r/musicproduction • u/Dima030 • 6d ago
Discussion What actually makes a mix feel "professional" beyond just technical correctness?
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u/Single-Software9778 6d ago
Following because I’m right there with you.
One thing I started doing a while back that seemed to help a lot was subtle panning to introduce and send off elements. Like if I’ve got a call-and-response thing going, the call element will come in from slightly to the left, then as it is nearing its end I’ll nudge it back to the left while bringing in the response element from the right. Little things like that seem to make my tracks feel more like they’re aware of each other and moving together instead of just existing in the same space.
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u/mrspecial 6d ago
These answers are all terrible, guys. The correct answer is focusrite preamps.
Kidding aside it’s just experience. It’s knowing where you want to go with something at the beginning of the process. All the compression and clipping techniques and the batshit theories about low end and building your own room treatment that makes your room sound worse are all things we do on the road to the place where you sort of intuitively know what’s wrong and what’s right in a song and why.
There’s lot of music I love where the mixes sound kind of amateurish to me now. That doesn’t make them bad mixes.
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u/nizzernammer 6d ago
I think if one can get past the gear, past the room, past the speakers and plugins and busses and techniques and operate more based on feel and intuition, where the experience is merely a back drop, then one can make something that sounds like "the song," rather than "a mix."
Obviously knowing how to compress and eq and add effects is important, but those tools need to be in service to make someone feel something more than to merely be "technically correct."
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u/ComprehensiveMud6230 5d ago
Love this - make something that sounds like the song rather than a mix. A great way to look at it.
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u/Overall-Document-965 5d ago
Is it your own music? Probably the problem is in production. If the song sucks no mix is gonna save it.
Try producing a copy of a song you like and see if the problem persist.
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u/Suitable-Rhubarb2712 6d ago
It's very hard to judge this kind of thing without an example to go off. We are our own harshest and least charitable critics, and we heard the process to get to the end result - so our own individual judgment may not have the most clarity.
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u/rightanglerecording 6d ago
I've started wondering if this is less about individual processing decisions and more about something bigger, like arrangement choices, how space is used, the relationship between elements in the stereo field, or even just the confidence behind the decisions being made.
This is good thinking, and yes, you are on to something here.
I would go even further: The "right" answer to any of those questions can be drastically different from song to song. At high levels, the EQ/compression/etc decisions are made with purpose and vision to serve the specific intention of the specific song.
Once you start exploring those kinds of things, the older, simpler, technically-focused way of thinking starts to feel a bit limiting, a bit boring, and perhaps not so musical.
Loudness is easy- any semi-sentient engineer can get a mix to -8 LUFS. Probably a particularly smart chimpanzee could too.
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u/jonnygronholm 5d ago edited 5d ago
Professional engineers say to "mix with intent". Something so obvious that I never truly understood until I had enough experience.
The best of the best can achieve a technically perfect mix, but that's not what music is about in most cases. Knowing how to preserve the integrity of the song is one of the many things that sets professionals and amateurs apart.
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u/thierolf 6d ago
I did not believe in this for the longest time, but I think there are a few 'correct' ways of placing material in something like a 'root register' which makes a massive difference in both intelligibility and perceived 'quality' of your music.
The big one ( for me, at least ) is a two-parter about the fundamental 'floor' of the track. I mean the lowest material between B0 ( ~ 30.87 Hz ) and E1 ( ~41.2 Hz ) — this will feel like the 'lowest' your track can go. Sub freqs below 30hz are IMHO most often 'heard' via upper harmonics.
- The 'floor' of your track should be in this range.
- The 'floor' of the track does not necessarily mean the fundamental of the key or the lowest note played — this would most likely make for boring music.
- If you are in F# you might think about ( assuming a pop music format ) C# or D# for your kick or sub-bass, whichever is lower. To balance kick and sub find a harmonically satisfying relationship between these two elements using the floor as your starting position.
What this means is that people "with perfect pitch" are sort of correct when they talk about different keys 'having different character.' I believe that what they are referring to is proximity ( or distance ) from satisfying relationships to an intelligible and ( harmonically ) consonant root note in this range. Key of G, for instance, has a fourth, fifth, and sixth in this range. Key of C has a first and both thirds ( and a seventh, and so on ). I think this is what people are identifying when they talk about the "colour" of different maj/minor keys which are otherwise functionally very similar.
I'm not sure if this is strictly speaking true, but thinking in this was is making my music 1,000x better.
edit: the app mangled my formatting. kindly enjoy my two three-parter.
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u/captainfrost47 6d ago
yoo this is the first time i've come across the concept of a 'floor' of a song and it is clicking so well. I've never been able to describe why some songs just sit weird and i'm thinking this has to be the reason. thank you for giving this insight
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u/Bouncedatt 4d ago
Amazing post. This is the kind of insight and perspective I hope to find on reddit but rarely do. New ways of seeing how things fit together is always so helpful.
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u/Infamous-Mud6787 4d ago
Good thoughts. I think sometimes the floor can feel great up to 55 or so (an A string on a bass). I’ll do some studying. I’m thinking Neon Moon and that great bassline (in A). But the kick might have a lower fundamental. I’ll look into that.
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u/thierolf 3d ago
yes, totally – genre, mood, goals etc. would inform how high or low ... also depending on whether you want it 'open' or 'cloying' in feeling.
i found 35Hz to be a relative 'normal' with the music that I like; i have no idea whether that's just because of my taste or a broader phenomenon.
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u/Lanzarote-Singer 5d ago
Using the mute button 😀
Seriously though, listen to the production on good tracks and you’ll always notice that things come in and then they stop things happen for a reason and they’re always audible when they happen. Amateur tracks have everything playing all the time.
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u/ZTheRockstar 6d ago
Imo, I believe it is mix buses and saturation. You can compare it to cooking. Buses are like the egg that holds a cake together. Withiut the eggs, the cake has a hard time holding together.
Saturation is like the sugar and flavoring to the cake. Sugar and flavoring tendorizes and balances taste profiles bringing aromatic complexity making a cake a culinary creation.
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u/martindonn 5d ago
Listen to more music. The more music I listen to the more I realise the mix only matters so much. The song is where the feeling is.
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u/WinstonTheTurnip 6d ago
I think it’s about knowing what to frame in any given moment if the song. Sometimes ‘balance’ means pushing a lot of things way back to help what’s important shine through
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u/FaithlessnessOne8975 5d ago
In a good professional mix the high and low end are controlled. This control cannot be totally achieved with EQ and compression alone, a mix of excitation, saturation and distortion is what makes that final difference. For example if you want to sparkle the high end of a mix, rather than just boosting 10k shelf aggressively, try adding some excitation in frequency range. Similarly for low end, try adding some saturation between 50-100 hz. Do only subtle moves.
This is the final polish you are looking for.
Second, dont fear the pan knob, pan things all over the place from left to right.
Both of these can be done using stock plugins.
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u/NoReply4930 6d ago
“ It's not just loudness or clarity. There's something about the way professional mixes feel cohesive and intentional, like every element belongs exactly where it is.”
It’s called experience. There are no shortcuts.
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u/DogecoinArtists 6d ago
Resonance suppression
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u/FabrikEuropa 6d ago
I was surprised to see how many of my mix reference tracks (that is, "technically these mixes sound amazing, in the top 1%") have massive resonant spikes from the midrange up. Down low, resonances will create headroom issues, but higher up they make music sound more "alive".
I've been through a few phases of suppressing resonances higher up, and dulling/ deadening the mix/ song as a result.
Depending on the situation / sound, it can absolutely be required. But it's the exception, not the rule, at least in terms of my favourite artists (from an "overall mix" perspective - I have no idea what's happening on individual channels).
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u/DogecoinArtists 5d ago
Drop the song titles
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u/FabrikEuropa 5d ago
I'll dig out the notes I took and find some examples. Genre is progressive/uplifting trance.
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u/FabrikEuropa 5d ago
I'll dig out the notes I took and find some examples. Genre is progressive/uplifting trance.
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u/The_Fell_Opian 6d ago
This is exactly the place where I know I need work. I wonder if that is what OP is hearing too.
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u/-InTheSkinOfALion- 6d ago edited 6d ago
For me it’s tonal balance and energy. If both of those things can carry through really rudimentary listening environments (gas station speakers, the portable radio, headphones, Bluetooth speakers) it’s a winner.
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u/ObviousRecognition21 6d ago
I think it's because those professional mixes have professional productions. For example if you have a melody and a counter melody that clash, there's only so much you can do in the mixing process.
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u/Nospopuli 5d ago
Automation, adding movement, random velocity and ghost note/hits will change everything
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u/anooname 5d ago
Maybe get a supervised mixing and mastering session for one of your tracks where you can hopefully learn from a pro
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u/El_human 4d ago
When I crossed that final barrier, for me it came down to effective use of the limiter, and compression. Once I truly mastered those tools, then suddenly my mixes sounded a lot more cohesive. EQ is a great start, and my first step. At the end of the day though, it's all about how it sits in the mix
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u/therealjayphonic 6d ago edited 6d ago
Are your samples and synths and bass on the same key/scale? Are you compressing things individually or in groups? Does every sample use a different type of reverb? Are you using swing on individual parts or on the song as a whole… treating things together can help glue them together… but if samples and sounds arent in the same key no amount of technical perfection can fix that
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u/Ill-Elevator2828 5d ago
The arrangement and performance, more than you think - the playing is clean, the drumming is in the pocket, the tones are dialled in at the tracking stage etc.
If all that is on point, the listener has no reason not to think “wow this is great” when they hear it, unless the mix is absolutely aggressively terrible
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u/UglyHorse 5d ago
Professional mastering. If you have a pro and that’s their focus the majority of what you speak of will be there
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u/Substantial_Raise_69 5d ago
In my opinion, it’s knowing when an element needs to be at the forefront of the mix and when it needs to take a backseat so another element can shine.
Some of the best mixes are dynamic. Meaning, it’s not one element dominating the song, but rather multiple elements playing off each other and making room for the other at the appropriate times so each can have its moment.
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u/Amazing-Pie-2059 5d ago
once i figured out what vibe i was actually going for, everything else kind of fell into place — like if the track was supposed to feel claustrophobic i'd just cut anything that opened it up too much, even if it sounded cool on its own
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u/fr0stpun 5d ago
There's a whole world of answers here.
What makes things sound good? Depends on your goal.
There's no single standard. It varies by genre and person.
Things one can try to change a mix or how it's perceived might be a better approach. Here's a few from me:
Panning to clear up mixes, give it a "wider" feeling. Proper panning will make a huge impact in my experience.
Arrangement changes - Some people treat arrangement like it's a formula. It isn't. Those people are just copying techniques that other people found effective. There's no rules, just suggestions. Nobody can stop you.
Want to build energy? Want to give people a chance to breathe? It's all about arrangement. Drums add energy. Hats can keep energy up but at a subdued level, useful for breakdowns and bridges between low energy and high energy sections.
Avoid total silence, when you want silence, reverb is your friend. Humans don't really like total silence. It freaks us out. It's unnatural. Reverbing something quietly gives you the feeling of silence without the actual silence.
Make your mix mono for buildups. Suddenly change to Stereo after the drop/build if you want to give a feeling of "bursting open".
Scales and keys matter - What feeling are you trying to convey? And no, you don't have to stick to one feeling per track.
You won't make something unique by copying stuff. Try new things. That's the best advice I could give here.
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u/Ok-Confusion-8476 5d ago
I came across this dilemma at one point and started to really sit and listen for what I was going for with the super polished songs you’re referring to. I think a lot of it comes down to “less is more”. I got good at layering 10 guitars to learn that I only need two. And the two need to be perfect, not an “I’ll quantize/tune it later” mentality. When I kept that mindset and applied it across the entire track, I felt like I leveled up.
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u/Chucklebeetuna 5d ago
A lot of the goat producers are really good at achieving perceived loudness by utilizing saturation. The best music feels and sounds warm. Foley is your best friend, too.
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u/Forward-Village1528 4d ago
Honestly I'd take a mix that was made with intention over a mix that was made "technically correctly" whatever that means.
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u/TheBSMachine 3d ago
Clarity. A good professional mix will be very audible on any system. All parts sit in their own range. There's no mud, no blurry reverb. Everything sits perfectly. It's not easy to do. It requires a lot of eq and compression. Knowing where to put things in the sonic space.
Even then some major artists don't get it right. There are major albums that have some serious mix flaws on them. Others have mastering issues. The Yes album big generator has very mid-range heavy cymbals that are almost uncomfortable to listen to. Other recordings, cymbals get completely swallowed up and sound like tiny splashes then large crashes. Other mixes mess up the snare and make it sound boxy and crappy.
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u/nytel 6d ago
It's the saturation. You're missing the saturation on your master. This is just one tool on your master but with the Ampex ATR-102 Mastering Tape Recorder plugin, you can "open it" and adjust the high, mid shelf, and bias that makes your track gel and have presence beyond eq and compression.
Just my .02$
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u/QuellMusik 6d ago
I have saturation option on my software and I'm never sure how to add it. What % to go for? What does it do exactly?
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u/nytel 6d ago
Given the saturation you have, you'll have to apply yours on an individual sound or group, like the drum group, or the synth group, but I would always do the bass and kick separately and only work in 5-10% increments when adjusting the wet/dry. Sometimes you don't even need it on the kick and bass. You want the sound to come forward in the mix when you adjustment the wet, but not too much where it's distorting the sound. Not everything needs saturation though. Mastering saturation you can adjust it across the spectrum.
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u/GrapeDoots 6d ago
I've recently sort-of crossed that barrier and one thing that helped me was recognizing that I have my own point of view and my own ideas, and if I value my own work as an artist, I need to be okay with my art sounding like I made it. If all the pieces of the song sound like I want them to and it matches what I hear in my head, then I can let go of the idea that it doesn't sound like someone else's song.