Help! Muddy Sounds, need advice

[brandondrury]

Can you attach an mp3 to this thread? Hearing your situation would help us help you dramatically.

Brandon

[P.P.T.]

Real instruments like bass, guitar, etc usually take care of themselves as they were designed to work together in a band setting.

Synths begin to cause a problem. Especially when everyone wants fat sounds.
Fat usually means full spectrum which takes up the entire frequency spectrum leaving no room for other sounds.

You may need to thin out the synth sounds and decide where you want the synth to sit in the mix.

Much of it is also arrangement.
If there is too much going on at the same time everything will obscure everything else.
Too muck guitar or synth noodling about while the singer is singing will obscure the singer. That's why, traditionally, the guitar plays fills during breaks in the singing and stops when the singer sings. Or, if the guitar continues it will play a much simpler part over the vocal.

Use thinner synth sounds where there is too much going on and fatter synth sounds when it is time for the synth to shine.

Sometimes you need a different guitar to work in a certain situation.

When worse comes to worse you have to cut some frequencies in some sounds to make room for other sounds.
But, to me, this is usually either because an artistic decision was made to have a dense mix with many instruments or because of a failed arrangement.

[TonyB]

Originally Posted by P.P.T.

Real instruments like bass, guitar, tc usually take care of themselves as they were designed to work together in a band setting.

Synths begin to cause a problem. Especially when everyone wants fat sounds.
Fat usually means full spectrum which takes up the entire frequency spectrum leaving no room for other sounds.

You may need to thin out the syth sounds and decide where you want the synth to sit.

Much of it is also arrangement.
If there is too much going on at the same time everything will obscure everything else.
Too muck guitar or syth noodling about while the singer is singing will obscure the singer. That's why, traditionally, the guitar plays fills during breaks in the singing and stops when the singer sings. Or, if the guitar continues it will play a much simpler part over the vocal.

Use thinner synth sounds where there is too much going on and fatter synth sounds when it is time for the synth to shine.

Sometimes you need a different guitar to work in a certain situation.

When worse comes to worse you have to cut some frequencies in some sounds to make room for other sounds.
But, to me, this is usually either because an artistic decision was made to have a dense mix with many instruments or because of a failed arrangement.

Good points and whoever invented the MicroKorg should be shot! Just kidding, but getting that thing to fit into a mix without taking it over is a royal PITA!