by
ac220 » Mon Mar 13, 2017 9:45 pm
Well, since you watched youtube on the subject, you probably know as much as I do.
One thing though, EQ may be as important as levels both with clipping and with general blending of the mix.
Often while an instrument is OK overall, there are certain frequencies that clip or interfere with the mix, so with looking at the instrument in spectrum analyser and/or a nice graphic EQ (like ones from Reaplugs*) you can fix it more elegantly than by just dropping levels.
As for tinny sound... It's again a spectrum thing more than anything else. Basically, you need some low frequenceis, but the right kind from the right instruments, or it would be just muddy instead of tinny.
And probably that's one aspect where reasonably nice headphones help: If you monitor through a pair of dollar-store earbuds, or your average computer speakers, everything would sound tinny, no matter what you do, so you risk majorly over-solving the problem.
I don't mean you need expensive headphones, just something that isn't abovementioned dollar store specials or overpriced rubbish they sell as "gaming headsets."
There are people over here who are far more knowledgeable about mixing than I ever was, hope they will comment.
*Nice thing about Reaplugs that it's one of a few VSTs that is officially tested and developed on WINE as well as actual Windows, so if you're on Linux, they're probably the best bet, but there are plenty of other great free EQs out there.