3 Mistakes That Make Your Mixes Weak and Thin

[@jonathanoates1972]

The clip to zero method is amazing for loud mixes and ignores the -14lufs. It's because dance music producers like me make my music for clubs and festivals and simply do not care for the online streaming restrictions. With the clip to zero i achieve -6lufs just on the mix alone before it goes anywhere near any processing on the master bus or near any mastering. Loudness is in the mix and the clip to zero method has changed my mixing for ever. Nearly every dj set has loud mixes in it and if you mix and master to -14 lufs it simply wont end up in the play list because its simply not compettitive enough in loudness.. Baphometrix teaches his method over a 50 hour series on his youtube channel and it's a game changer. :-)

[@MrRexBaron]

Yes, love the video series, it has helped out a lot but have to be careful not to push it too much and make it sound harsh...

[@jonathanoates1972]

@@MrRexBaron if you process your sounds correctly, before appling the method on each individual track, inc saturation, it will never sound harsh. Just very a loud clear sound with plenty of room in the mix for everything to breathe and a lovely kick and snare punching right through. :-) And hell yeah you can push it. I've had some mixes at - 4 lufs nefore anywhere near a master.Beautiful clear mixes! Push it haha

[@cutoff_DNB]

@@jonathanoates1972 nowadays they aim for -3lufs tbh loudnesswar is nuts

[@ihaar]

Why would you need something to be that loud? Why to care?

[@jonathanoates1972]

@@ihaar As i said, because i make dance music made for live envirnoments and do not care for streaming. If you measure many pro mastered edm tracks they are between - 8 and - 6 lufs. This is because its for clubs and festivals, not peoples ear buds. Also if you look at a dj's play list they are all very loud and if you do not produce something as loud it wiil not make into their playlist.

[@AKAtAGG]

I am pretty sick of posting messages on this channel because I sound like a sycophant every time - but in this case I genuinely don't care. You're so fuckin good at this. I learn a new thing every time and I an old man who's been doing it for longer than you been alive.

[@Bonn5656]

U shall invire alice for a coffee! (;

[@vogelvogeltje]

Thanks Alice, I needed this video. I’ve been making music for 15 years in DAWs, but never released anything because I can never get my mixes to sound good. You’re getting me on the right track though!

[@Tanasoulmusic]

Have you tried to get your songs mixed and mastered by a profesional? They don’t have to be expensive, but this way you can focus more on making music itself! A lot of producers work this way

[@kevinlynott7963]

Check out the "Clip To Zero" video series by Baphometrix. It can be a bit overwhelming at first but it's an absolute gamechanger when it comes to getting your mixes loud enough.

[@vogelvogeltje]

@@kevinlynott7963 I actually just saw those videos! Thanks for the recommend

[@InVisionsynthmindscape]

The sample music is really cool with great quality sound ... your preparation is nothing short of impressive compliments! 🙂👏🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@Vi_Ta_Lee]

Great tips. One more small tip for better balancing. When you mix high tone kick and punchy snare or clap for example. Check conflict freq between mid / high of the kick and snare. Dynamic EQ can give extra help without cutting all freqs with regular eq. Just trigger specific places where to clean it.

[@Alice-Efe]

My mixing masterclass if you are interested 😊 courses.mercurialtones.com/courses/everything-about-mixing

[@tulihenki4209]

Instead of dance music I do dark ambient and other weird stuff but definitely take your course. You have so much cool technics and things to learn and use no matter the genre. :)

[@Alice-Efe]

@@tulihenki4209 ​ Aww thanks a lot! Hope the course gives you tons of inspiration and help you improve your mixing 😊❤

[@DjAnkushPawarOfficial]

💕 Love From India. Thank you so much.. it's a very good tutorial For controlling dynamics in my track .

[@kavokei1337]

Thank you! Useful info. It also makes me happy to see how you smile much more often in your videos since your transition 🙂

[@Zvrra]

the 2nd mix sounds more full.

[@Shaweezz]

Thanks Alice... as always You made my day... another great video 👍🏼

[@miguelhijarmusic]

Great explanation! Very helpful-thank you!

[@blakhand4753]

Another great vid packed with info. Happened upon your channel recently and the difference in what I've been making is astounding. Thanks for doing these vids!

[@danylodrachov4500]

Can't stress how important this is for beginner / intermediate producers. You've created a perfect intro to the clip-to-zero mixing technique, with your own twist Alice! Great job

[@Old299dfk]

Unbelievable as always! Quality content, well made, and you can tell you've put a lot of effort into this. It shows! Well done 😁

[@CallSaul489]

Yes he did a good job

[@Old299dfk]

@@CallSaul489 'she'

[@CallSaul489]

@@Old299dfkWhy? He’s a dude.

[@LeftCat]

Thank you. BTW, I just enrolled in your mixing course as a result of this video. You always deliver clear explainations. I can't wait to get my mixes sounding better.

[@Alice-Efe]

Aww thanks a ton! Hope the course would give you tons of inspiration and improve your mixes.

[@Ninjjadog]

Where's the mixing course?

[@LeftCat]

@@Ninjjadog the link is in the video description text.

[@Alice-Efe]

@@Ninjjadog courses.mercurialtones.com

[@zanehirschi-neckel2662]

2:34 ish was a very interesting moment. It was a great visualization of the concept, was very useful for understanding what to do--I think I should be able to recreate the slow increase to the bass volume. But the most interesting part was that I preferred the "poorly" mixed example. However, that kinda' makes sense, as I prefer listing to and making grimy, dark, industrial-style techno over clean-perfect, melodic-style techno. I am actually not a huge "melodic-techno" fan. Nevertheless, I really love this channel because it challenges me to think about things that I would otherwise have overlooked; Alice is very charming and presents her content articulately; and this channel's content is, clearly, of a a very professional, high-skill grade of techno production-discipline--put simply, good pedagogy across the board--and I cannot deny that this channel has really raised my tolerance and acceptance of melodic-techno as a legitimate musical form; before, I saw it as a guilty pleasure, only for lazy, late nights and inebriation, and now I might consider actually listing to some of it during the middle of the day; however, I probably will never, ever come around to really clean, well-produced sung vocal hooks, trying to convey emotions about everyday-life and romance-drama. That is not my style, and if I want that, I will listen to pop music. Still, I don't expect anyone to share my taste (I like to listen to Alban Berg; how could I?). And I give everyone perfect entitlement to their own taste and composition style. Much respect, from the Tingvore (what I call the music I make and post to bandcamp). Keep up the good work and thank you! I will be working on finding a compromise between the clean, good-dynamics kick+bass mix and the strange, dirty one; too often on big speakers, my kicks almost disappear into droning bass. Thanks to this channel and others (and my in-person friends), that problem is slowly but surely going away.

[@manqobaniacin8595]

Hi there i hope you good .your videos are so informative keep on teaching us all the music theory it is so amazing and the way you simplifying, it much love from South Africa

[@Rgdonaire_07]

Your channel is pure gold. Keep it up!

[@alexbreugelmans8448]

Very interesting, bit complex for now. I will start with your mixing course now!

[@anthonygio9961]

Simply the best at what you do! Thank you!

[@dsanj4745]

You provided very useful information, thank you! You get a thumbs up! As a side note, the opposite of loud is quiet, not 'quite'.

[@NikiWinProd]

i love the visualizations, they are on point 💜

[@hadookin47]

Thank you, very helpful and in-depth

[@Skejgrooves]

Great stuff Alice! Love your videos as a noobie producer. It would be interesting to see some guides, walktroughs on maddix or big room techno in general :D thank you!

[@ClaudeYoung]

Fantastic video as always Alice! Thanks!!!

[@TaiBaSs40]

Great explained !! THX 🙏🏽💚

[@djronakdelhi]

I love her accent

[@MrInvisible5119]

Thanks so much!

[@Sensenwerk]

Fantastique, comme toujour! Thank you.

[@burning_KFC]

As always writing a comment to support the channel

[@lagriveromain3392]

Great job THX

[@mariokwan]

u never disappoint

[@linussvard6553]

The second one is the best IMO because... uh... yeah it just sounds nice lmao

[@na_der]

Amazing info as always!

[@aiyka_music]

Great info!

[@eli-shulga]

Nice thanks, also I see a new course :) Mixing is a struggle. Will definitely get that one. After the "Everything about Low End" which is in my wish list

[@JCMDKFHUB]

mixing is the worst thing but it really sets amateur tracks apart from more professional sounding ones. after two years of producing, only NOW am I realizing how important the final mix down and compression work really is. I'm not even good at it yet, but the music does tend to sound a lot fuller and present, and I don't run into the issue of having a track at/near 0db but still not as loud as I want it to be...music is fun but my god there's so much to it (who knew!)

[@dvak_dj]

Love it Alice! I've learned a lot from you. It would be interesting to see some tutorials of melodic Hard Techno. Thank you for your effort! 🙌

[@ranaz8888]

Love from ❤️❤️❤️india.best music guru.

[@adri.progression]

Wow this is incredibly helpful!! thank you Alice!!! 📖:)

[@fabiofuso9896]

hi Alice great videos. Would you make a video using theVst Vita. Melodic Techno of course.😉

[@shadowrage2593]

Do you have any videos on how to impove melodies?

[@anonymerhiphop5427]

Thank you Alice.

[@Alice-Efe]

☺

[@nedex993]

ABLA TÜRKÇE ALTYAZI DA EKLEYEBİLİR MİSİN?

[@brunodeborba3411]

Your videos are amazing! Would you do one about DnB?

[@mageprometheus]

Thank you. I watched Baphometrix videos and have been trying his clip-to-zero techniques. Clipping is so helpful.

[@bewdwyre9211]

Great video

[@MOSMASTERING]

I like 1 the most. It has most midrange punch. But its close.

[@RogueFire29]

Amazing one ! As always ahah! Feel like repeating myself! But it's true! Thanks :)

[@el-artista-marginado]

hi Alice....great video!...

[@greenhologhost]

hey there , love your videos , they are always an inspiration to me, i really really would like you make a video explaning a Dark Melodic Techno track , mathame style or similars . it would really interesting ,keep it up ! thx again

[@totallynottrademarked5279]

The one thing I wish I had done when I got started was to move to Ableton from FL as soon as possible. Currently saving up for the license to do that. I can not tell you how frustrating doing hats and kicks in FL is. They sound nothing like they should when you move them into a sampler channel. I don't know what default processing they are doing but playing around on a friends Ableton with the same samples is a night and day difference.

[@lavenderllamamusic]

By default, FL's sequencer puts sampler channel volumes at less than 0db. This is why I just drag my samples into the playlist so they maintain their character. In Ableton, i find myself using the simpler and sampler instruments, as well as drum rack, as dragging audio into the arrangement can get tedious quickly. Unless i'm producing jersey club or some bass genre, then it's not as bad.

[@definitelydefinitelydefini3987]

-you can crack ableton-

[@MGoolas]

2nd is more balanced while 3rd example has more compression but still not excessively compressed

[@onaucc9899]

Very nice video. Especially the visualization with simple shapes makes it easier to understand. I have one qeustion though: Is it really useful to go for -14 LUFS in the master? I don't really know where, but i heard that only the mobile version of Spotify (for example) normalizes to -14 LUFS, while the desktop version normalizes to -8 LUFS. And even if that's not the case: Would be going for -8 LUFS a bad idea or does it not matter, because it's normalized later anyways? That would be very interesting. :)

[@tommyfeinstoff]

More like this please

[@geelanka-7984]

Thank u..😍😍😍

[@emilemartin5244]

Thank you for this clear explanation as always. I'm curious, what's the name of the 3D frequency monitor in the video? Looks so cool!!

[@fragoso746]

Izotope Insight Spectrum Analyzer in 3D Mode.

[@JamesRamboPearce]

With the parallel processing on the sends, how do you avoid phasing sounds? I find sometimes when doing it with compression it gives me a bit of phasing rather than just sounding bigger?

[@Naseem384]

I have this annoying problem when I’m mixing where I think “oh this is too quiet let me just bring it up a bit.” And then I’ll come back to that section later and be like “now this track isn’t loud enough.” And that’ll keep happening until eventually all the tracks are almost at max volume and “now this section is too quiet but the volume is at max!” And then I have to go through all the tracks one by one halving the volume and it’s just frustrating.

[@Keroser1983]

AMAZING!!!!

[@Joy-fy1lp]

which is the difference between clipping and limiting ?

[@aliferousofficial928]

Good tanks

[@SonicMassala]

You are the best

[@Birkan_Hallac]

U re the best!

[@Gravity_alert]

Can you make a video on sound selection? As a beginner, I struggle with picking the right sounds that go well together. I randomly go through presets and samples end up frustrated after a few hours of swapping samples. In video color grading, we use a color pallet to guide us: a selection of colors that evoke certain emotions and are technically compatible. Is there a concept of “sound pallet” in music production too?

[@Alice-Efe]

You just gave me a great video and visualization idea. 😊

[@justcallmepablo]

Which DAW is that one?

[@marck5694]

Hi Alice, how are you? I have problems with vocals on the track, where the track hits 9lufs but when the vocal comes in it ends up hitting 7lufs, is there any way to solve this in the mix before sending it to master? because I know I can solve it with the glue compressor using sidechain to compress only the frequencies the vocal is on, but this ends up compressing more things because it's already the master. If you make a video showing ways to catch peaks of the vocal in a track, i would aprecciate so much, thanks!!

[@jackSo42]

Why would it be a problem to have some passage louder than other?

[@borismolchanov8132]

good ideas

[@Shkodo]

That pros mix crestfactor is to big for any electronic music. Seems like the kick and snare need more compression

[@felixdeubler1180]

Isnt the first tip or step just sidechaining? Of course the frequencies will overlap if you have two bass intense samples played simultaneously.

[@TheTheimpossible]

Another clear and succinct explanation. Learning a lot over here. Best I can say thanks is a sub right now. Thank you Alice!

[@rola8597]

Can we get a Skeler tutorial? ;D

[@Alice-Efe]

You never know 🙄

[@Shelestial]

i always wondering how Gai Barone fits all the big sounds in his track 'Monoroid'

[@springwoods21]

Great video as always! Thanks, Alice.

[@nikolaudio]

Also reverb on sub bass is really useful. I love reverb and ping pong delay on my subs then high pass filtering them completely out of the signal for really clear bass. Also I love a 1:1 ratio on compression it sounds super natural that way.

[@HAPPYDENY]

Давненько я не смотрел этот канал ) уже Алиса )

[@dhst76]

To my ears number 2 sounds the most natural. Nr 1 the "tssss" and hiss is missing. Nr 3 has too much. Nr 2 sounds most balanced. Now I'm going to watch the vid...

[@gtabro1337]

Wait people actually master at -14? I’m not a professional but I’ve heard a lot of people would push for -8 at least despite all the guidelines, would love to hear more from people in the industry what the current trends are

[@Alice-Efe]

As far as I see, no one in techno/house masters at -14lufs at the moment. -14 lufs is just for comparison purposes so that everything is at the same loudness in the beginning.

[@NoQualmsTheArtist]

You push to where it sounds good to your ears. The easiest way is to level match before and after clipping and limiting so you can hear the distortion. Once it sounds bad back it off till it sounds good. Turn up the output to -1 fstp. If it's -11 or -6 lufs it doesn't matter.

[@rickf6375]

@@NoQualmsTheArtist just use reference tracks you like and adjust accordingly

[@moerahman6749]

It really depends on the genre. Classical music for example is very dynamic and wouldn’t benefit from excessive compression and limiting.

[@NoQualmsTheArtist]

@@rickf6375 doesn't actually work. The crest factor on the reference track is guaranteed to be different to yours, so you may not be able to reach the same loudness and that's ok. For tonal balance you can sort of use a reference but as each instrument making up the songs is different this is only a rough guideline as well. Reference tracks are only really good for calibrating your ear to hear what sonic ballpark your song should be in.

[@veruszsasukejoe]

👍👍👍 . Great

[@godsofourland95]

I'm just gonna subscribe because the channel got my name on it, my name is Efetobore, Efe for short.

[@fart4192]

they have to be a tiny bit different no? the first example don't have that right panned effect

[@Alice-Efe]

It is exactly the same samples. Some of the samples had stereo quite tails so compression brough up the sides.

[@xavierdebordeaux]

There is a problem : when you start video with the 3 examples, the first has a short hi hat compared to the second and last example. Thereby, i dont find that honest...

[@Catandbeats]

Definitely 3. Slap that compressor silly

[@frankiebq5604]

You're looking very beautiful and happy! You inspire me as a producir and as a transgender woman uwu

[@arjanelsinga75]

Are those lightsabers in the background?.....

[@Alice-Efe]

RGB tubes but I also pretend that they are lightsabers 😊✨

[@homelesshousemusic7801]

Yhank4 youlean demo. Peaks control is...

[@OllieRedYoutube]

Good video . I like mix 2. I like my hats Hi lol

[@timmythegoat1]

I have a question: You can delay drums a bit. Can you also delay melodies/chords (not just arpeggiating), so that they aren't on time or should you avoid that?

[@NikiWinProd]

i think a bit of a delay will help. but not too much or it will sound out of sync

[@mszuala]

the problem for me is that my mix is actually too loud😅😅

[@xmaligno]

👏🏻👏🏻

[@Mclennnan]

i cany read that fast lmao

[@marcussebastian2143]

so i have to be a fucking scientist these days to pump out a track. for me making music is about the creative part. guess i have to pay people for mastering....ah well.....

[@tealeaf3210]

If anything there is more knowledge available today so we're just more aware about what we don't know or need to practice. And i doubt mastering has ever been "easy" we all need to understand what's going on in a track to get a good results to begin with.

[@bizcut]

nobody said it was eaaaasssaaaayyy

[@hildrethrsa3341]

3rd Mix so fat and full,so I likd the 3rd one.

[@beirch]

Quiet* Not quite.

[@Alenaalnea]

2nd

[@giancarloranieri1160]

quiet*

[@koycdjartage2571]

Speaking of a pro mix, would you check out my bootleg of frozen ? I understand if not as I bet you get spammed all day about feedback 😂🥂 love you lots Alice

[@Arthur-he3gy]

What is the brand of your t-shirt haha ? #mushroom

[@Alice-Efe]

I don’t remember but I will check for you 😅

[@Arthur-he3gy]

@@Alice-Efe thx haha 😅

[@freedom667]

Türk müsün gardaş??

[@OfficialSameerSingh]

So cute beautiful you are💖💖💖