How To Fix a MUDDY Mix?!
Did anyone tell you that your mix sounds "muddy"? The first time you heard that, you were probably like "Muddy? How can my mix be muddy? What does that mean?". So, let us educate about that and explain some ways to fix it.
In this blog post, my goal is to first explain what is mud in mixing, and then how to properly fix is using some efficient techniques.
What is "Mud" and what determines "Muddy" mixes?
A "muddy" mix refers to the instruments that get jumbled up together which results in overlapping between different frequencies usually in the mid range. However, that can happen in lower or higher mid range frequencies too.
To simply explain, "muddy" means a lack of clarity and definition with bad separation between certain instruments in the mix. This means that this certain frequency range gets over-filled or over-saturated with too many frequencies/energy.
What frequency range gets "muddy"?
In terms of "mud", the frequencies that usually tend to become muddy can be located mainly between 150-500Hz range on the frequency spectrum. However, I don't usually advice to stick to strict values, so know that mud could maybe happen even beyond this frequency range I mentioned.
Fixing a "muddy" mix
Before we actually dive into different solutions for muddy mixes, let me tell you something you must know before even thinking about fixing a muddy mix.
If mud happened in mixing stage, the first thing you should think about is where that came from. So, avoid going straight for an EQ and cutting on the Mix Bus channel. That won't help in all cases.
To identify mud, isolate certain instrument/vocal groups (buses) and play them. If you play a single instrument/vocal, you won't be able to identify mud since it won't happen unless all the instruments/vocals play.
Now, once I cleared that up, let's jump into different ways to treat & prevent muddiness in your mixes/masters.
Narrow Low End
FabFilter Pro Q3 - A solution for many problems (if used correctly)
A very simple fix or prevention from muddiness can be keeping your low frequencies in mono using a Mid/Side EQ. This will make sure that your low end sits tight in the mix. However, you should carefully choose the filter type you're using for this purpose. This can make your low end weaker in some cases, so maybe using a low shelf filter instead can give better results. This is all up to different cases you're going to experience during mixing & mastering, so it really up to you to decide which filter you're going to use and in what amount. Filtering up to 80-100Hz will give decent results (but take this only as your starting point).
An advanced tip is to use a Dynamic EQ sidechain feature on FabFilter Pro Q3 to sidechain specific frequencies. For example, the kick will be the trigger to attenuate specific frequency range on your bass whenever the kick hits.
150-500Hz
As mentioned earlier in this blog, it's very important to remember that muddiness often occurs around 150-500Hz or so. In order to identify & fix it, my advice is to place an EQ on your Mix Bus channel, focus the band around 150-500Hz and solo it (FabFilter Pro Q3 offers this feature) and listen to how that area sounds. After identifying the area where the mud is, you can proceed to using an EQ, Compressor, Stereo imager or panning to fix the issue.
Complementary Equalization
If two instruments are competing for the same frequency range, that can cause muddiness, and that's how mud usually happens in most cases.
One of the ways to prevent that is to use complementary equalization method which means attenuating one instrument while boosting (or leaving as it is) the other instrument at the same frequency range.
To understand this technique better, let's imagine one example where we have our kick and bass. Now, imagine they're playing at the same time. You can obviously hear how the mix becomes inconsistent and the kick has trouble cutting through since there is too much energy coming from the kick and bass at the same time. Now, you have to make a decision which instrument should be on top (kick in this case). You're going to load an EQ on both Kick and Bass channels. Open your EQ on your bass channel and create a gentle bell cut around the area where the kick & bass are mostly active (that can be all the way from let's say 60-80Hz or so). Once you did that to your bass, head over to your Kick channel and open an EQ. Create a point at the same frequency range where you cut your bass and boost the kick (only if necessary).
Once you did this, you'll be able to easily hear the effects. You kick now steps upfront and doesn't clash with your bass in the amount as before. This is only one solution to lower the clashings which can cause muddiness.
The same technique applies to the mid range. For example, your vocal fundamental frequency can be competing with other instruments such as snare, guitar or maybe piano. Complementary equalization can help there too.
Dynamic EQ
A very simple dynamic cut around the area where the mud happened can help to get rid of it. However, you should carefully listen and decide if this is the best possible solution for fixing muddiness. This trick mainly works in mastering if there's a certain need to. Usually, mastering engineers will get back to the client to ask for this problem to get fixed in the mixing stage, but there are also ways to fix it in mastering.
Dynamic EQ can also be used for complementary equalization which we mentioned above. However, let's explain one advanced dynamic eq trick in the next step.
Dynamic EQ Sidechain
This is controlled by the threshold within the dynamic eq, but please don't mistake this for a multiband compressor since it's not the same.
The dynamic eq will start reacting once the signal gets loud enough to trigger the eq (which can be controlled by the threshold).
If you want to add a recommendation for the future blog post and get featured on, feel free to reach to our DM on Instagram or use our e-mail address: marko@md3sign.com
Mid/Side EQ
Sometimes, muddiness can be caused by the mono channel which represents on the whole mix. For that purpose, try attenuating mids and amplify the sides to your taste. This is another type of complementary equalization, but this time, we're focusing on our stereo field which consists of mono and stereo channel (Mid/Side).
Intelligent solutions
Plugins such as OekSound Soothe2 and SoundTheory Gullfoss can be an easy way to deal with muddiness in your mixes and masters.
Gullfoss is as simple as dialing the "recover" feature, while tweaking the "tame" feature at the same time to determine the right amount you want.
Soothe2 on the other side is also very flexible and offers many adjustments. Determine the right band you want to affect, sharpness, selectivity and overall depth.
High-pass Filter (Be careful)
Either in Mid, Side or Stereo mode, a high-pass filter can be the best tool to find place for each instrument (non-bass instruments) and deal with muddiness. However, it can also be your worst enemy if used incorrectly. Be very careful when choosing the processing mode you're going to work with. Zero Latency & Natural phase processing modes will introduce phase shifts to your audio signal, while Linear Phase won't but it'll possibly cause latency and pre-ringing which is also unwanted. Please get educated about these processing modes before using any of them. Our EQ Masterclass offers a complete lesson about each processing mode, so you might want to check that out!
Conclusion:
Using an EQ to your advantage is crucial to make the mixes and masters sound commercial ready & professional overall. Master the art of equalization with us by getting our EQ Masterclass that features over 5 hours of video lessons. From beginner to pro!If you want to add a recommendation for the future blog post and get featured on, feel free to reach to our DM on Instagram or use our e-mail address: marko@md3sign.com
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