AVOID these mistakes when mixing ambient music!

5 mixing mistakes to avoid when mixing ambient music!
A lot of ambient and experimental music doesn't fit neatly into a genre, so it can be hard to know what advice to follow when it comes to how to mix it. In this video I list some basic concepts that are applicable for most genres of music, that we can follow to improve our ambient mixes.
Request a FREE master sample of one of your songs:
holosuitemastering.com/sample
More free resources on producing and releasing experimental music:
holosuitemastering.com/resources
Done your own mastering, and looking for some feedback from a professional?
holosuitemastering.com/master...
Want me to master your single, album or EP?
holosuitemastering.com/#let-s...
00:00 Intro
00:54 1. Not checking stereo width
01:39 2. Not putting anything in the center of the image
02:19 3. Mixing pads with super dynamic material
03:03 4. Mixing too dark or too bright
03:47 5. Recording one-take to stereo from hardware
04:40 Outro

[@holosuitemastering]

Request a FREE master sample of one of your songs: holosuitemastering.com/sample More free resources on producing and releasing experimental music: holosuitemastering.com/resources

[@aristarkh7937]

At first glimpse, these tips are obvious, but you do not always think about them during mixing and mastering. Thank you!

[@holosuitemastering]

Thanks so much for watching! Glad it was helpful!

[@Ascsoms]

Wow. Thank you for sharing these tips with us. I’m going to try and implement these tips in my future releases, although I work dawless and direct to stereo these are things I can try and be more aware of while recording/creating soundscapes. Look forward to more insights 👍🏻

[@holosuitemastering]

Thanks for watching! I guess if you're stuck recording down to stereo, at the least you could try and make it as reproducible as possible to allow you to re-record later down the track. But you'd be doing yourself such a big favour by setting up multitrack recording!

[@Ascsoms]

@@holosuitemastering what would you recommend for a novice? TY

[@holosuitemastering]

@@Ascsomsit will depend on what instrumentation you're using, and how many of them you have, but even a four-input usb interface would give you some options. You can find used ones for good prices - Focusrite and Presonus are the best budget brands. I particularly like MOTU, which is pricier but can also be found pretty cheap used on occasion - I found an old firewire MOTU Ultralite for a few hundred bucks that had 14 inputs - I just used a firewire to usb adapter and it served me well for years.

[@saturnine1979]

Hey! Great to stumble on a production channel dedicated to ambient and experimental music. Subscribed :)

[@holosuitemastering]

Thank you so much for your support! Let me know if there's anything you'd like me to cover! 😊

[@clivemathieu9386]

My mixes always end up very kick heavy

[@holosuitemastering]

Have you tried mixing to a reference? That helps me a lot when I'm trying to get a kick to sit right! kzbin.info/www/bejne/a6CnaI2BosuefJY

[@Fire-Toolz]

you wouldn't believe how many times i get ambient records to master that are super anti-phase. & then they will ask me to make it sound wider. which is a sign that there's nothing in the middle at all, or that they are using width to capture something not realizing width isn't the problem. so tip 2 is ESSENTIAL. however, i am actually a little less strict about this now because i think it's totally fine if the music goes just a bit anti-phase. as long as it doesn't chill there the whole time or go waaay out of phase.

[@holosuitemastering]

Thanks for watching Angel! 😇 Yeah I make it clear to clients that it's not a deal breaker seeing as headphones/earbuds are the most common way people are listening these days. But as you put it - if you make things that wide it could be a sign that you need to up your production skills, so it's definitely something I hammer home when I'm doing mix coaching!

[@Permutative]

Tip 4 is something I haven't thought of yet, though it's kind of weird because when I was a total beginner I would mix too loud AND my mixes were too bright... not pleasant lmao. Maybe it would be good to occasionally check how it sounds volume settings than I usually use to get more perspective (especially for transients but thats another topic), but I really need to eradicate the habit of fiddling with my volume settings instead of actually controlling the dynamics and leveling of the sound lmao, I still occasionally do that by accident, and as a consequence hearing dynamics is my weakest point in listening skills.

[@holosuitemastering]

Ouch that sounds painful! Definitely keeping a constant listening level has been one of the most important factors for me in terms of leveling up my skills. My brain has locked into what a balanced and decently dynamic mix sounds like at that volume, so I can quickly tell what's off when I listen to something new. If you work through your whole production process that way, it'll set you up to win in terms of getting the dynamics right from the very start.

[@jarmadax]

Maybe add examples to these videos of doing things wrong and right wat? You know, "show, dont tell."

[@holosuitemastering]

Thanks for watching! I definitely support that idea and want to be able to show everything. I do try and put some b-roll in every video, it just takes a lot of time and planning to do it, and I don't have a lot of time! 😅 Perhaps I should just aim for one detailed video every two weeks, rather than one less detailed video every week. What do you think?