Freesound Forums

When creating music/audio - anything in a program say for example FL Studio (Better to get the sound right at the roots hey rather than heavy editing later) - What is the best way to avoid overlapping of sounds for a clean mix. I tend to produce techno -

Perhaps people can post different methods.

I find that in quite a few of my tracks I find it hard sometimes to mix the drums/beat and the synths. Even cutting some basslines off using a para EQ.

I'd like to hear diff opinions and methods. I've been doing this for a while just getting used to FL stud.

You are right - get the mix right first and the rest will follow more naturally. Mastering does not always improve the mix - mastering is the tool to get the songs aligned, and yes, make them more wider, and commercial sounding - but it is also a tool which can colour your opinion at the end - many musicians swaer that the recording they heard on the studio tape was better than what finally landed on their CD...

You need to mix the instruments around in a 3D field - pan instruments across the stereo field - with techno several drums sound better in mono or clustered together and everything else is stereo - imagine standing in a disco next to one loud box listening to a house beat which is in stereo - you would loose a lot of information as you cannot hear the other box.

Use reverb for depth and stereo - EQ will separate the stacked instruments that they do not compete in their own range - this is very important. Compression will bring up some levels which are thin, but might distort or becom eharsh. Every now and then you should monitor the track in MONO to see which sound or frequency is being suppressed etc.

Finally master your songs with a tool like Ozone to get a mild improvement on your mix and comapre it to commercial CDs - however do not use too much! Less is more!!!!!

Cheers Brett