When one piece of music seems outstanding next to the mediocrity of another it is commonly not because of the melodies involved. Instead, one track sounds better than another because it has a balanced and sweetened mix while the other has been patched together with in an amateur and guesswork fashion. The list below gives some tips to consider when mixing a piece of music that has professional aspirations.
1. Always use the highest quality samples and get the best possible recordings to make your track. Horrible initial recordings will definitely make a mix sound bad.
2. Cut separate areas for each instrument within the audio spectrum by using EQ. For example, keep the bass drum and bass guitar from getting muddy by cutting out all frequencies below 80Hz on the bass drum track.
3. Use at least some panning for most of the instruments to create a nice stereo field. Cymbals, percussion, and strings sound great panned though the bass drum and bass guitar and usually kept center field.
4. Learn how to employ compression to give punch and power to each instrument. Without compression, instruments always sound weak and flimsy.
5. Before mastering, play favorite tracks from CDs in the same genre as your project and compare the overall sound quality. Determine if your track sounds like these professionally released mixes and if not, why not.
6. Let your track achieve maximum loudness by employing a limiter on the final mix which smushes down the highest peaks and allows you bring up the whole mix.
When all is said and done, put your mix onto a CD or into your .mp3 player and listen to it in a variety of speaker systems such as in your car or a friends living room to make sure it sounds as good as possible in as many places as possible.