3 Ways To Make Your Leads Stand Out In A Mix
Hey-yo. This is just gonna be a quick little guide with 3 different ways you can get your leads to stand out in a mix. So if you are interested, give it a whirl below. Though, please note, these are just my subjective methods to use. Do not take them as gospel and treat them as suggestions which can potentially add more oomph to your mix.
Method One: If your leads are sounding distant, it can never hurt to experiment with a little saturation since that’s a little trick I like to use if I don’t feel my leads are really auditable. Helps to boost the sound a bit and you’ll have to play with the high/mid/low-end saturation boosts until you find something you like. I’d recommend downloading fab filter saturn for it as it’s my go-to for saturation
Fab Filter Saturn Link: https://www.fabfilter.com/shop/saturn-multiband-distortion-saturation-plug-in
Method Two: Another trick to get your leads to stand out is to probably to create a sub-mix if you are using a bunch of synths. Then you remove all the effects/delay/reverb etc and EQ each to have a high, low and midsection for the lead. After that, start adding in the master eq, reverb, delay, saturation etc and it sounds like it is more meshed together. I say this because a lot of presets will have weird effects that, when used together, makes your lead sound confusing. So I learned to do that to avoid having something jumbled up when I use my synths. I’d also work with 2-3 leads at a time for a good number, but you can go above that if you think it sounds right in the context of your mix
Method Three: If you are using layers, it may also be worthwhile to experiment and have one layer of notes on a higher octave as another. This may give it a different feel and sound depending on what kind of instruments you are giving so it all doesn’t mash together. However, for this suggestion, you’ll just have to play with it and see how it all sounds in the context of your mix. It won’t always work, but it’s worth a shot if you want to give your leads something more to work with.
And that’s it. Those are just my suggestions if you are struggling a bit with your leads. If you found this article of use, let me know and leave a comment on the blog. Cheers.