Mastering and EQ

[m3t4kn1ght]

I think mastering can be one of the most difficult things in production. I've been practicing and prodding away at finding the perfect frequency range for every seperate synth and beats. I just can't seem to find that perfect mix to stop making the mix sound muddy or even to light. I think working with EQ is one of the most difficult parts of it, I try my best but I think without proper input, I'll keep struggling with this.

(Also, do I add sub bass to this next to having a reese bass aswell?)

I've cut out a bit of a track I'm working on for a while just to show you what I mean. The overall track sounds muddy, too busy, some tones are muffled while outher frequencies peak way to much. I've added some sidechaining (it's actually just volume slider modulation) to see if it helps, but even this adds a weird effect to the track. If any of you guys have tips whatsoever on how I can best approach stuff like this in the future, i'd gladly listen to what you have to say. for me it feels like i've hit the brick wall.

http://soundcloud.com/lycci/hydra-test/s-sI1M5

this is how I've got my parametrics set up for the reese bass on the rigt, kick at the top left and percussion at bottom left. Don't blame me if these look redicilous, I've never learned how to do it properly hahah



Cheers!

[Casey2069]

That UI is such a clusterfuck

[Casey2069]

What videogame is that btw

[m3t4kn1ght]

Originally Posted by Casey2069

What videogame is that btw

I'm not sure what you mean to be honest

Originally Posted by Casey2069

That UI is such a clusterfuck

I know

[midnghtraver]

The cut on your reese bass at 20 suggests that you have another sub underneath it, it wouldn't hurt to add one, you could also pull the cut on that reese bass up from 20 if you add a second sub.

The sounds you are using are clean and I don't think the muddiness is coming from your processing. The issues I hear in your segment are all mixing. Your drum track is being eaten by the low mids and lows in your synth, that might be a compression issue with the drums, a sidechain issue (experiment with different ways of sidechaining), an eq issue with the synth or all three. Even just turning the synth down a little and the drums up would accomplish quite a bit.

Is there anything on your master chain? The whole song sounds a little squashed as well, if you have a limiter on the master it might be pushing too hard or all of your premaster tracks might just be too loud.

I would go through individual tracks and sweep through the EQ range with a sharp boost and find the frequencies that you don't like and add a more specific dip to them.




Like, sweep band 6 up and down until you identify the gross shit. The resonance on your EQ curves is really soft right now.

Originally Posted by Casey2069

What videogame is that btw

FL hate lol

[SICKOVENOMOUS]

Use Flat headphones and don't eq everything, mix and master in context, I like dat track btw

[m3t4kn1ght]

Originally Posted by midnghtraver

The cut on your reese bass at 20 suggests that you have another sub underneath it, it wouldn't hurt to add one, you could also pull the cut on that reese bass up from 20 if you add a second sub.

The sounds you are using are clean and I don't think the muddiness is coming from your processing. The issues I hear in your segment are all mixing. Your drum track is being eaten by the low mids and lows in your synth, that might be a compression issue with the drums, a sidechain issue (experiment with different ways of sidechaining), an eq issue with the synth or all three. Even just turning the synth down a little and the drums up would accomplish quite a bit.

Is there anything on your master chain? The whole song sounds a little squashed as well, if you have a limiter on the master it might be pushing too hard or all of your premaster tracks might just be too loud.

I would go through individual tracks and sweep through the EQ range with a sharp boost and find the frequencies that you don't like and add a more specific dip to them.

ah cheers lad! this actually really helps a lot. troubleshooting is basically the brick wall. I'll have a play around with it for a bit longer then. I thought everythng could be fixed with eq but I'll check out my lowmids a bit more. Thought that was where the problem could be. Yeah theres also a standard limiter on the track which I hadnt noticed. I took it off but now everything is fucked haha.