechnoGremlin, using Reaper and a fine selection of freeware plugins.

Ragnarök VST-synthesizer co-creator with Full Bucket

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I wish there would be like a "template" of some sort, for different kinds of music, that would make my (and I'm sure others) lives easier as well . Why am I the only one to raise this issue ??!!

And don't get me started on "laziness", isn't all progress is about making quality results faster ?
That's why people invented the Wheel mind you.... that's called "shortcuts", yes shortcuts, there's NOTHING wrong with that !!!
And I do use monitors (I rarely ever use headphones these days) and while I trust my ears, it can't be the only way to balance it all, right ? I'd feel much more confident if I'd SEE it (maybe some vst plug screen...) and not only HEAR it, makes sense ?

ramseysounds said "things like this are for people who can’t mix and don’t want to learn" - that's exactly the attitude I'm talking about, no shade, just pointing out the problem....

I see some tutorials videos on youtube and my head hurts, as it got nothing to do with experience,
it seems the "masters" are too fixated on promoting the "old analog" ways and sell it as the ONLY way
to mix, due to their own insecurities with the latest tech and honestly - unwillingness to embrace different ways to get the same results much faster, am I wrong ?.... that's just vanity .

I really don't need to learn what was the mixing way in the 80's as it's not what I'm going for and why would I want to ? I like the 1991-2006 period, mostly dance, house, maybe some hip hop,
but mostly Kick driven music.

I wanna be busy looking for sounds, as that's what really makes the track, but noooo, instead I'm busy balancing the Kick & Snare to Bass, it sounds ok-ish, but then you add a pad or something an everything goes to hell, as it sounds out of place, like not in the same zone, no matter how much eq, reverb or delay you use to "mask" it....

And sorry if it sounds angry, it's more out of desperation lol

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You sound pretty lazy to me. Mixing is a skill which some professionals dedicate their entire careers to. You’re complaining that there should be a big red Easy button to do it for you. Why do you assume that an area of expertise which you apparently know nothing about should be easily replaced by automated algorithms? This is half science and half art. You need to learn the techniques and their proper execution, and then you need to employ them creatively to make aesthetic decisions. Either learn the craft, have someone else do it for you, or accept that maybe this just isn’t for you.
Incomplete list of my gear: 1/8" audio input jack.

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crimsonwarlock wrote: Sat Jul 27, 2019 7:15 am
donkey tugger wrote: Sat Jul 27, 2019 6:21 am ...leave the room and go and listen from a distance.
If 'distance' is hard to achieve, a closed door will do the trick :D
...so you can get that, 'this is what the poor neighbours are getting', experience.. :hihi:

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donkey tugger wrote: Sat Jul 27, 2019 8:07 am
crimsonwarlock wrote: Sat Jul 27, 2019 7:15 am
donkey tugger wrote: Sat Jul 27, 2019 6:21 am ...leave the room and go and listen from a distance.
If 'distance' is hard to achieve, a closed door will do the trick :D
...so you can get that, 'this is what the poor neighbours are getting', experience.. :hihi:
Of course you have to make sure it's loud enough for 'that' experience :hyper:
CrimsonWarlock aka TechnoGremlin, using Reaper and a fine selection of freeware plugins.

Ragnarök VST-synthesizer co-creator with Full Bucket

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