2 Mixing Tips to Fix Muddy Epic Orchestral Tracks

[@AlexMoukala]

Two things I forgot to say: 1 - REVERB is also a fundamental aspect of getting such a sound. 2 - Will be streaming some Resident Evil 2 Remake live on my secondary channel in a bit, join me if you want to see me re-live my childhood traumas: kzbin.infolive

[@c.t.emerson8175]

Hey Alex thanks for this video. Ive been struggling with a track for ages, and letting the low end dictate the peaks solved my problem. Legend! Oh and Res Evil 2 is AMAZING. Takes me and my GF back to the 90s.

[@oommggdude]

"If your track is a turd, and you mix and master massively, what you're gonna have is a massive turd" - Alex Moukala 2019 Anyways, thanks for the tutorial man, always helpful.

[@b1wg_137]

Lol this one actually made me laugh when he said that. I love the logic in that sentence.

[@zsigmondkara]

I read your comment first, still couldn't help laughing at that bit

[@Dragens2]

dude. I must say. I watch you since you started in your room with the bed behind you. I was learning from you and I was watching your way. I heared you when you talked about not listen to people that are trying to tell you that you shouldn't try. I am thankful for all of that. You are a good man. Thank you for all the support you give us.

[@AlexMoukala]

Thanks for following since such a long time ago!

[@nostalgia_junkie]

just put soundgoodizer on it

[@oommggdude]

Bro soundgoodizer is so lazy 🤦‍♂️

[@nostalgia_junkie]

@@oommggdude lol thats the joke

[@showdown2613]

@@oommggdude why???

[@oommggdude]

@nostalgia junkie haha figured

[@milansvancara]

:D:D Soundgoodizer for the win!:D

[@artixsmusic]

Wow, this tutorial SERIOUSLY helped me improve my own mix on a certain track I was struggling with. It still sounds slightly narrow, but much wider and less muddy than before. Great tutorial dude, I will def be coming back to watch more!

[@StarshipTrooper4231]

Orchestration is and always will be the key to a good sound.

[@losingpa7ience]

I can't believe I just found your channel. This is the best content to learn something in fl studio! Keep it up and thank you so much

[@harrysanders818]

Fuuuxxxxx ! I thought I just give it a shot and search for "Orchestral music mixing tips" - and I landed here. Freaking amazing! Looking forward to learn from many of our videos! Thanks so much!

[@iloveomarvarela2680]

this is the only channel that I activated the notification 🔔

[@epiczeven6378]

Mixing is my kryptonite 😬 Thank you for the tips, I will be playing around with them :)!

[@Evangelionism]

Alex would make the perfect mom: because just like him, mine always says we'll be in and right out the mall before spending hours.xD 💛🙏

[@AlexMoukala]

Lol!

[@PJ-ee5mc]

Hello Alex: I get so much out of your videos. Thank you once again. I came back to this video and some others today because I am quite sure that in one of your videos you demonstrated a plugin that could scan all of your midi tracks and reveal notes of the same pitch and in the same location (but on a different track) that might be competing for EQ space. This might contribute to making an orchestral arrangement muddy. It made great sense when I heard it but I wish I had written down the name of the plugin. If it was in fact you who showed this please let us know the name if you would as I can't find anything like this in my searches. Thanks again and keep up the great work you do.

[@azakitakanashi8168]

As always, tnx for the support and the video. Haven't really got into mixing yet, but great tips to share. Couldn't be thankful enough :)

[@-Duyutai]

Alex ..my Teacher, My inspiration🙏💕

[@RobertRodriguezMusic]

Awesome video! Super helpful and clear tips. I liked the video even more when you said you were playing Kingdom Hearts 3!

[@GabrielPerez-xo3ui]

Thanks man, very useful video, I'm going to watch your other ones :D

[@J-A-Music]

That's what I waited for, thanks man!

[@RamonRodgers]

Thank you. I needed to understand that for some time!

[@bjazz68]

Thank you very much.

[@chrispantos3559]

Thank you Alex!!!

[@juanlulourido548]

needed this a lot.

[@eugenedesmusic]

More orchestral mixing tuts! :)

[@COVALENTmusic]

Hey, Alex! I have checked many professionally mixed and mastered orchestral pieces that sound very crispy, clean and have each instrument well-defined, analyzed them with SPAN in order to see why they sound so good and found out that the mid-range was way higher than the bass-range in terms of average loudness. And they translate amazingly not only on headphones, but also on monitors. The best example I can give you is "Ludwig, the Holy Blade" from Bloodborne: The Old Hunters OST. So, is maintaining everything under the bass-range really a pro tip?

[@AlexMoukala]

That's a good point, some mixes are more bass heavy than others. If we're talking about Epic Orcheestral music done with VSTs and all, usually a full and fat brickwall of sound is the kind of stuff we do. Bloodborne's music sounds much more "hollow" and organic (surely also due to the way it was recorded) compared to the average Two Steps From Hell over-the-top epic orchestral track, not only in terms of frequencies but also instrument choice etc. I guess the best thing you can do is to have a reference mix and get a frequency spectrum similar to that one if that's the sound you're going for. I also wonder if they left a bit of low-end in Bloodborne's tracks to make sure the low-end from the sounds/voices in the game wouldn't create too much mud when added to the music? I'm nto sure about that but it could also be a good reason not to have too much bass in a mix.

[@COVALENTmusic]

@@AlexMoukala Totally possible, I've never taught of that. I listened to more of your organic tracks because that is the sound I am going for and they sound awesome in headphones, but fall a little flat for my taste on monitors. I'm aware that this is a mixing decision and that's how they're meant to sound, but I can't seem to find a virtual orchestral piece that sounds like Bloodborne or God of War OST, probably because it's not possible to achieve that using only a computer. That's where big money is involved, hence the quality, and I have to accept that I can't achieve things like those on my own, although it's a very hard thing to accept. At least for me.

[@AlexMoukala]

@@COVALENTmusic you can get close, but those Soundtracks are usually made with live recordings, and those tend to have way more air that way. You can simulate that sound with careful arranging and mixing, for example, try not using big hybrid percussion, or super aggressive cello ostinatos and you'll already be halfway there. If you use a more quiet/dynamic library like Hollywood Orchestra, that will also help a lot.

[@COVALENTmusic]

@@AlexMoukala Thanks a lot for advice, man! I'll keep it in mind for next projects.

Thanks a lot!

[@metalgeartac8186]

Nice tutorial!

[@Tarheelheat]

You forgot to leave the headphones in the description. Can you please let me know the brand and model number?

[@divine1k]

Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro. Depending on your audio interface, you'll have to figure out which amount of Ohm is right. But the general rule is that if you have a more powerful audio interface (i.e. something like an Apollo Twin), you'll want to get higher Ohm. I have a Twin and am using the 250 Ohm

[@b1wg_137]

13:50 Gotta make sure there is balance in the force

[@kenharge894]

You are a really talented guy. I appreciate the knowledge you share. I have two suggestions one you talk extremely fast which make it hard to follow you. Secondly to unnecessarily expand and shrink the windows a lot it's a huge distraction. Outside of that...great job bro!!!

[@NachoValestrini]

A-W-E-S-O-M-E Always helping!

[@anastav6915]

New sub here! Keep it up bro!

[@eugenedesmusic]

Alex, please make next tut about Mastering in Ozone. I believe many of us are using it. I just bought my elements version :)

[@alonsomalikpirio]

Hi Alex, love the video! I just downloaded SPAN, and I'm wondering how to isolate frequencies like you do at 6:28. Thanks!

[@aaroncostello4845]

CTRL and click :)

[@КурлюкЭбатыр]

Hi Alex, thanks for the tips. Let me an offtopic question about mixing. How do you minimize the distortion artifacts of digital summing which become very noticeable when mixing 30+ separated stems with a lot of plugin effects rendering? I mean those small digital errors of sound's discrete nature, which being summed multipliely layer by layer and by reconverting. I see you are summing sofwarely, without analogic multitrack interface. Which ways do you use to minimize it?

[@AlexMoukala]

My mixing process is quite minimal I'd say, so I personally never ran into that.

[@rushanaprincess]

Hello,thank you for video!!! I have a question, my mix now sounds pretty good,only one problem i hear is timpany give this resonance mud,ibam not so good yet with eq dont know how to cut this frequency all over track from timpany not loosing this color( not just dry timpany) maybe some quick trick?

[@AlexMoukala]

Use less notes and make sure to use the right notes to fit the rest of the track (Timpani have very present tones). Also reduce low-end on the Timpani with EQ.

[@rushanaprincess]

@@AlexMoukala i did it,but maybe should du harder:) thank you for answer!!!

[@WilliamMorrisMusic]

Might be better off using some dynamic EQ for those midrange peaks, so it's just coming in when the peaks happen and not affecting the whole part.

[@AlexMoukala]

Great tip!

[@orz887]

so i need use ozone on each instrument track separetly to do comp eq and ect?

[@masteringmelodies769]

Nice video, once again Alex! Q: what software do you use to record the audio coming from FL Studio? I have Cubase and use OBS to record everything, audacity for my mic. But the sound quality I get from OBS is really just... "meh"...

[@BenThatcherMusic]

Cheers for making this video Alex, :) have a good weekend dude

[@inventorsyndrome8894]

i just noticed something, Alex looks like Thanos!!! imagine Thanos composing orchestral music to support himself when he goes on a killing spree, xD!

[@metallpt147]

I have ozone 9 advanced and am always confused on whether to use in on the master channel or in the “mastering” process afterwards. Anybody have any insight on this to clear things up?

[@PaulOwenMusic]

Just seen that you posted this a while ago but thought I'd answer anyway...I tend to use Ozone for mastering in a different project after bouncing the original to audio. Import the audio to the new project and then add Ozone to the track or stereo output and experiment with it until you like what you hear. Hope this helps (unless you've found the answer already) 👍

[@firstnamelastname4808]

Bruh can you review kingdom hearts 3 ost "sea salt trio medley" its literally fire and have a resemblance of your tracks

[@luvide8696]

Which version of Ozone do You use? Or to be more precise: which one would You recommend? Do I really need the advanced version for over 400 Dollars?

[@HollywoodVirtualAudio]

This stuff is expensive. Why not demo the Standard version to see if that works for you.

[@luvide8696]

@@HollywoodVirtualAudio Yeah I will do that, thanks for the tip! :-) But for the time being I think it is not all that important for me to get this... Gonna invest in some libraries first...

[@HollywoodVirtualAudio]

@@luvide8696 Good idea. Good luck.

[@luvide8696]

@@HollywoodVirtualAudio Thank you!

[@AlexMoukala]

I have advanced, but standard is also good. You can upgrade it at any time.

[@КурлюкЭбатыр]

Also I can not get how EQing can help cut the unpleasant frequencies in loud part of melody. Isn't static EQ for static resonances and timbre conflicts? But in melody all harmonics are moving up and down, sometimes in very wide key range. Huh.

[@AlexMoukala]

I suppose using a dynamic EQ or Multiband compressor would solve this issue in a more broad fashion. The EQ approach instead is very useful if only some specific notes in your melodies have crazy overlaps, like it is in this case.

[@КурлюкЭбатыр]

@@AlexMoukala Ah, got it. I have problems sometimes to catch some shouting harmonics (flute usually) when they fluctuate by freqs following the melody. Thank you for advice!

[@Sousabird]

Wow, right in time for some mixing I need to do. Alex, are you stalking me? (Its okay if you say yes)

[@pancakeforge]

"Famous last words" LMAO

[@WAZA___]

Better using dynamic eq.

[@loot6]

Btw 'timbre' is pronounced more like 'tamber' since it's a French word. If you pronounce it like you do it's like 'timber' which basically means wood. English is difficult so I thought I'd point that out...especially when the English is actually French lol. :)

[@yebbastudios7515]

How do we not make a turd hahaha

[@colinhawks2469]

Hello there...

[@pancakeforge]

oh yeah yeah

[@hillehai]

Would you recommend using Ozone's 'Master Assistant'?

[@AlexMoukala]

I've never tried it, but you should give it a try and see if it works nicely for you.

[@hillehai]

Alright man, thanks!

[@abinj8054]

I use a 10 dollar headphone from samsung