The struggle with sound

The Lounge General Discussion
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First of all. My impulse to buy stuff is very bad. I have few analog synth, one sampler, a couple of drum machines. But everything is a little bit off. Both my old synth have issues with s&h. But I alleays dreaming of other new gear that would save me from my mess. But start to understand that is not the case.

The machinedrum is a little bit tired but working great. Nothing to really complain about with my gear.

But my speaker sucks, my headphones sucks and right now I have no work. Im am an artist (Painting and sounds) with no money right now. But hey. Im aware that people maby have a harder life than me.

But my concern is. I feel like everything that I do sucks like my speakers. That it would not matter if I had better speakers or headphones or mixer or soundcard. It feels like I never get it. I have tried many musicstyles. Synthmusic a la Front 242, Goa Trance, Psytrance, Techno, DnB and so on but I never ever get it right. It feels like that. I wonder how people that is good at music do it? How do they get that sound?

Its like there is some air between the notes. The base is pure and pumping. The drum fits good togheter and everything is glued togheter. Have they a bigger studio? Better ears? A manager that says when is enought ”testing testing testing”?

In my music there is a complete mess. And I understand my speakers and headphones are part of it but also my messy studio, everything is a mess, me, my music, my art… Maby my ears? My knowledge?

I give it time. I feel like I understand my Evolver Deskop (my favorite) and my Vermona Drm 1 mklll is really good. I dont know. It feels good from time to time. And I really enjoying myself in the studio when I get it but I can spend a whole day in studio and record 50 loops and then get tired of that, start a new projekt and di the same thing againg. But I never finish song and when I do I am happy for one day then I see all the ”misstakes”. But my sound is my sound… Even if I do another one I know it is going to be the same.

Sorry for a depressive post but I dosent know where to turn and talk about this? Is it the speakers? My mindset? My ears? My very slow decisions making? That I have to many choices, possibillites. I cant make it minimal? I cant make ”less is more”? Is it My perfektionism? my lack of self esteem?

If its one thing I understand is that is not about the gear.

How do handle your own struggles? Where is your inspiration?

Mine is right now Ben Klock, Terrence Dixon and Peter Van Hoesen.

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Send a link to something you’ve done and we can tell you what speakers we listened on and how it sounded.

I struggled with this for awhile and found using reference tracks is really helpful to get a decent mix on bad speakers.

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This isn’t what I listen to, but I’ve heard worse. Maybe you would do well with new speakers, maybe you wouldn’t. Either way you would do well with more confidence, maybe all it will take is some small success to help put you in the correct frame of mind.

Negativity will get you nowhere fast, but I can relate. Good luck.

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i enjoyed the second one a lot, listening to it the second time now. its a shame that without your depressive post here i would probably never discover your music. no complaints with the sound quality either, but im rocking a questionable setup rn since my headphones are out of comission.

i do prefer more degraded and glued sound, and i think id enjoy that track more if it was passed through a tapedeck or something, but thats just my preference.

i feel like releasing good tracks is never enough if you want people to listen, especially these days when everyone has access to so many art.

i also think that since we are surrounded by awesome stuff all the time, we try to match our output to that quality and quantity, but for most its humanly impossible (be it due to mental health or other factors). Its easy to get discouraged and sad when in this place.

what helps me most is to not push it, and take breaks. it sure feels bad taking them because life is short and you can only make this much music and art during it, but without those breaks, i hardly enjoy any of it. when time comes around, im excited to make something again.

also i highly recommend finding a community thats focused on what you like, where you can share, get feedback, and listen to what others are doing. finding art buddies that are equal to me was the best productivity boost in recent years for me.

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Had a quick listen. Nothing wrong with your ideas, or the music.
However, the mix is upside down. Meaning everything that is bass, is too loud, and everything that isnt bass is too quiet.

So you can fix that by just changing levels.

It took me a few live shows to realise you dont need to have your low end sounds loud in the mix, big sound systems will make the bass loud, thats what those huge cones are for.

General tip that might help - on anything that isnt bass, low cut it. Either with an eq or a filter what ever suits.

Remember, kick drums should punch you in the chest, so be mindful not to have too much low end in them. I low cut mine at around 100hz.

Sub bass is for bass. So I want my bass to rumble in your guts. Dont put kick drums here, it just feels weird.

If you have a nice clear space for each sound in the spectrum, you get that space you mentioned. So make space. Be wary of the mids, not too much in here, keep it airy and light.

Be mindful of high end, too information in the highs is fatiguing to listen to.

Even with shit speakers, it is still possible to crank out killer tunes and great mixes.

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As a kid and teenager, I listened to and fell in love with so much great music coming out of plenty of ‘questionable’ speakers and Walkman headphones.

Luckily with this music thing, you can identify problems and work on them to improve. Don’t lose sight of the journey, music can be fun to make.

Also get a dog, mine seems to like anything I make.

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It is, but it makes it a lot harder.

You have to really know your speakers and how they affect the sound, and combine that with a spectrum analyzer as a sanity check.
You can’t mix by ear, if you can’t trust the speakers.

I think that’s how you end up with an “upside-down” mix as you put it, with too much bass and sounding harsh in the high-end.
It might sound great on those speakers, but bad on anything with a better frequency response.

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This is true, you want flat speakers. Eg, speakers that dont add anything.

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the first track has phase issue, when your lead/higher bass sound kicks in around 30 seconds the moving sub bass and the kick kinda disappearing, not sure if that’s the same sound cancelling but either way, find the other low sound and if you can highpass it, will sound much better.

the second track is not so bad, imo the balance between kick/hihat/shaker is off a bit, try lowering them a touch and maybe do again the mix, like put the most important sound you like in that track at some level X and then bring other elements around it one by one, try listening to when sounds start to pop out too much and then bring them down a bit.

there’s no easy answer here friend, it’s everything and nothing, your speakers/headphones matter but not that much, if you listen to a track you love on the same devices and you know for a fact that it sounds good - then your own stuff should sound good too, if it doesn’t - it’s not the speakers or headphones.
try lowering the volumes of everything, try making mix decisions when everything is low on volume, when sound’s too loud it can be tough to stay objective for long time, ear fatigue is real so just lower the volume and stick with it, you will hear things much better. also, if you have speakers and headphones - switch between them, if you think something sounds good on the speakers but you’re not sure, mute them, put the headset on, you’ll instantly hear difference - but you also will hear if something is too poking out, missing or similar. so switch between the devices and try not to do loud levels.

also, take breaks, render something and listen to it on your phone or in another room or setting, if something will be missing you’ll notice it, go back and fix it, usually levels of things fix a lot, so try focusing on when levels are too much/too little.

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Would you be able to paint using the right colors while wearing sunglasses?

Do yourself a favor and get a decent pair of headphones. No need to spend a lot of money.
A pair of Sony MDR7506 and AT-M50 would probably be already a big improvement.

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Absolutely

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I rephrase it then…

Would you be able to make a realistic looking painting (using the right colors) while wearing sunglasses?

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Do you love the process?

If you do, then NOTHING ELSE MATTERS!

If you don’t, then examine why. Make some changes. Make the process enjoyable.

Forget about the end result. Enjoy yourself, and just keep going.

We’re born, we love, we die. And other cliches!

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A realistic as in photorealistic? Then if your doing black and white absolutely. Or any Mono colour. The chroma isnt relevant.
The values will be wrong obviously but you can easily adjust for that knowing the strength of the sunglasses.

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To me the highs sound a bit too loud and the bass is ok. Maybe you have your speakers upside down? :slight_smile: Just joking. This just shows that we all have different mixing preferences. There’s no right or wrong. Only if it sounds bad in the club. If it’s dance music that is.

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