Did you ruin your mix? This article will help you create a better rough mix for your project. Mixing is a very complex and esoteric art form. I have a lot of experience creating great mixes for all types of genres. It took a long time to develop these skills. I’m going to share with you some easy techniques I use every day in my work as a mix engineer to help you get a better sounding final product, specifically in reducing mid-range and low-end mud. While these techniques seem easy on paper, the most important ability when mixing is your ear: knowing what you’re hearing and how to fix it.

High pass filter for quick clarity

“Mud” is a loose term that describes a sound that lacks clarity, feels dull and maybe crowded in the bass and mid frequency range. I usually find muddiness between 110hz and 650hz. This range contains the majority of the body of your song. When working in the body of the song you have to be careful not carve out so much that you end up with a thin mix.

My favorite fix for this is simple and easy. I recommend doing this while you are producing or recording your song. Get to know the high-pass filter on your eq. Every DAW has an eq plug-in weather you’re using Ableton, Logic, Pro Tools, FL Studio or Garage Band.

As you record each new instrument, apply an eq to it’s specific channel, enable the high-pass filter (sometimes could be called a low-cut) and start to bring the filter frequency up from the bass until it feels like the instrument is too thin. After it feels too thin, bring it back down a little, but not too much, so it feels lean but still full. Find the sweet spot.

The exact frequency will depend on the instrument, your genre, and your personal taste. For example, a bass synth probably won’t need too much work (but a little bit can go a long way with bass), same goes for a bass guitar.

If I were to eq something like a cymbal or a hi-hat, I would go a lot further up into the frequency spectrum, maybe around 5k if I want a cymbal that really stays out of the way. I might go a little lower around 900hz if I want the cymbal to have a fuller sound with more weight in the mix. Each instrument/sound source will have it’s own needs.

You’ll slowly learn that you can probably clean out a lot of unnecessary low-end or mid-range in your mix and it still won’t sound too thin. As you practice this you’ll start to find the right spot and begin training your ear to notice common problem areas. Sometimes you can’t hear problems until you remove them so don’t be afraid to slide the high-pass filter all the way up and slowly bring it back down. You’ll methodically hear all the aspects of the sound revealed as your let more and more low frequencies in. At that point you can decide what kind of tonal quality you want that sound to have and place the filter at the frequency that best serves the music.

As you build your song, and apply high-pass filters to every instrument, you’ll notice a much more spacious mix and hopefully you’ll find that you have a lot more room to hear each individual instrument.

Notch eq for problem frequencies

Besides the high-pass filter method, another way to clean up mud is to find specific problem frequencies in the low-mids and notch (or cut) them out. This is very similar to the high-pass method except you’re looking for a specific frequency that is causing an issue. Notch and bell eq curves are much more focused than high-pass filters. They can target extremely narrow frequencies or wider ones for more drastic sounding effects.

Again, place an eq plug-in on a specific instrument channel. Click on a bell style filter and drag it downward so it is cutting a lot of sound out. You might want to mess with the width of this at first but you should be fine using the default width (or Q) that the filter is set to.

Next, drag that filter up and down the frequency spectrum and listen closely. Since we’re focusing on muddiness for this article, try to aim between 100hz – 1000hz. You should be listening for a spot that clears things up and takes a lot of the body out of the sound. It’s okay to remove too much of a sound at this stage because we’re just searching for a frequency at this point. We’ll fine-tune the exact width next.

Some people like to do this the opposite way, where you boost a filter to find the problem frequencies. That method also works well. I used to do that but I noticed how affects my hearing during a mixing session and throws off my balance. I like to keep the music at a steady volume so my ears and brain can really get used to the balance. Boosting frequencies with an eq tends to agitate the ears and throw off my perspective.

Cutting or boosting, the goal is the same. Find the part of the sound you don’t need. Once found, you should be cutting only. Then slowly make the filter narrower until it’s taking out just enough of the problem sound. If you hear something peeking through that you don’t like, make it a little wider.

Next, you’ll want to slowly lessen the reduction until it sits just right in the mix. A subtle amount can be all you need on most sounds but some require bigger and wider cuts.

You’ll learn to perfect your eq methods as you go but here are some frequencies I commonly find my self cutting in my mixing and mastering jobs: 115hz, 150-180hz, 650hz, 900-1100hz, 1400-1700hz.

Some of the higher frequencies aren’t really in the mud zone but are still areas that can provide clarity once you learn to listen for problems there. Again, all of these exact frequencies depend on the style of music, instruments used, and personal taste.

Bass issues, room issues and visual solutions

Most home studio rooms have a pretty bad bass response, as do a lot of cheaper speakers and headphones. If you’re serious about making music definitely invest in some decent monitors or headphones. Either way, it’s very important to learn how your room, speakers, and headphones sound by listening to a lot of music in all three of them.

The easiest way to tackle bass is to fine-tune it’s volume in headphones. Bass is very subtle and hard to pin down and most home-produced artists either have way too much of it or not enough. Set your headphones to a medium volume that doesn’t feel loud in any way, but also doesn’t seem quiet. You want to hear all the details of a song but you don’t want your ears to be reacting to loudness. Your brain interprets loud music much differently than music at a moderate volume and differently still from music that is too quiet. Setting bass volume at a moderate monitor level should get you 75% of the way there.

After you get the bass set in the mix you can use visual eq such as FabFilter’s Pro-Q 3 to check your work. This eq gives you visual feedback when you hover your mouse in the lower part of the plug-in. As time passes the plug-in builds an overall arc showing the frequency shape of the song. Many other eq plug-ins do this as well. Fabfilter’s is the best I’ve ever used.

An effective way to interpret this visual information is to take an hour and listen to a bunch of your favorite songs and reference tracks through this EQ. Let it build a visual representation. Start to get an idea of where this visual arc lands in your genre and favorite mixes.

You can then use this information to visually check if your own songs have a similar balance. A good place to start is to aim for a somewhat flat visual arc.

I know the word flat might seem boring but visually-speaking, a flat eq curve can give you a very balanced mix. A balanced mix is a great place to start. You can always change different aspects of the song to break this balance but having that initial visual proof will get you close to having a proper bass level compared to the rest of the song. Of course, different genres need different things which is why you should learn your reference tracks well.

Conflicting frequencies in arrangement: garbage in, garbage out

So far, I’ve written about how to reduce mud after the song is already written and produced. But the most important technique of all is getting things right during the writing and recording phase. Using great sounding instruments and sounds in the first place and creating an arrangement that leaves room for each instrument is the best possible way to have an amazing final mix.

High quality sounds will generally have less issues during mixing. Of course this is a matter of taste and takes a good ear with knowledge of style and genre. The goal here is to learn which of your instruments, when recorded, work well together. This includes sample selection, drum tuning, guitar selection, sound design or preset selection for keyboards & synths. Know your sounds but more importantly know what you’re listening to and make sure things fit together well.

The best eq is done before an eq is even needed. For example, if you’re playing a keyboard part and it’s overlapping too much with the bass or vocals, it may need to be played in a higher octave, or possibly with different chord voicings to help it fit in the mix better. Try to solve issues while writing by taking into account the sound you are adding to the song as well as the notes, melody, and emotion.

Dealing with these issues in the composition phase is the best way to end up with a beautiful mix. As you write or produce songs, be conscious of how all the instruments are interacting. Try different approaches to pitch, rhythm, and texture. Sure, small problems can be fixed during mixing but the best route to a clean mix is clean arrangement and clean sounds.

I hope this information helps you create better sounding rough mixes in your home studio. As always, if you want to skip the headaches of mixing your own music and let an experienced professional take it to the next level, please feel free to contact me. I provide excellent service at affordable rates. You can read reviews from prior clients and hear the projects I’ve worked on as well.