I'm a home studio musician and I'm really struggling to get a clean, professional mix for my indie rock tracks. My main issue is with mixing techniques for the drum bus and getting the vocals to sit properly in the mix without sounding detached. I'm using Logic Pro X with a basic set of plugins, and my room isn't acoustically treated. The guitars and bass seem okay, but the overall sound is muddy and the kick drum gets lost. Are there any essential processing chains or specific mixing techniques I should focus on for a genre like this? Should I be using more parallel compression or saturation on the drums? I'd love some practical steps to try.
Nice setup to work with. Start with a simple drum bus chain. Cut mud with a high pass around 30 to 40 hertz, add light glue compression at about 2 to 1, then a touch of saturation for warmth. Blend in a parallel bus for punch.
In my home studio I got better kick presence once I used a parallel compression bus for drums with a fast attack and medium release and blended back in. It adds punch without overpowering the rest.
Not sure with your room yet but try treating the kick and snare separately on a small bus and side chain the vocal a bit to keep it from getting muddy. See if that helps the vocal stay glued to the track.
Yes you can fix this without buying more gear but you need to focus on the basics first. Cut the mud on the drums, keep the kick clear with a low end notch, and use subtle parallel compression on the drum bus to lift the whole kit.