Originally Posted By: BeelzeBob


To my ears, everybody else's stuff sounds better produced than mine. .... Herb, I definitely like the sound of your tracks, and you've made the Top Ten on SC, that's pretty good. ...... I could've used a plugin and done more harm than good. Classes in mixing would be nice, that's not going to happen either. It's good to know most of you feel that I'm somewhere in the ballpark with my mixes, that is encouraging. I will give Ozone a trial run. Do most of you use the package that sells for $200 or Ozone Advanced that goes for $$$? Herb, what do you use?

I think I've had the hardest time getting vocals to sound good and fit in the mix. I don't want my songs on the Net at this point, but I have some throwaway tunes, I can put one on Soundclick. I use Waves Renaissance Vox and Ambience on vocals, I've never been thrilled with the results but my singing ain't much to write home about either.

Great thread, thanks to all for input!


Everybody else's mixes sound better.... it's probably psychological for the most part but.... as you learn to mix and produce things will definitely turn around. With time and effort, it's not hard to produce nice sounding mixes.

I'd rather have a top ten on the Billboard....

Classes in mixing are not necessary. I never had any. Simply mix, mix, mix and then mix some more. Not only your stuff but grab some other folks stuff and mix that. There are mix contests going on all the time that post up free tracks for download..... grab them and even if you don't get in the contests, mix the tracks for more experience. POST your music in the forums for the software you use. I like to post in the more "technical" forums.... For example, Sonar has a songs forum for users of the Cakewalk line of products and the folks there are focused on the recording aspect of the music. Good ears, astute observations, and great feedback that helps you improve your craft. The User Showcase here in PG can also be used the same way..... but you probably need to ask for specific "Mixing" critiques to get in depth analysis of your production and mixing chops.

You asked what I use. I use Ozone 3 and Ozone 4. I haven't upgraded nor have I considered Alloy. I DL'd the trial of ALLOY and found it pretty similar to O3 & O4. Ozone has presets based on numerous scenarios for instruments and vocals that will give you a great starting point so that you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Most of my custom presets are tweeks made from one of the O4 presets that I saved.

One bit of advice I will offer: Less is more. Most of my tracks are recorded and remain dry. I use buss groups in Sonar and that's generally where I place the plugins I use. The master buss also has plugs that effect the entire mix..... generally one of the O4 presets and a light Studioverb2 (cakewalk) reverb. Vocals tend to get an O4 preset for vox and occasionally verb. Instrument tracks often just get some EQ and nothing else.

It's better IMHO to have a clean vocal performance that shows some warts rather than to try to cover it and hide behind a bunch of FX. It's when you can clearly hear the vocals, that you can work on getting better. Melodyne is a neat fix for vocals. You can easily fix the pitchy parts and since it shows you the "blobs" as they call it, you can learn to sing better because you can actually "see" some of the bad habits you are using to try to "fake" being better.

Melodyne Editor and Ozone 4 are my main 2 fx plugs. Beside them, I use a couple of cakewalk default fx for EQ & verb. But in reality, that's about all I really use on a consistent basis in my music.

The main thing is to mix, study, get feedback and mix some more.

Hope that helps a bit.

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
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