CLEAN UP A MUDDY MIX

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1. GREAT PRODUCTION CREATES GREAT MIXES

If you listen to The Beach Boys album ‘Pet Sounds’ you’ll hear a masterpiece of production!
Due the limitations of tracks, only 4 or at most 8, when artists such as The Beatles or The
Beach Boys made albums they had to shape multiple sounds and parts perfectly before they
could bounce them together, parts and sounds could not be undone, so they had to be right!
Recording the right sounds and parts that support each other is not only great production it, will
also make the final mix much easier to do!
2. USING VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTS GIVES DIFFERENT RESULTS
THAN ORGANIC INSTRUMENTS
Virtual Instruments Will Not Have the Huge Dynamic EQ issues that Organic instruments can
have. Real, mic’d up instruments can have the issue of players moving so the mic placement
varies, giving you wildly varying EQ (boominess from sound holes or F holes of some instru-
ments) or overly dynamic performances. However, virtual instruments are perfectly recorded and
can easily be manipulated, with basic, simple midi adjustments to sound like they have been
consistently performed. With organic instruments you’re often going to find yourself applying
more compression and corrective EQ, sometimes even using dynamic EQs or Multiband com-
pressors.

3. MUDDINESS COMES FROM TWO MAIN AREAS, FIRSTLY LOW

END BUILD UP.
Excessive low end is easy to fix with proper High Passing, decide what you want the real low
end to be, is it a super low Sub Bass line with a Kick shelved around 100Hz, more of a thump?
Or is it a huge low Sub Kick with a bass line sitting above it? Or is it both where a side chain
compressor ducks the excessive low build up from two sources of low end hitting at the same
time. Find the fundamental of sound, such the low end on your electric guitars and boost that
area, cut immediately below it, bypass the EQ and you’ll realise that even though low end has
been cut, the new EQ settings increase the fullness of the guitar sound but leave space for the
Bass and Kick Drum to shine!

4. SECOND AREA OF BUILD UP: THE LOW MIDS.

Drums in particular can get a lot of low mid build up. On their own, soloed that may not be that
much of an issue. However, in a fairly dense track that will really add to the overall muddiness.
Typically scooping out low mids of Toms, The Kick Drum (Bass Drum), Overheads and Room
Mics at around 350hz (roughly an area between 250-450hz) with a fairly wide Q will really open
up the drums leaving room for low mids on other instruments, such as guitars which benefit
from the fullness of low mids.

Listen to your whole mix to find areas where low muds start to build up, don’t be afraid to high
pass high lines that don’t need low end or low mids. Large amounts of Synth Pads and raked
guitars so over do the Low Mid Area so be careful not to boost the low kids in every pad, string
part or rhythm guitar!
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