I understand how stressful making a good beat sound terrible because of an inability to mix. So I thought I would give you guys some pointers that helped me get to where I am today with my beats in terms of mixing.
Rule number 1: BE ORGANIZED
The KEY to creating clean mixes to to be organized. Creating a structure in which you can work within for every beat will make things a lot more easier and less daunting! Do things like color code your stems so that they match up in the mixer and the track layout, add markers to make it easier to navigate, group you instruments together logistically (e.g. drums, melody, bass). Doing these things before you start anything will help you stay on track throughout!
Rule number 2: LEVELING
Once you have an well organized mix, its time to make sure all of you sounds are coming through at the right level (i.e volume) so assign each individual sound to the mixer, drop everything down to mute, and slowly start raising the volume of the most important sound in the mix (e.g. the clap) until you reach a level you're happy with, then raise the next most important sound, and so on...
Rule number 3: HEADROOM
Next you need to give yourself enough room to edit and add effects to your individual sounds. Do this by assigning all of your sounds to a sub mixer track, play the loudest part of you beat and lower the volume until you have around 8/10 db of head room (Don't worry about making your mix LOUD just yet, you want a clean mix before you can start mastering you beat!).
Rule number 4: EQ and EFFECT'S
Now you can go ahead and start mixing your track, cut the frequencies you don't like, add effects to the sounds you want more from do what you need to do. There is no exact structure to mixing your beat, just make sure you go through your be logistically (e.g. mix the drums, then the bass, then the melody)
Rule number 5: GROUPING
Once you have edited all of your sounds to your liking, it is time to group you drums and melody to a sub mixer track, from there add some saturation, minor compression (not essential!) and eq. ONLY MINOR ADJUSTMENTS.
THAT'S PRETTY MUCH IT
The mixing process is a tricky one to nail. But you will nail it trust me! All it takes is repetition and I guarantee you will work out the perfect mixing process for you! Try some f the things I have mentioned and see how you get on!
LET ME KNOW IF THIS WAS USEFUL
Peace
Rule number 1: BE ORGANIZED
The KEY to creating clean mixes to to be organized. Creating a structure in which you can work within for every beat will make things a lot more easier and less daunting! Do things like color code your stems so that they match up in the mixer and the track layout, add markers to make it easier to navigate, group you instruments together logistically (e.g. drums, melody, bass). Doing these things before you start anything will help you stay on track throughout!
Rule number 2: LEVELING
Once you have an well organized mix, its time to make sure all of you sounds are coming through at the right level (i.e volume) so assign each individual sound to the mixer, drop everything down to mute, and slowly start raising the volume of the most important sound in the mix (e.g. the clap) until you reach a level you're happy with, then raise the next most important sound, and so on...
Rule number 3: HEADROOM
Next you need to give yourself enough room to edit and add effects to your individual sounds. Do this by assigning all of your sounds to a sub mixer track, play the loudest part of you beat and lower the volume until you have around 8/10 db of head room (Don't worry about making your mix LOUD just yet, you want a clean mix before you can start mastering you beat!).
Rule number 4: EQ and EFFECT'S
Now you can go ahead and start mixing your track, cut the frequencies you don't like, add effects to the sounds you want more from do what you need to do. There is no exact structure to mixing your beat, just make sure you go through your be logistically (e.g. mix the drums, then the bass, then the melody)
Rule number 5: GROUPING
Once you have edited all of your sounds to your liking, it is time to group you drums and melody to a sub mixer track, from there add some saturation, minor compression (not essential!) and eq. ONLY MINOR ADJUSTMENTS.
THAT'S PRETTY MUCH IT
The mixing process is a tricky one to nail. But you will nail it trust me! All it takes is repetition and I guarantee you will work out the perfect mixing process for you! Try some f the things I have mentioned and see how you get on!
LET ME KNOW IF THIS WAS USEFUL
Peace