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Getting mix to cut through crowd noise


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Last night I was at a party and talking to some friends about my music. I connected my phone to the stereo to show off some recent mixes but you could barely hear anything over the other people talking in the room. There were probably 15 people there total, so not a huge crowd. I kept turning up the volume, but you just couldn't make out any details of the songs at all. Eventually I disconnected my phone and put on the previous music, which you could hear just fine.

 

Over the last several years I have learned a lot about music production, and I really thought I was making "professional" quality recordings so this was very eye opening and, honestly, a little embarrassing. I feel confident that the tracks were at a proper level, so it's not something simple like needing to put a limiter on it. The frequencies just weren't cutting through the room.

 

Is this something that needs to get fixed on a basic, recording/mixing level? Or would having my tracks mastered by someone more experienced help solve these issues?

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It's hard to tell exactly what's wrong in your case, but it's not necessarily, quote "the frequencies [not] cutting through the room".

 

It could be that it's overproduced, i.e. too many simultaneous and overlapping elements. Keeping things real simple with the focus on the beat and a fairly loud and evenly compressed vocal is key to making something pop out in a crowded room.

 

If you listen to tracks that seem to have a lot of elements but still "pop" then you can be sure those elements have been very well arranged, equalized and dynamically processed in order for the rest of the track to shine.

 

Of course your track would need to be mastered and have a similar loudness level to the other tracks, but if the arrangement, production and mix isn't up to scratch then no mastering or frequency adjustment in the mix itself will fix that for you.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Consider that all boosting high mids may help it cut, but you could have everyone bleeding from the ear drums too!! Haha!!

 

Another approach would be to consider some high frequency saturation such as what you find with the Aphex, or the higher bands of the Vitamin.

 

Alternatively, if you are using logic you could always try blending a bit of Clip Distortion in and targeting the highs with that, the SPL Vitalizer might work in this contest too, or the Vertigo VSM-3

 

As always, if you go this path be careful not to over do it. As a little may work wonders to help a mix cut, but too much will just add audible distortion and make things sound worse than they already are.

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Consider that all boosting high mids may help it cut, but you could have everyone bleeding from the ear drums too!! Haha!!

 

Another approach would be to consider some high frequency saturation such as what you find with the Aphex, or the higher bands of the Vitamin.

 

Alternatively, if you are using logic you could always try blending a bit of Clip Distortion in and targeting the highs with that, the SPL Vitalizer might work in this contest too, or the Vertigo VSM-3

 

As always, if you go this path be careful not to over do it. As a little may work wonders to help a mix cut, but too much will just add audible distortion and make things sound worse than they already are.

 

Wait, isn't this akin to some 'online doctor' who gives the exact - right down to how many tablets to take - medical prescription without needing to examine the patient?

 

How do you come up with this without hearing his track?

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To the OP - look into understanding reference mixes, Logic has tools to to enable you to analyse other tracks and get your own sounding in the same 'character', and you can do an audio and graphically A-B comparison on frequencies and such like.

 

Simply pick the songs you would most like your own to sound like and use those, it's too much to go into in a post - but if you google around, or pull up some youtube vids on the subject it will get you on the right track.

 

Most music is overly compressed and it does take some skill to get it all to punch and sound good and match up to the commercial multi-compression techniques done in experienced studios - but the key is to notice those differences in your home studio and work on it there.

 

The secret is not necessarily in making changes based on instructions (i.e. 'You must do X and Y to achieve Z!'), but knowing why/when changes are made, and what is the end result that you want to get to are the most important aspects imo - so train yourself in those skills as they will reward in the longterm.

 

If you're doing any kind of electronica/dance music then mixing/mastering is a huge part of the creativity/song building process - so that will be tough vs commercial music. Unless you can find a nice Ozone preset or similar! :) lol

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Consider that all boosting high mids may help it cut, but you could have everyone bleeding from the ear drums too!! Haha!!

 

Another approach would be to consider some high frequency saturation such as what you find with the Aphex, or the higher bands of the Vitamin.

 

Alternatively, if you are using logic you could always try blending a bit of Clip Distortion in and targeting the highs with that, the SPL Vitalizer might work in this contest too, or the Vertigo VSM-3

 

As always, if you go this path be careful not to over do it. As a little may work wonders to help a mix cut, but too much will just add audible distortion and make things sound worse than they already are.

 

Wait, isn't this akin to some 'online doctor' who gives the exact - right down to how many tablets to take - medical prescription without needing to examine the patient?

 

How do you come up with this without hearing his track?

 

You don't, its a list of common things to try, if one thing doesn't work try another. You can't do that with meds!!!

 

By trying the various ideas out, you learn something along the way. It's not like I'm giving exact frequencies and exact amounts to work with. It comes form having 25+ years experience.

 

I must say, transient information is another thing to consider. If your transients are too dull or a bit over crushed it can give you the impression of the track not sounding bright enough. In which case you can review your compression/limiter settings, perhaps some slower attacks to let more transient information through. Adversely, you could always try Enveloper to enhance some transients. It's actually a quick thing to to try off you want to diagnose the problem and see if the transients are a contributing factor. However, i would try to use it as a compensation for bad compression settings.

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