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

[olevish]

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

No. You’re just being lazy and as you’ve discovered that doesn’t work.

fine, then by ALL means do tell about something that DOES work, share your knowledge....

[olevish]

Employ a mix engineer if you're too lazy to learn how to mix yourself. There is no magic button or preset.

I repeat, it's not laziness, it's how badly it sounds even if I follow all the "usual" steps .
you wanna tell me you don't use any Plugs at all ? please....

[olevish]

Create then tweak.

I wish I could, but I find it hard to create if it doesn't sounds right, at least 70% right from the get-go, but it doesn't, so I always find myself tweaking and fixing, things that should be secondary imo .
it's frustrating no one gets what I'm saying....

[SynapT!c]

fine, then by ALL means do tell about something that DOES work, share your knowledge....

There's enough of knowledge been shared to get started. Just re-read.

[Mushy Mushy]

Create then tweak.

I wish I could, but I find it hard to create if it doesn't sounds right, at least 70% right from the get-go, but it doesn't, so I always find myself tweaking and fixing, things that should be secondary imo .
it's frustrating no one gets what I'm saying....

I understand it completely and often fall into the same trap. Ultimately though it’s a waste of time perfecting a sound while the mix is still a WIP.

It took me a while to learn but now I create a sound until I’m say 80% happy with it (in order to not get bogged down in the engineering aspect), then move onto the next sound. Then once the track is complete (think demo quality), only then do I go back and fine tune everything.

[crimsonwarlock]

you wanna tell me you don't use any Plugs at all ? please....

OK, I'll play

Of course I, and most here on the forum I guess, use boatloads of plugins. Read that previous sentence carefully, there's some important meaning there

Let's start with which plugs YOU use so far, that doesn't give you the results you are looking for, and how you have used them thus far?

[donkey tugger]

Create then tweak.

I wish I could, but I find it hard to create if it doesn't sounds right, at least 70% right from the get-go, but it doesn't, so I always find myself tweaking and fixing, things that should be secondary imo .
it's frustrating no one gets what I'm saying....

Yes, we do..we've all been there at one stage - spent loads on effects etc in search of some kind of 'magic' solution. Of course you do need to use effects and processors, but the main tools are your ears and brain - without those you'll be tweaking in the dark (missus). Following on from that, what are you monitoring on? You need to be able to confidently mix knowing that the choices you make aren't being compromised by poor information from your monitors.

[olevish]

you wanna tell me you don't use any Plugs at all ? please....

OK, I'll play

Of course I, and most here on the forum I guess, use boatloads of plugins. Read that previous sentence carefully, there's some important meaning there

Let's start with which plugs YOU use so far, that doesn't give you the results you are looking for, and how you have used them thus far?

You know what, I'll just upload a beginning of my latest mix (in stems) in both dry and wet forms, tell me what am I doing wrong, cool ? give me a couple of minutes .
And it's hard to answer which Plugs I use, there's all kinds, and some I bought for some reason, but never even used, I think I'm suffering of "too much stuff" syndrome, I swear it would be easier to be limited to a few must-haves...

[Mushy Mushy]

Skrillex recently posted a video of two of his sessions and it was really quite enlightening. Note that I’m not a Skrillex fan at all and don’t think I’ve ever listened to one of his songs in entirety. That said I greatly respect what he has been able to achieve and his sound is sublime.

The plugs were mostly all stock Ableton and often on the default preset. The lesson being it’s all about the source sounds and how/when to add FX, and how to use what you already have; it’s not about having the latest flashy compressor emulation.

[crimsonwarlock]

You know what, I'll just upload a beginning of my latest mix (in stems) in both dry and wet forms, tell me what am I doing wrong, cool ? give me a couple of minutes .

I doubt that we can tell you where you go wrong in your mix, especially of your statement below.

And it's hard to answer which Plugs I use, there's all kinds, and some I bought for some reason, but never even used, I think I'm suffering of "too much stuff" syndrome, I swear it would be easier to be limited to a few must-haves...

Understanding what the must-haves are is a skill (yep, there it is again) because it is different for every person. Also. It is no problem to have a lot of compressors (for example), as long as you don't try to use them all at once.

[olevish]

here you go, it's like 4 bars, just to give you an idea :
it's 125bpm, 16/44 intro stems in both dry and wet forms, mixdowns are in there too,
so you'll hear what I've done, I hate the kick, tried to change it but it just don't sit well there, this is where your experience and skills should help me, thanks in advance .

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MLu4EH ... sp=sharing

[mjudge55]

First off, props for posting that snippet Olevish, takes guts but more importantly gives us something specific to address...

All the following is in the spirit of cooperation, one musician to another. Overall I think you're not far off at all. A few things I took away with one listen to the wet mix (strapped for time at the moment):

- I'm having trouble determining which of the instruments is the focus, which one is driving the tune. If it's not the vocal then to me the rolling bass that comes in at around :30 is a good candidate, but it's too low in the mix (or being masked by your kick, see below) and lacks upper mid frequencies to make it stand out. Suggest applying more filter envelope modulation to the synth patch to brighten the attack. Then...
- Turn the kick down. It's dominating too much and while this kind of music needs a strong kick I think you've gone too far.
- Kick is too woolly, too much happening in sub area and not enough attack in the upper mids. I'd continue your search for the right kick with a focus on making sure before any processing that it complements the rolling bass. The two should feel absolutely natural together. Once that's done, simple EQ suggestion if the kick and bass are fighting each other is to find the frequency down low that is important for the kick and cut it slightly on the bass, and then cut from the kick the low mid frequency that's important for the bass. If the kick won't cut through the way you want, then I'd look to emphasize the high mids somewhere around 3k with EQ to get the "click" of the kick. If it's still not cutting you can compress gently with ample attack time to allow that click to come through.

These may all be steps you're already well aware of and have tried. In which case I think your issues lie in the selection of the kick and bass sound. The stuff up top sounds fine to me, although if that vocal isn't ever going to do anything else I'd bring it down a bit in the mix slightly, maybe 3 db, when something you want to focus on comes to the fore.

Hope this helps.

[olevish]

First off, props for posting that snippet Olevish, takes guts but more importantly gives us something specific to address...

All the following is in the spirit of cooperation, one musician to another. Overall I think you're not far off at all. A few things I took away with one listen to the wet mix (strapped for time at the moment):

- I'm having trouble determining which of the instruments is the focus, which one is driving the tune. If it's not the vocal then to me the rolling bass that comes in at around :30 is a good candidate, but it's too low in the mix (or being masked by your kick, see below) and lacks upper mid frequencies to make it stand out. Suggest applying more filter envelope modulation to the synth patch to brighten the attack. Then...
- Turn the kick down. It's dominating too much and while this kind of music needs a strong kick I think you've gone too far.
- Kick is too woolly, too much happening in sub area and not enough attack in the upper mids. I'd continue your search for the right kick with a focus on making sure before any processing that it complements the rolling bass. The two should feel absolutely natural together. Once that's done, simple EQ suggestion if the kick and bass are fighting each other is to find the frequency down low that is important for the kick and cut it slightly on the bass, and then cut from the kick the low mid frequency that's important for the bass. If the kick won't cut through the way you want, then I'd look to emphasize the high mids somewhere around 3k with EQ to get the "click" of the kick. If it's still not cutting you can compress gently with ample attack time to allow that click to come through.

These may all be steps you're already well aware of and have tried. In which case I think your issues lie in the selection of the kick and bass sound. The stuff up top sounds fine to me, although if that vocal isn't ever going to do anything else I'd bring it down a bit in the mix slightly, maybe 3 db, when something you want to focus on comes to the fore.

Hope this helps.

thank you for your reply .

which one is driving the tune ? lol, good question.... I'm not sure, I do know that some Perc sounds should always be in front (to keep the ethnic vibe I guess) along with Kick (yeah I don't know what to do with it, it's either too low or too loud), that's like the main problem that hurts the ears, it's too "obvious" for lack of a better word, like you said "The two should feel absolutely natural together" - that's like my main goal, but I have no clue how to do this, at first I though maybe to add a little bit of reverb to it, to smooth it over kinda, but reverb made it feel even worse... maybe there need to be a different Kick all together ? that's another question - how do you choose the right Kick to begin with ? I have like gazillion, it's very hard to find the right one.... a vocal is NOT the main part in there at all

[Forgotten]

Employ a mix engineer if you're too lazy to learn how to mix yourself. There is no magic button or preset.

I repeat, it's not laziness, it's how badly it sounds even if I follow all the "usual" steps .
you wanna tell me you don't use any Plugs at all ? please....

That's how things used to be done. 3 band EQ and compression built into the desk. No plugins.

There are no "usual" steps at all - a lot of people here have tried to explain to you that there is a skill to be learned, but for some reason you don't want to accept that.

Maybe posting the stems is the way forward so that people can listen to what you have done, but I would suggest you give consideration to people's advice on how to mix, not just focus on "what tools do I need to use".

[Passing Bye]

https://www.izotope.com/en/products/mix/neutron.html

Things like this are for people who can’t mix and don’t want to learn. IMO

OP asked for it.