not using effects when mixing tracks

d1gd33p

New member
when i get feeback for my beats, i tend to get this common statement of the mix being too thin. now the only effects i really use are eq and compression on drums; a filter on the samples melody and bassline. ... no matter how much i tweak i still get this thin sound. you can check my sig

One feedback statement i received was to not use any effects on beats. what do you all think of this?

now should you use filters and eqs on beats that are sampled ... for example on the melody, or nah?

the trouble i been having with beats have a lot to do with the mix. now i use samples from vinyl records ... or from youtube. which ever works ... i was wondering if you all maybe had answers to these questions or maybe you knew of some videos i could look at.


Thank You .. in Advance.
 
Personally, if people would say that they think my tracks sound too thin, I would see if I could get better at the composition stage of my music rather than the mixingphase.
 
If your sampled sounds needs filters and other effects to make them sound great, then that's what I think you should do.

I like to mix as I go, because producing takes some time for me, and I want my production to sound great as I move on, so I do a little mixing meanwhile as well, usually a little eq and some creative effects just to get things going.

About the thin mix, it all depends on what kind of sounds you use and what it is that you are actually doing to them. And like what steffeeh pokes around in, the track should sound really great off the bat, sure with some problems but it should still sound great. So if your tracks sound thin, it may be the source that is the problem, not the post processing.
 
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I'm not so sure that there's anything wrong with the beat in your signature.

There definitely seems like there's a "gap" there, but it actually sounds well suited to a warm rap vocal -- a "pocket", if you will.
It's easy for my to imagine an early 90s rap vocal filling that gap perfectly.
Maybe you should find a Tupac acapella online or something to prove it to yourself!

The snares aren't punchy at all, but I could easily see that as an aesthetic preference rather than a mixing flaw.

If you really want to get your beat to stand on its own merit for listening without vocals stacked on top,
I'd look at using a multiband compressor on your master channel to keep the frequencies in each range consistently represented.

Finally,
You can't please everyone's artistic preference at once, so no matter what changes you make, realize that you'll never get 100% positive feedback.
Be clear on who you're trying to please and why, and it becomes effortless to discover which moves to make.

-Ki
Salem Beats
 
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I'm not so sure that there's anything wrong with the beat in your signature.

There definitely seems like there's a "gap" there, but it actually sounds well suited to a warm rap vocal -- a "pocket", if you will.
It's easy for my to imagine an early 90s rap vocal filling that gap perfectly.
Maybe you should find a Tupac acapella online or something to prove it to yourself!

The snares aren't punchy at all, but I could easily see that as an aesthetic preference rather than a mixing flaw.

If you really want to get your beat to stand on its own merit for listening without vocals stacked on top,
I'd look at using a multiband compressor on your master channel to keep the frequencies in each range consistently represented.

Finally,
You can't please everyone's artistic preference at once, so no matter what changes you make, realize that you'll never get 100% positive feedback.
Be clear on who you're trying to please and why, and it becomes effortless to discover which moves to make.

-Ki
Salem Beats


yea i feel you ... just asked to question to gain some more knowledge on mixing. i just wanted to see how other people thought about this and if anyone else felt similiar and to see why. thats all this is mainly a knowledge gaining based question. thank you for the info though.
 
From the soundcloud link in your sig, I'd think you need an EQ on your master bus befre the limiter to beef things up. Maybe tone down the limiter some or replace it with a better one. Still, "thin" doesn't come to mind when I hear the track.
 
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