Tips for adding depth.

[BIZ.VICIOUS]

Ever since I baught monitors I obviously noticed how shitty my mixes were. There were either bass heavy, with kicks and bass lines and strings make'n everything muddy. And they were really high, the snares and the overall mix was too high.

Maybe my monitors aren't properly set, but now, my mixes are quiet. I'm just under the red, so I ain't clip'n, but it seems their come'n out at a lower volume.

Does anyone have any tips to add depth to my lows AND highs without muddying up the mix, so I can have a higher volume?

I'm use'n EQ's and compressors for just about every element.

Help please. Thx

[BIZ.VICIOUS]

k, after posting this thread, I returned to my mix. I need a decent realtime analyzer to remove the over lap.

anyone know of a decent freebie for now?

[Kris Cain]

i cant think of any decent analyzers that you can get for free... maybe LOOP knows... some good ones are definetly the Waves PAZ, and the one from Roger Nichols...

but anyway...
you may be over compressing your music man.

are you adding compression on the master buss as well as the indivdual channels?

i rarely use compression on every element of the track. I think you need to control your levels better in the mix before you go to compression. I would EQ something to bring out the part in it i like before i compress it, and risk killing the transient. Also to add more depth to your track overall... you should adjust your panning slightly, and layer your sounds. Get them covering more "hearable" frequencys as well... that can increase your perceived "loudness"... but not send the track into distortion... it's a real art to it man.

BUT you can't be afraid of the clipping meter either. It can be misleading, use your ears instead of your eyes.

Also, cut frequencys that aren't being used. Example... if you have a hi hat on one track... put like a 2 band EQ on the insert and run a hi pass on it to silence the frequencys that arent being used. You'll be surprised how much space that can create in your mix for things like bass, and lo mids.

combine all these mini-tips, and you should see some louder more spacious results in your tracks.