Synapsis, you are touching on important topics, these are cans of worms in many studios out there and they confuse a lot of engineers. The overall information density of a mix is the result of the information density of each of its elements. I will go a bit deeper to help highlight how all of this comes together.
There is a point in time in every engineer's path towards great mixes, that the engineer realizes that the frequency range is shared among all of the sound sources in the mix and that this naturally produces a race condition. When all sound sources have their fundamental frequencies very close to each other - they are tuned to sound the same, they play the same tones at the same time, they are panned in the same way and so on - they all race towards trying to stand out from the crowd. Some of the frequencies cancel, some don't, but the brain is desperately trying to perceive and separate these frequency streams present inside of the mix frequency stream based on things like differences in gain.
One dimension where the frequency racing is much determined is in the level of information density of each sound source. With greater information density of each sound source comes less frequency racing because the signal of each track in the mix is naturally then more unique at any given time when playing the recording. And it is not only that, but the brain can now perceive more of the more that is present in the signal, therefore in terms of perceived quality you have two dimensions boosting the perceived quality only here, but then on top you also have what I have discussed in other threads, something called resonance potential, the fact that for sound sources A, B, C to be near your desired resonance level you might need A to be at voltage X, B at voltage Y and C at voltage Z, something that might be impossible to both capture and dial in with emotion when you don't have the gear that makes you able to access that amount of total voltage to create the desired electromagnetic energy fields. So the question then becomes how much resonance will listeners out there perceive and how will they perceive it...
But from here it goes way more advanced and into many more dimensions when it comes to the frequency racing and how the information density of each sound source impacts what you can do during the mixing and sound designing to create a certain perceived mix quality. This has to do with things like the fact that the perception of a sound source is not the result of that sound sources frequencies, but the result of that sound source's frequencies in its context.
Any object in creation, whether they mimic some other object or not, have a unique set of electromagnetic frequency states. When you combine these with different types of songs in different types of genres with different types of arrangements with different types of playing, different types of instruments etc. you get in combination with skills, taste and inner emotions certain kinds of results. The mystery is to some degree de-mystified when you get more experience and broaden your perspective. One can however say that the issue in general when it comes to the lack of certain audio and music qualities, is the lack of access to certain electromagnetic energy fields, the lack of balance among these and the lack of dynamic riding of these since the art is to a great degree also to play your emotions with these as a creative artist. So music creation is an incredibly big field for creativity and it is important to have hygiene, integrity, authenticity and creativity in regards to what is behind creating and achieving the kind of music and audio that you love.
I know exactly what your saying mate... I think the issue with these 'producers' is that they believe that downloading a DAW, and some vsti's slapping it together, chucking a master limiter on it.. and going' why does that sound shit', and when you turn it up, it scratches the synaptic connections in your brain...
I have had the privilege at university to use high end gear... Our lecturer was a wealth of knowledge.. and showed us many great things.. I am now 35, and was the old boy at university..
These people don't have any real knowledge about how frequencies interact.. or the ears to hear it... A good engineer, will learn.. and make adjustments, though many will fall back into old habits...
some in the box instruments are rubbish, samplers contain partials that can be very unsettling, which need to be cut...
What these people are getting at, is that they believe that there are people out there producing cutting edge tracks in DAW's like Fruity loops...
Some can get a good sound from digital audio... though every track, goes to the studio, and gets properly boosted and warmed up by analogue.. I saw a post about the vintage king, and how 'digital compressors' are now better quality in the 'digital age'.. This is absolute nonsense.. the circuits and parts in those analogue equipment introduce harmonic resonance... or 'distortion' as my lecturer said... though not digital distortion.. zingy warm distortion that amplifies the harmonics in a nice way...
The information density from a virtual synth is proportionate to the quality of the synth, its oscillators, how many voices it has, and if those voices can be summed into unison, to create a signal that is dense in it's information... Most digital synths, do not have the signal density.. and have partials that are not very pleasing... resolution plays a part, as the nyquist frequency can further issues... for instance your sample rate should at least be 48000 bps... The digital domain, and producers playing in this domain, need to understand.. that you can only do so much in the box... and not to expect miracles to occur...
I mean.. if two frequencies are racing, and masking... a simply cut of one of the instruments will allow the other to be present... and doing little cuts over the whole spectrum can allow frequencies to come through where otherwise they would be fighting....
I honestly hear some tracks on here, and before the slider is half way, my ears are screaming... Its all the partials and digital distortion introduced in order to 'make it loud', yet all those inharmonic partials are clashing and making a mess of everything... I am glad to have met you here.. I know from what you post, that you know what your talking about.. it's the same at university.. it sounds like .. wtf... but the penny drops.. and you go ahhh, thats what the pure harmonic resonance of E is.. and its pure harmonic scale...
Thanks for your input... always appreciated