What do I have to change?

[Strangesound]

Hey guys,

I'm a Taxi member for quite some time but stopped trying because I can't get "the" sound. No matter which genre you are listening to (HipHop, Ambient, Rock), all the Pro's get "the sound".
While browsing through some Taxi listings and listening to Chris Brown and Drake, I realized that some sounds are really bright but still fit the whole vibe.

Since I started using a waveshaper plugin (saturation/distortion) for certain instruments I get closer to a controlled, in your face sound but somehow I got the feeling that I'm "damaged" by mixing videos, where these guys use tiny EQ-moves only. I suppose that some producers and recording engineers EQ stuff to their liking during production so that the mixing engineer has to make small but crucial tweaks to make it sound congruent.

To those guys who get placements: which changes made the biggest difference in your productions to get placements on a regular basis? I feel that I'm too timid shaping the sounds not pushing it enough for a modern sound. In my opinion, a modern sound has nothing to do with a transparent/raw recording. It's not about recording a orchestra or a jazz band but some guys on YouTube treat it this way.

I want to change my mindset and finally offer libraries songs that they can use.

Thanks.

[ttully]

Hi Strangesound,

Without hearing any of your tracks...it's tough to tell what you need to do......

If you could put up a link to a track or 2 that would really help!

But without hearing anything..... a very important thing to do is A/B with a track you want to sound like and eq and compress and limit to try to match that sound.

Thanks
Tim

[Strangesound]

Hey Tim,

thanks for your input. I did some A/B comparisons, did some bigger EQ-moves and I think that's what I was missing the whole time! Being more liberal with the EQ-curves, as long as it nudges my tracks more towards the reference song while not minding how the EQ curve looks. Thanks a bunch!

[ttully]

Yes, I couldn't care less what the eq curve looks like......if it needs a big boost at 80...or cut every thing below 400...whatever....as long as it sounds good.
Same with compression and limiting. ....for some things I'll limit the crap out of it....
Your tracks gotta be able to stand up right along side with the best out there.

I have a friend that was the mix engineer for some of the biggest artists in the world.
I believe he said "I turn the knobs til it sounds good."

Thanks,
Tim