How to get that clean, professional sound?

T

The Light

Guest
What's up fp? Can any of you help myself and others get a more clean, professional sound as opposed to sounding amateurish? Please be more specific than saying mixing/mastering. That's obvious. What I'm asking is for details into a more professional sound.
 
If mixing is obvious then learn how to do it.

You need to start off with clean signals (makes things soo much easier)

You need to learn the the tools of mixing - EQ- compression -reverb etc. You need to learn how to control dynamics.

EQ alone can improve your clarity of sound. This allows you to make things fit in their own space in the mix.
 
Also sound selection & arrangement are of paramount importance.

But in answer to the original question - which is admittedly pretty vague: learn to listen. You need to be able to identify why something sounds "amateurish" (or professional, for that matter), because then you'll be able to break it down to what needs to be done, mixing-wise (or re-recording or whatever it needs). Only then you can apply & improve those mixing skills, because otherwise you'll just be...doing stuff because someone said you should.

In other words, there's no easy answer to this - use great sources, record them to the best of your ability and then mix it the best you can. Anything more specific than that, and we'll need a specific problem to account for; otherwise it's just gonna be umbrella coverage that may or may not apply to any given situation.
 
Whats been stated, EQ - Compression - Reverb - Panning - etc ... Given each element its own space to work with helps everything sound crisp and clean .... Ofcourse the Mixing and Mastering has to do with it to ... As said, there is not really 1 plain answer to this, its a mixture of different elements :)
 
Learn about sound and mixing and mastering, you obviously don't know anything about the subject otherwise you wouldn't ask this. Or pay someone a lot of money to mix and master for you.
 
Ya everyone is right. There is no substitute for spending a lot of the hours of your life learning about and doing it.
 
The Light said:
... mixing/mastering. ...
Click to expand...

That's just it. Proper mixing and proper mastering.

The thing you will want to learn is what YOU want to apply to your tracks because there is no ONE way to get a clean mix. So even if we say "remove low-mid frequencies" (which some call the muddy frequency), and you do that, but this does not apply to your genre, style nor intent of the track, then your mix will essentially not sound the way you want it.

Conclusion, if you want to know how then you have to study each element one at a time to know how it interacts with another element in your mix, if it complements and adds value or if it's destructive and takes away from what you want to hear, and how you want it to be heard.

Tips:
You should first get acquainted with your gear, and know how it works. Find tutorials for your DAW in specific, from beginner to pro. Know it inside out like the palm of your hand. When you're able to do this, you will realize that no matter what daw teaches mixing and mastering techniques, you will be able to apply it to your DAW. You will then learn it's limitations or where it excels compared to the other DAWs. When you're able to cross reference the knowledge from one DAW to yours then you now need to get more specific to how each element works and how it can be used. For example, instead of eq-ing a certain freq because a tutorial told you to do so and it's a habbit, know why you're eq-ing, the effect of the eq, what tone or shape the eq adds. Now do this for compression, stereo field, reverb, delay etc. Then you can mix to YOUR liking and intent.

If you're motivated then it won't take you too long. But first learn your own DAW.

Jay_
 
To put it EXTREMELY simply... Just run an effect rack on your master with a dry bus and a heavily compressed bus (-20db, 8-16 ratio). The compressed bus should be notched at around 700hz with a WIIIDEE Q, giving you bright highs and fat lows. This is called new york compression I think. It won't get you a super professional sound, but it will make your mix much clearer.
 
What are ya'll talkin' about? Mixing/mastering sure, but more importantly:

Get the sound in right. Clean recording space acoustically, good microphones, preamps, and musicians who know how to get the right tones out of their instruments.

If you're not happy with the sound of your record, flat, no processing, faders up, you're not going to get something great from mixing.
 
you left out the part where you described what exactly you were trying to make sound "professional".
 
Learn factory plug ins included in your daw. ALL OF THEM. Learn how to apply them to manipulate sounds like the pros would.

Anyone who really knows all the plugs in a program like FL, Logic, pro Tools, Cubase, Sonar, ect and knows when and how to apply them is gonna at least have a close to professional sound. Then from there you know enough to add any 3rd party plugs(only if needed) to improve your quality further.

Just my opinion. But you gotta understand the functionality of that compressor or reverb before you can make it sound "professional".
 
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