A question about mixing

I'm really a newbie at mixing sounds to fit into the soundscape of a track. I often mix my sounds all over the place, and it ends up sounding muddy, and mostly centered around the mid frequecies.

My question is this: When one has produced the sound one wishes to fit into the soundscape (be it a synthesizer, break or a sound clip) does one sort out the sounds frequencies to give it a "cleaner" sound, or fit it into a predetermined frequency so that it better interacts with the other sounds (placed at different positions to fill out the soundscape)?

I you have a 303 that plays both dark and light notes (often sliding from high to low and vice versa) how does one go about mixing this?

You could automate your EQ if its that bad, but in general, just make some general blocks. The ones to really watch out for are your bassline and drums, because those will often interact. I spend the most time digging out little notches in drum and bassline parts to make them fit together cleanly. Your melodic parts are then the next big challenge, and it's really trial and error. I'm also not like a studio engineer or anything so Im sure someone else can give better direction. Being able to solo tracks and check a frequency analyzer for them is a big help (Renoise can do this on its own, don't know what you're programming in).

generally, balance is the key

if you have something in the mid freqs, dont stick more there, if you have to add something add something that omplements the track in other frequencies.. if you have a low heavy bass line, dont add a low heavy kick drum, make the kick drum abit higher and punchy/ditty/clicky .. if you have the mids occupied by big chords, dont add a line directly there. it also helps to pan things in different areas

just don't worry about it too much is my advice. fuck "soundscapes". just make a fucking track man....

if you've got a bassline in it, obviously don't add a shit load more bassy things. if you've got a lot of mid-range, put in some bass and hi-end. it's not hard...

a 303 is very midrange unless you're using real low notes or are on particularly low cutoff or resonance. if you're tweaking your 303 sound then yes, the frequency range is gonna vary, but just make sure you're levels are ok and it should sound alright.

if your tracks sound "muddy" - there's too much in it. simple as that. thin the fucker out.

without professional mastering, you're never gonna achieve amazing sound quality like you hear on CD's etc, so don't fucking bother or even worry about it.

for a simple and effective fix - mix your tracks so the levels are peaking at 0dB maximum, make sure there's not too much going on and then run the whole thing through a mastering processor like T-Racks 24 Pro.

T-Racks is actually really good and will give your tracks a lot of sparkle and generally improve the overall quality.

On a similar note anybody know of a good free stereo spectrum analyzer vst like the Waves PAZ Psychoacoustic Analyzer?

I want something that graphically displays how things are distributed in the stereo field.