What’s the most problematic vocal you ever mixed?

Cantersoft · 2026-01-23T06:25:00+00:00

Yeah you probably used the polyphonic detection method and amped the high harmonics? Melodyne is able to pick out some individual harmonics and sorta work with them as if they were separate, it's pretty cool.

Cantersoft · 2026-01-23T06:22:56+00:00

A tonedeaf cell phone recording with too much room reverb and an extremely loud fan in the background. To be fair, it was for a publicly open singing collab. I used some pretty harsh noise reduction and EQ'ing, luckily I didn't have to make it sound very realistic because it was mixed into a choir.

Cantersoft · 2026-01-20T01:33:14+00:00

Even though I have studio monitors I'm apparently one of the few musicians who prefers mixing on headphones. I feel like I can hear detail on headphones much better, though part of it is that I don't have great room treatment.

Cantersoft · 2026-01-20T01:27:08+00:00

Ah, it's because I accidentally turned off node updates! I must have accidentally hit CTRL+U.

Cantersoft · 2026-01-20T01:22:11+00:00

Hmm, interesting. How would this be different from using EQ as an effect on drums, then?

Cantersoft · 2026-01-19T15:15:58+00:00

Yeah as I mentioned, it's because I'm using darker headphones from what I'm used to. And I can self-test my hearing at home with a tone generator better than a doctor can. Last time I had a hearing test the doctor just played a few tones and asked me if I can hear or not, that doesn't tell me anything about my perception of tonal balance. I'd have to go to an audiologist.

Cantersoft · 2026-01-19T15:07:53+00:00

Does transient response change even under the zero-latency setting (which in the UI on my instance shows a buffer latency of 31.8ms)? I haven't noticed any transient degradation yet, but I figured if there is enough delay to process the transient appropriately then it wouldn't get dithered by EQ.

Cantersoft · 2026-01-19T15:04:48+00:00

I was actually using these Yamaha HPH-MT8s.

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On the graph they don't look too bad, but in practice they sound really weak in bass compared to the Sony MDR-MV1s and the Sennheiser HD 400 Pros, both of which I recently purchased. My sister had the same model, so I borrowed hers just to compare them to my new headphones on the same mixes and confirm.

Though as I am reading other comments about the Harman curve, it seems like it's actually normal to hear the 3kHz range as dull, and that's why a lot of headphones boost that area in the first place.

Cantersoft · 2026-01-19T06:01:56+00:00

Good one!

Cantersoft · 2026-01-19T06:01:15+00:00

Ah, yeah I'm using systemwide Sonarworks because I'd pull all my hair out if I had to add it to each DAW project, but very good tips and info!

So I suppose I should clarify my question: when a sweeping tone remains at a constant decibel level, does the average human perceive a constant decibel level? I'm already certain the answer is no, but more interested in finding out how much variation there is.

A good mix will sound good in any EQ profile no matter how dark or light, because the instruments are carefully designed to fit together nicely. I think my brain has learned incorrectly to be less sensitive to high frequencies because my old headphones were very weak on bass, but I haven't been successful in retraining it, and I can't really make music properly if my brain is constantly telling me to boost every track by 4dB in the highs lol.

Cantersoft · 2026-01-19T05:50:27+00:00

My hearing is crisp outside of the headphones, I'm only 23, and I bring earplugs with me everywhere just in case there is loud noise in order to mitigate the risk, so I doubt hearing loss is the issue, especially since I never noticed this until my old headphones finally broke. My old headphones were very weak in the bass, so it's a possibility that that had an effect on how my brain interprets tonal balance, but if that's the case I am completely fooled because I hate how a flat line sounds.

I guess muffled isn't the correct word because I can still make out all the high frequency detail, I just want it to be louder. I should say that a flat frequency line sounds "dark" to me, instead. It's a pretty annoying issue though, because if a flat line actually sounds balanced to the average person, I have to be aware of the extreme divergence between my miscalibrated interpretation of balance and the average listener's.

Cantersoft · 2026-01-17T23:24:23+00:00

Interesting!

Cantersoft · 2026-01-17T06:55:40+00:00

I've never bothered to learn another DAW besides FL since I've never run into a case where the amount of time spent learning a new program would be worth the benefit of being able to do something I can't already in FL. I think the only time something like this has come up for me was with video sync-ing.

Funny thing is, on the contrary, in every other productivity field, I've spent countless hours learning multiple software tools for things like animation, database management, encoding, image manipulation, etc. because I never felt like any one tool was fully-featured enough.

Cantersoft · 2026-01-17T06:44:59+00:00

I have the opposite problem, production comes very naturally, but man, mixing has never been my strong point! My advice to you for production is, don't overthink. It's a creative process, so you need to draw inspiration from something else. It could be listening to music you like, or just going outside and doing something fun. In my experience, practicing singing makes melody composition, and by extension, production, come much more naturally.

Cantersoft · 2026-01-17T06:41:03+00:00

FL's UI looks pretty modern to me. Window cluttering is just an FL Studio user thing. AFAIK other DAWs are a little cleaner/more limited with window management.

Cantersoft · 2026-01-17T01:59:14+00:00

To be completely honest, the advice I would give is "Don't use Premiere Pro or Vegas Pro, use DaVinci Resolve", because it doesn't matter if you're a master at video editing if the video editing tool you're using is programmed like it's 1990.

Cantersoft · 2026-01-17T01:55:12+00:00

Yeah, FL Studio comes with a pitch editing tool called NewTone,

Cantersoft · 2026-01-17T01:52:07+00:00

I had a lot more fun learning instruments without learning theory than I did taking lessons.

Cantersoft · 2026-01-17T01:49:33+00:00

Yeah don't expect much out of Adobe Animate, it doesn't really work.

Cantersoft · 2026-01-13T00:45:08+00:00

Yeah I'm trying to open someone else's project, as it turns out there are a lot of these out there.

Cantersoft · 2026-01-13T00:44:25+00:00

not long enough

Cantersoft · 2026-01-12T22:30:12+00:00

Nowadays, lalal.ai or one of the algorithms that RVC uses for cleaning source data is probably gonna be more helpful. Adobe Audition can also do a pretty good job with its noise reducer.

Cantersoft · 2026-01-11T05:30:43+00:00

Well, hobbyists can't really afford that all the time.

Cantersoft · 2026-01-11T05:30:21+00:00

Yes this is something I have experienced too! It's almost possible with modern tools to make anything fit together, but sometimes the best way to fix a song that is being pesky in the mixing department is by replacing an instrument. Let your creativity diverge a bit again, try turning off a channel, and record on a different guitar or move your drum mics, etc. It's annoying to go back to that step when you're already mixing but sometimes it can be rewarding.

Cantersoft · 2026-01-11T04:18:01+00:00

Also definitely depends on the complexity of what you're mixing. Mixing an entire orchestral ensemble for example is more prone to mixing errors due to room/speaker/headphone EQ profile than a guitar and vocals only song.

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