how do you make your sounds more 'proffesional'

[JonnyB]

ok well im looking for a bit of help.

im struggling to get any sounds to sound 'professional' so to speak.

i can get the base sound that im after but it just dosent sound right.

im looking for what you guys do after youve made your sound in your synth, do you process it, use effects??

if so can you take us through it? i think ive come to a learning block.

i can make half decent sounds in dubstep but thats about it and its shitting me to tear's .

any help would be much apreciated

[CBG]

hmmm.

well you could eq every sound tighter than an asian nun. so freq dont fight eachother.

some ppl give everything reverb. to give it more presence.

layering a synth with sub/mid/hi layers.

compression.

applying groove.

ohh and mastering makes a big diff

[ChevChelios]

EQ EVERYTHING!

best thing you can do, Im kind of against compression, people usually use it, thinking it makes their sound louder, which it does to an extent cause it brings the quieter sounds up, but it kills dynamic range, which in turn kills your song, puts it in a box and locks that shit, so if I was you I would avoid it mostly unless its purposful (like brining up the sound of your delay etc)

Reverb is good, dont over do it though, unless you want that sound. Its great for putting an instrument into its own space, and also panning is great for that.

Proffessional mastering is the big one, a good M.E. will bring everything in a track and add heaps of depth to it, self mastering will gereally be pretty crap, and sometimes make it worse unless you study it.