How to Clean up a Muddy Mix - Simple Mix Trick

This technique is broken into two parts.

1) Finding the Problem Frequency
2) Finding exactly what causes the problem/imbalance so you can use your skills to fix it

Usually, you know when a mix is muddy but finding the cause of the problem can leave you scratching your head and frustrated!
Hopefully, this technique will help you find the problem frequencies so that you can focus your energy where it's needed the most.

Happy Mixing :)

[khalilsingh]

mute instead of solo! Thats genius! I will definitely try that. Its like a type of deductive reasoning.

[lawrencevaughan]

I know this is an older video of yours, but I do find myself often revisiting your channel. Your work is amazing. Knowledgeable, practical solutions and workflow with zero bullshit. To the point, concise and clear. Amazing teacher and top quality content. It’s really appreciated.

[DatAnydex]

There’s a German saying: “What is thought unclearly is spoken unclearly”. Michael is special. I notice I hardly hear him say “uhh”...”like”...”annndd”... Just the way he shares in these tutorials reveals how he thinks. Logical, clean and intelligent thinking. Keep it up Michael 👍🏻

[nikolassehman]

I've been mixing on my own for 4 years now, and have been in University for audio engineering for the past 2 years. This is the first time I've seen the muting vs soloing solution to finding problems. I'm not a pop producer or anything even close to it (I'm more of a country-rock mix engineer), but I absolutely love your tutorials! I always seem to find little tidbits of gold in them! Keep up the good work!!

[laithjarrarmusic]

Man your mixing skills and your overall tone is getting better and better everyday! Keep going guys👏🏻

[ferenctulics]

It's almost unbelievable how easy is to understand almost EVERY situation we might get into, after listening to your very valuable and super informative lessons.
I'm listening to you every time. when I have a chance, even while driving my big truck. NOT WATCHING, just listening, learning, and dreaming about the day when I'll be able to apply in real life all those great lessons. Thank you for sharing them with us and, please, keep up the great work you do! It's unbelievable. For me, at least.
Thank you, brother!

[nenissaK]

7:48 one important note to add: whenever Michael is nodding to a beat, it means that the problem is solved

[bambok]

Always good to watch your tutorials, straight forward, no spam, and no bullshit. Deffo 10 top channels for music on YouTube. I have produced for over 10 years and can tell you know what you're talking about as other uploaders slip with misinformation or incorrect terms, great stuff mate!

[yusifmhmoud]

My problem is that I don't know if the mix is muddy or clear like it could be muddy but I would think it's okay

[vic]

You're literally the only one that makes me understand mixing.

[WeAllFloatHere]

I've had a mix that has been muddy that I've been sitting on and I kept playing with my bass sub frequencies trying to fix it. Using this technique I immediately identified that my kick was adding crazy sub frequencies to the mix, so I moved my high pass filter up just a touch and instantly my mix was 10x cleaner. Thank you for this. You just made my mix SO much better

[ThefrequencyAF]

One tip I learned was to mix as you go in Mono. Because if you can seperate the sounds in mono so they sound good together, it'll sound definitely sound great in stereo.

[pedrokoury]

The soloing buses part was my major learn with this video. Very logical and strategic...the problem isn't necessarily in one single track but can be shared. Never thought of that in the manner you've just demonstrated

[andrejkelcik]

You are one of the few youtubers who actually do their tutorials in a formal useful way and do not try to be annoying clauns half the time

[the_infinull]

I'm actually happy that as soon as you pressed play on the track, i knew where the problem was tonically before you used the EQ on master. All these years of practice really pay off guys, keep working! And big ups for your tutorial man, i hope more people will get educated properly and apply the knowledge into practice and results.

[abel_]

First video I’ve searched on the topic & all I can say is that you’re a very skilled and wise teacher.


I’ve produced for some years but I’m just now tackling and wrapping my head around mixing my tracks (It doesn’t seem as scary as I thought it would be)... I love your message about “locating the problem” and then using your skill to pretty much solve it. Love your approach of STARTING OFF by listening to everything as a whole and MUTING single tracks as oppose to trying to SOLO and isolate a “problem track” on its own. That is such a skilled and wise approach because I think our nature as humans is to try and immediately isolate what we think might be the problem, and that becomes our starting point. I believe you teach a very simple but skilled technique in this this video!! Your approach seems to be very effective in time.


People usually recommend a specific skill/method/technique to fix a problem and they preach it as the end all be all, but I love how you acknowledged that there are multiple techniques to achieve a result. Obviously, it’s also important to learn new and different techniques, so when I watch a video and someone is preaching a mixing & mastering technique as THE way to fix a problem, I’ll take it with a grain a salt, learn, and appreciate the technique. But I acknowledge that there’s possibly 10 other techniques and tricks out there.

Great video

[xenofi]

The best thing about this Channel is that everytime Michael says "I might make an own tutorial on only this (as here it's SPAN)" he always does. Coolest guy!

[thriift]

When u turn that channel on and off and the noise goes away it’s so satisfying lol. Thanks for these videos it’s nice to learn from someone who actually knows what they are talking about instead of just saying “eQ tHe LoW eNdS aNd UsE a SoFt ClIpPeR”

[nikolaswalter]

I swear If I ever make money off my music thanks to your amazing tutorials, you're getting a check.

[inthemix]

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