I don't understand mixing very well...

[snazzypadgett]

Okay, so I've had this question on my mind for the last several months, and I've recently found a great way to express it correctly, thanks to seeing the OCR review of PLBenjaminz's "Final Battle" remix.

http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01525/

In the review, it basically says the mixing is very mediocre, and the composition is great. Well, I have been listening to this song for a long time now, and I believed that it was a beautifully mixed song with amazing samples, and seeing such mixing criticism from people as knowledgeable as JJT and djpretzel makes me wonder what I am mixing. All I do for my pathetic excuse for "mixing" is turn the pan knobs and volume levels to try and balance out the higher frequency samples from the lower frequency samples. And maybe some reverb, if it sounds good ^.^

So can someone completely elaborate on what is wrong with the mixing in the remix I linked to above? And what would be the more desirable result, instead of just saying "it's mushy," can you explain what would be better? (other than just "more defined") Also, what's wrong with those samples? The trumpets are killer in my opinion (which I've discovered now to be way off), i mean those swells and such, it sounds so dark and brassy. And the timpani sound great to me, too. I mean...what the hell's wrong with these samples??

[Groovemaster303]

It's a great remix but lacks crystal clear clarity. the sounds you have chosen are superb and i'm not going to knock your composition because it really is great.

Nothing is wrong with the samples you have chosen the problem is they all occupy the same frequency which leads to that mushy sound.

Good use of EQ can remedy this problem.

check out Zircon's tutorial on his webpage here

http://www.zirconstudios.com/production.html

And this thread

http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=10364

[snazzypadgett]

Wow, this is an excellent tutorial! Thanks for linking me to it--I'd forgotten all about the tutorials on OCR. I saw zirc's tutorial years ago, but never read it.

BTW, this isn't my remix, I go by "snazzypadgett" or formerly "dj-dinero," this is the work of PLBenjaminz

Thanks Groovemaster, I have some reading to do

[Groovemaster303]

No problem glad to be of help

[Moseph]

These samples could be made to sound pretty good, IMO. I think the couple of problems are

1) The high instruments are way, way down in the mix. For example, 2:12 is one of the only place in the arrangement I can actually make out what the violins are doing, and they sound like they're physically located behind the rest of the orchestra and playing way softer than the brass. A real orchestra does not sound like that.

2) Inattention to nuances. Listen to the solo that starts at 0:23, for example. It runs continuously until 1:04. Continuously, as in without any place for the soloist to breath. It sounds very, very unnatural. That particular melody has a million places where the phrase could and should have been broken to allow breathing.

Also listen to how the strings double the soloist's melody at 0:44. Their attack tends to lag behind the solo instrument because sampled strings tend to have a slower attack than sampled brass. This is also evidenced in how disjointed all of the strings' material sounds in the first minute of the piece -- every time a new note is needed, they don't just glide into it like real strings could; they re-attack. You often have to put the strings' note ahead of the beat or edit your samples to offset this. (The problem's not actually as pronounced in this arrangement as it is in many others I've heard, but it's my synth orchestra pet peeve.)

The only fix for these things that I can think of is to listen to non-synth orchestral music and try to imitate it. If you have the opportunity to attend actual live performances, even better.