My songs/beats never sound right and sound muffled in the car

Question

So I make beats and stuff and when comparing mines to others it just never sounds right. Mines sound muffled and not wide enough( like if you listen closely to a pro song with headphones, you can hear how panned sounds actually sound in that ear back&front, and my songs don't have that back and front sound) I guess you could call it not being full but I doubt that's it

Yes I've been mixing for a while &I do multiple mix and masters. I add tape saturation to the master chain sometimes I compress Hpf And all that good stuff to no help

Here's an example

Answer 1

Your song has plenty of good in it, but it does come out "flat" sounding, and compression or filters aren't the way to add depth and width.

For depth, you want a mix of delay effects (reverb and/or delay), and to apply these differently on each element of the mix.

For width, a mix of panning elements differently and slight differences in phase between left and right channels, used judiciously, will help to add width.

You don't need expensive equipment to do this at all.

There are several tutorials and articles out there about both the theory and practice of producing for depth and width. If you search using those keywords, you'll find a lot of help on how to pan and set effects so that you can get the results you're looking for.

Answer 2

I get what you're saying and producers who think their final mixes or masters are flat, dull or uninteresting are not in short supply. What some new or amateur producers/artists or even seasoned producers who have not interacted much in the professional world don't realise is how much work goes into getting a song to sound "pristine" and "full" before release. These days, there is no reason why anybody with the right effect plugins can't achieve this with time and the right understanding of what needs to be done.

I can hear that your beats sound quite centred(I think this is mainly due to the snare). There are many professional, semi-professional and even free effects plugins to deal with widening. The most common effect used for widening is reverb. Without going into a huge answer on how I would move forward, I'll just give some examples. I would suggest putting a phase analysis display on the master channel, and individually playing each track to see how they occupy the stereo field, then apply stereo effects to adjust it to your liking. Note that all the effects you described have nothing to do with stereo separation. A short, plate type reverb on the snare, widen any hihats with a chorus effect, use mid/side EQ to brighten the sides, etc. Waves have good stereo control effects. There are lots of tutorials on the net about things like this.

Or you could leave it as it is and pay for it to be mastered by a professional mixing/mastering engineer if you have the cash. You can even tell them exactly how you want it to sound, with an example song in necessary.

Answer 3

Everyone of us has been through this frustration. But in my opinion getting that big sound starts at the source. Commercial recordings are done in $100,000 studios with engineers with the experience to know how to do it and producers who know how to make it sound commercial. A mastering engineer alone can't achieve it. If your recording and mix is amateur, it will stay amateur even if it's sent to the best mastering house.