I've noticed that a lot of people struggle with mixing early in their production careers, trying to get their mixes to sound "cleaner" or "fuller". The thing that helped me the most was not eqing or compressing, but having proper instrumentation and arrangement in the track.
Instrumentation is basically what elements make up a section of a track. It is CRUCIAL that the individual elements you choose fit well together even before eqing them. If the individual sounds don't all have a specific purpose in the grand scheme of the track, the mix will inevitably not be as clean and focused as it could be.
Each instrument should have a specific purpose and frequency range it is meant to fill and should be shaped to take out unnecessary frequencies. For example, it is nearly always necessary to cut below 100-150 hz out of everything but the sub and kick to allow them to have room to "breathe" and stand out. I personally cut high frequencies (above ~10k hz) out of basses and leads to allow high hats to shine through. If a certain sound just doesn't fit no matter what you do, it usually means you just need to use a different sound!
Arrangement is basically what elements are in each section of the track. If there are too little elements in a section, it will sound empty (obviously). If there are too many, it will sound muddy and unfocused. Again, make sure each element has a specific job to do.
I found a trick to learn what elements to use from this YouTube video. Basically listen and write down all the elements in a section of a reference track, then take a bandpass filter and sweep across the track, taking notes of what the main element is in each frequency range. This is very helpful for learning how to arrange your own tracks.
Experiment with using different elements on your tracks and see if it makes a difference. It sure did for me!
Submitted February 28, 2017 at 11:05AM by officialaceaura https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/5wo580/the_biggest_things_that_helped_me_dramatically/?utm_source=ifttt
Javier Rodriguez
Tuesday, February 28, 2017