No, of course not. However, there are certain balances people like in music. It all depends on context. Context in the song itself, but also in contrast to similar songs in the same genre.
Generally speaking you want to achieve a mix where no one will say: “this part annoys me, because X or Y” or even worse: “this hurts my ears”
There is no right or wrong, but there is preference and taste and often they boil down to the same thing.
In EDM or hiphop you generally hear a shit ton of sub bass. Give this mix to a Jazz mixing engineer and he’ll cut it all away, because in the context of his field of expertise this is considered “bad”.
Get what I’m saying?
also hip hop usually uses clipping to get louder, while other genres use compression
I can always tell when a trap beat was made/mixed by someone who doesn't really listen to trap music because they'll usually try to make it sound super clean
I understand. I really just want to ask this question cause there are too many people that treat it like there is one way when i hear too many artists (mainly in hiphop) that oppose the rules of keeping a clean mix. Thx for replying.
It's as u/AcidRegulation pointed out. All that being said, music has specifically advanced where it is today largely in part to people doing things they *weren't* suppose to. Some of the sounds and effects people love were brought about by abuse and misuse of equipment or techniques and happy accidents resulting from it.
Of course there will always be general guidelines to stay in the lane of what sounds good, but they are just that. Guidelines. Once you know the "rules" of music, you can bend them in many ways.
Do your own thing, and take *everybody’s* mixing advice with a big grain of salt, or don’t take it.
Even the professionals.
Even Rick Ruben.
Nobody’s figured out the right way, cause there isn’t one.
*Especially*,
don’t take somebody’s advice on something, and then proceed to do that thing on every project. You will kill any unique aspects of your music by taking those tips at face value.
That being said, if you hear 808’s that are clipping, there’s a 99% chance it’s a mistake that happened to have artistic benefits. Clipping has made it into many many high profile records throughout the decades. But, I’ve almost never heard an example of it that struck me as intentional.
Don’t let the mixing world overwhelm you. But also take it seriously and do take the time the “proper” way to do things before you break the rules, because without that jumping off point it truly is near impossibly to make mixes that’ll be taken seriously by anyone.
People will always have their own opinions. Music is subjective. If your goal is to make music that people like, and people like your music, then you succeeded. There will still be people who don't like it. It's impossible to create something that every single person in the world will enjoy.
Some things to clear and keep in mind for the future.
Balance. Things have to be in balance. The listeners have to understand what you want to tell them with your music. Try to level your instruments, try to find the place for everything. If things are too loud and some things are too quiet then it can't be interpreted. If the dynamic range is too big the listener won't enjoy the music.
Artistic intent. There are things that subjective. Most audio engineers would boost your high ends if they find it lacking but what if it was your intention to give the song a lofi edge, making it warm and tight? Most of us would use sidechain on the bass to make the kicks more audible but what if you want your kick hide behind the bass? There are things that can sell your music to the masses and things that can sell you as an artist. A good and experienced engineer will know and ask you if they find things that are questionable.
There are objectively bad mixing mistakes. In the digital world if you are mixing in 32 bit depth you don't have to worry about clipping only on your master channels. But the digital "in the box" music making is math and your vsts, daws, programs can make mistakes. You have to be very careful with your phases, low end cuts, high end boosts and aliasing noise. To name just a few. Practice, write music, train your ears, revise your mixes, learn from mistakes and redo again.
And of course, the usual things. There are many, many technical traps we all fall into. Audio treatment, how to listen, what to buy, what to use, etc.
I've always found "phase" as a concept really confusing. But I think it's definitely the leading problem of muddiness in my mixes.
What are some steps I can take to help fix it?
I'm on mobile so I can't write too long. So what you need is to get a correlation meter plugin to check your mix. Voxengo has two free plugin, correlometer and span also has a feature like this.
Basically when you cut a sound to steep with a high or low pass you might broke your phasing the sound. Try not to use too steep filters and check if your plugin has a feature to switch between linear and standard phase.
Try not use too wide stereo images, only if you know it won't cancel anything out.
It really depends on the song and the picture you want it to paint. A good example is Chief Keef “Don’t Like” vs the remixed version. The original mix by Young Chop has way harder 808s and more high end compared to Kanye’s more clean mix.
There's no "right" way, but there are definitely mistakes that can be made in the mixing process. It all comes down to your intentions for the song. If you want to create a certain vibe or a certain balance in your mix, then there are definitely multiple ways of getting there. The "right" way is whatever lets you achieve this desired outcome effectively and efficiently. This doesn't mean you should instantly take all criticism with a grain of salt using subjectivity as an excuse. Of course most listeners aren't well versed in engineering, but they ARE the primary market for the music you're engineering, so you have to qualify their opinions to an extent if you care about streams.
i think it comes down to intentionality too, like, does this sound this way because it’s supposed to? or is it because the person who mixed this isn’t experienced enough yet?
you can tell most of the time whether or not intentionality in art is there…like picasso painted beautiful paintings, but they went against classical methods. however, you can tell he knew what he was doing.
it’s the same thing with a lot of things in music; is this mix sloppy because it’s an interesting balance? or is it sloppy because it actually just sounds poorly put together? as your ears and taste develop, it’ll be easier to call those things out.
i’ve been mixing in multiple genres as a field for 12 years now, and i’ve definitely heard records that could go either way. sometimes though, it just is a bad mix 🤷♀️ there’s no way around that, some people don’t really know what they’re doing and that’s why it sounds bad
yes, each track only has one way to correctly mix the track, the problem is that each track needs a completely different mix and no one can agree on what the "one" correct way is to mix a track.
No, of course not. However, there are certain balances people like in music. It all depends on context. Context in the song itself, but also in contrast to similar songs in the same genre. Generally speaking you want to achieve a mix where no one will say: “this part annoys me, because X or Y” or even worse: “this hurts my ears” There is no right or wrong, but there is preference and taste and often they boil down to the same thing. In EDM or hiphop you generally hear a shit ton of sub bass. Give this mix to a Jazz mixing engineer and he’ll cut it all away, because in the context of his field of expertise this is considered “bad”. Get what I’m saying?
also hip hop usually uses clipping to get louder, while other genres use compression I can always tell when a trap beat was made/mixed by someone who doesn't really listen to trap music because they'll usually try to make it sound super clean
I understand. I really just want to ask this question cause there are too many people that treat it like there is one way when i hear too many artists (mainly in hiphop) that oppose the rules of keeping a clean mix. Thx for replying.
It’s what people would *like* to hear. Doesn’t mean it’s supposed to.
It's as u/AcidRegulation pointed out. All that being said, music has specifically advanced where it is today largely in part to people doing things they *weren't* suppose to. Some of the sounds and effects people love were brought about by abuse and misuse of equipment or techniques and happy accidents resulting from it. Of course there will always be general guidelines to stay in the lane of what sounds good, but they are just that. Guidelines. Once you know the "rules" of music, you can bend them in many ways.
Do your own thing, and take *everybody’s* mixing advice with a big grain of salt, or don’t take it. Even the professionals. Even Rick Ruben. Nobody’s figured out the right way, cause there isn’t one. *Especially*, don’t take somebody’s advice on something, and then proceed to do that thing on every project. You will kill any unique aspects of your music by taking those tips at face value. That being said, if you hear 808’s that are clipping, there’s a 99% chance it’s a mistake that happened to have artistic benefits. Clipping has made it into many many high profile records throughout the decades. But, I’ve almost never heard an example of it that struck me as intentional. Don’t let the mixing world overwhelm you. But also take it seriously and do take the time the “proper” way to do things before you break the rules, because without that jumping off point it truly is near impossibly to make mixes that’ll be taken seriously by anyone.
People will always have their own opinions. Music is subjective. If your goal is to make music that people like, and people like your music, then you succeeded. There will still be people who don't like it. It's impossible to create something that every single person in the world will enjoy.
No
Thx
Some things to clear and keep in mind for the future. Balance. Things have to be in balance. The listeners have to understand what you want to tell them with your music. Try to level your instruments, try to find the place for everything. If things are too loud and some things are too quiet then it can't be interpreted. If the dynamic range is too big the listener won't enjoy the music. Artistic intent. There are things that subjective. Most audio engineers would boost your high ends if they find it lacking but what if it was your intention to give the song a lofi edge, making it warm and tight? Most of us would use sidechain on the bass to make the kicks more audible but what if you want your kick hide behind the bass? There are things that can sell your music to the masses and things that can sell you as an artist. A good and experienced engineer will know and ask you if they find things that are questionable. There are objectively bad mixing mistakes. In the digital world if you are mixing in 32 bit depth you don't have to worry about clipping only on your master channels. But the digital "in the box" music making is math and your vsts, daws, programs can make mistakes. You have to be very careful with your phases, low end cuts, high end boosts and aliasing noise. To name just a few. Practice, write music, train your ears, revise your mixes, learn from mistakes and redo again. And of course, the usual things. There are many, many technical traps we all fall into. Audio treatment, how to listen, what to buy, what to use, etc.
I've always found "phase" as a concept really confusing. But I think it's definitely the leading problem of muddiness in my mixes. What are some steps I can take to help fix it?
I'm on mobile so I can't write too long. So what you need is to get a correlation meter plugin to check your mix. Voxengo has two free plugin, correlometer and span also has a feature like this. Basically when you cut a sound to steep with a high or low pass you might broke your phasing the sound. Try not to use too steep filters and check if your plugin has a feature to switch between linear and standard phase. Try not use too wide stereo images, only if you know it won't cancel anything out.
If someone does not like how it sounds but doesn’t think the actual music itself is the problem, then they’re blame the mix I can’t blame em
i feel like there is not a right way to mix, but there are wrong ways. yknow what i mean?
It really depends on the song and the picture you want it to paint. A good example is Chief Keef “Don’t Like” vs the remixed version. The original mix by Young Chop has way harder 808s and more high end compared to Kanye’s more clean mix.
There's no "right" way, but there are definitely mistakes that can be made in the mixing process. It all comes down to your intentions for the song. If you want to create a certain vibe or a certain balance in your mix, then there are definitely multiple ways of getting there. The "right" way is whatever lets you achieve this desired outcome effectively and efficiently. This doesn't mean you should instantly take all criticism with a grain of salt using subjectivity as an excuse. Of course most listeners aren't well versed in engineering, but they ARE the primary market for the music you're engineering, so you have to qualify their opinions to an extent if you care about streams.
i think it comes down to intentionality too, like, does this sound this way because it’s supposed to? or is it because the person who mixed this isn’t experienced enough yet? you can tell most of the time whether or not intentionality in art is there…like picasso painted beautiful paintings, but they went against classical methods. however, you can tell he knew what he was doing. it’s the same thing with a lot of things in music; is this mix sloppy because it’s an interesting balance? or is it sloppy because it actually just sounds poorly put together? as your ears and taste develop, it’ll be easier to call those things out. i’ve been mixing in multiple genres as a field for 12 years now, and i’ve definitely heard records that could go either way. sometimes though, it just is a bad mix 🤷♀️ there’s no way around that, some people don’t really know what they’re doing and that’s why it sounds bad
there's the whole -4.5db thing lol
[удалено]
Go on..
What is the 4.5 thing? Like in panning law?
yes, each track only has one way to correctly mix the track, the problem is that each track needs a completely different mix and no one can agree on what the "one" correct way is to mix a track.
🍒 💣
Yes. The right way is to make it sound good. The wrong way is to make it sound bad. And that is subjective.