'warming up' tracks made in Reason?

[Unfed]

a friend at work makes Drum n' Bass tracks in Reason 3.0, and uses WaveLab for finishing touches, burning to disc, etc. this is about as much as i know about his setup. he doesn't feel that his tracks stand up sonically to other stuff that's out there. i listened to a mix and thought there was 'something missing' but couldn't pinpoint it. i guess it's the usual flat, homogenous sound that people use to describe music that was made on a computer. i think he's got a cheap soundcard, (here's a dumb question) would that make a difference if he's not going out of the PC when burning to disc? i don't think he's tried any EQ, compressor, etc plug-ins (unless WaveLab has its own), would this be the best place to start? i'm guessing he'd have to get a ReWire host like Cubase or something to use mastering

plug-ins? i'm not sure that he knows where to start, and there's not much that i can tell him as i've never worked with a computer for audio. i thought about running his signal out of the PC and into a stereo tube pre-amp maybe?

 

any advice would be helpful, thanks.

[StompBoxLover]

 

Originally posted by Unfed he doesn't feel that his tracks stand up sonically to other stuff that's out there.

 

 

there is no quick fix, magic black box or conveniently pre-programmed preset in an audio editor.

 

it takes time, experience and ear-training to get there (well, closer that is)

 

starting with great sounding gear is the easiest way IMHO, since the fix-it-in-the-mix approach requires more of the above mentionened talents.

And this is where Reason's weak point is, the sounds are o.k. but not great.

 

at some time it was fasionable to run the tracks of a DnB track through a high quality analog mixer and to drive it quite hard.

[tucktronix]

It sounds like the problem lies more with the audio than the sounds. Is he using any of Reason's effects? I don't know what exactly is in 2.5, but there is a lot of good mastering tools in 3.0. Also, the soundcard will make or break your mix, no matter how great sounding your synth is. If you use a crappy soundcard, your mixes will come out crappy as well.