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[mixolydian]

Hi...

[Mixinthecloud]

While the sounds are fine, you have squashed the life out of it which makes it harder to listen to than other mixes offered up here.

[mixolydian]

While the sounds are fine, you have squashed the life out of it which makes it harder to listen to than other mixes offered up here.

Hi buddy. I'm not a sound engineer. I'm trying to learn how to do the mixing. I didn't understand what you mean when you say ''you have squashed the life out of it''. Can you tell me exactly the problem? You mean that there is a problem about balance, compressor or something else? Thank you very much in advance. Take care of yourself...

[jtbStudio]

You mean that there is a problem about balance, compressor or something else?

He's talking about compression. You've compressed everything (i.e. individual tracks and/or the master track) too much aka "squashed" everything.

It's very difficult to hear compression when you're just starting out - it took me years, and I'm still trying to get a handle on it. If you take a listen to his mix, it's much airer, with a greater sense of space than yours, which is much more dense, solid, in-your-face. The latter is fine for certain styles (e.g. rap, punk, metal), but not this. Acoustic music needs to have a lighter touch, a greater sense of space and subtlety, especially this one (listen to the lyrics).

One way to think about compression is to imagine the song playing inside a box. It's playing, you can hear all the instruments, it's balanced nicely. But, if you take one of those industrial garbage compacters and squash the box down, there'll be far less space inside the box for the song to play in, everything's squashed together, all the tracks are bumping up against each other, it's all much denser and crowded. That's what compression sounds like.

[mixolydian]

You mean that there is a problem about balance, compressor or something else?

He's talking about compression. You've compressed everything (i.e. individual tracks and/or the master track) too much aka "squashed" everything.

It's very difficult to hear compression when you're just starting out - it took me years, and I'm still trying to get a handle on it. If you take a listen to his mix, it's much airer, with a greater sense of space than yours, which is much more dense, solid, in-your-face. The latter is fine for certain styles (e.g. rap, punk, metal), but not this. Acoustic music needs to have a lighter touch, a greater sense of space and subtlety, especially this one (listen to the lyrics).

One way to think about compression is to imagine the song playing inside a box. It's playing, you can hear all the instruments, it's balanced nicely. But, if you take one of those industrial garbage compacters and squash the box down, there'll be far less space inside the box for the song to play in, everything's squashed together, all the tracks are bumping up against each other, it's all much denser and crowded. That's what compression sounds like.

Thank you very much for the explanation. I think I'm gonna have to work harder. It seems that it will take some time to get the right result because I do it with ear-stuff.

[jtbStudio]

I think I'm gonna have to work harder. It seems that it will take some time to get the right result because I do it with ear-stuff.

Mate, it never ends There's no "right result", it's just a question of taste. David Tyo's lyric preview mix was squashed pretty hard as well, so if that's the sound he's looking for, he might really like what you've done

[mixolydian]

I think I'm gonna have to work harder. It seems that it will take some time to get the right result because I do it with ear-stuff.

Mate, it never ends There's no "right result", it's just a question of taste. David Tyo's lyric preview mix was squashed pretty hard as well, so if that's the sound he's looking for, he might really like what you've done

I want to ask one more thing. Is this squashing event about the dynamic range at the end? If the dynamic range was too much, would it be the same result?

[jtbStudio]

I want to ask one more thing. Is this squashing event about the dynamic range at the end? If the dynamic range was too much, would it be the same result?

Sort of. Dynamic range is a measure of how much something has been compressed. Lots of compression = not much dynamic range.

The first thing I do for any mix is put a plugin called "TT Dynamic Range Meter" on my master track. It gives a really nice visual indicator of how much dynamic range my mix has. mixinthecloud's mix had a DR of around 12-18, which is about right for this kind of song. I wanted a more commercial sound for my mix, so I compressed it a bit harder and had a DR of 10-13. Your mix was around 7-10, which is far too low (i.e. too much compression). You'd have this kind of DR for hip-hop, thrash metal, anything that needs to be really in-your-face, but not acoustic

People always say you should mix with your ears and not your eyes (i.e. don't mix by watching meters), but until you can hear the effects of compression, plugins like this can be very helpful.

[mixolydian]

I want to ask one more thing. Is this squashing event about the dynamic range at the end? If the dynamic range was too much, would it be the same result?

Sort of. Dynamic range is a measure of how much something has been compressed. Lots of compression = not much dynamic range.

The first thing I do for any mix is put a plugin called "TT Dynamic Range Meter" on my master track. It gives a really nice visual indicator of how much dynamic range my mix has. mixinthecloud's mix had a DR of around 12-18, which is about right for this kind of song. I wanted a more commercial sound for my mix, so I compressed it a bit harder and had a DR of 10-13. Your mix was around 7-10, which is far too low (i.e. too much compression). You'd have this kind of DR for hip-hop, thrash metal, anything that needs to be really in-your-face, but not acoustic

People always say you should mix with your ears and not your eyes (i.e. don't mix by watching meters), but until you can hear the effects of compression, plugins like this can be very helpful.

Dude, thank you so much for the information. Take care of yourself. See you...

[Mixinthecloud]

While the sounds are fine, you have squashed the life out of it which makes it harder to listen to than other mixes offered up here.

Hi buddy. I'm not a sound engineer. I'm trying to learn how to do the mixing. I didn't understand what you mean when you say ''you have squashed the life out of it''. Can you tell me exactly the problem? You mean that there is a problem about balance, compressor or something else? Thank you very much in advance. Take care of yourself...

Hey there. Sorry this reply took so long. I'd like to thank the others who chimed in on my behalf.

It can be difficult to learn the language of mixing, but most of the terms have some relationship to devices or processes which perform them. Compression = Squash. Savvy? I think you got that.

Can I ask a few questions? Are you a musician? A tech? A music lover? What are your influences? What do you like to listen too? Do you like the game of Golf? OK?