it's called mixing!

search for EQ, Compression, & Delay. there is a lot to soak up on this topic.

but for starters, put your vocals center and pan the synths instead...

its going to take longer than a year or two. I have been recording electronic (no, not techno dammit!) since about 2002/2003 and each day I feel I've learned how to be better than I was yesterday and I know in my heart that I have a LONG way to go.
In the last year and a half I have read everything I could, thread, article, or otherwise and tried and experimented with every technique I understood at the time. If you are trying to be better it will show in your work.

Now, on to what you've written about how you setup. What you are saying is all well and good, but it means nothing if you dont have a file for us to hear. Post something and you'll get much better feedback, because mono/stereo in general means not so much inside of a DAW, imo. Your vocals dont have to be mono, nor do your synths. In my experience, its only "better" to have lower frequencies recorded in mono mainly because when they are spread out they lose their punch.
Like I said, no one is going to be able to judge what you are doing without an example of your work. I doubt anyone here will poke fun at your work if you're concerned about that. :-?

First of thank you for the response so far! As far as me posting, no problem! I am no way ashamed, we actually are very good at what we do. Let me figure how to post so you can listen and critique. how do I post an Mp3 on here? Thanks.

Actually if its not too much trouble...visit our website: http://www.zenitramrecords.com. Click on Artists, click on the artist K-Live. Click on discography and listen to the song "Jumpback". I produced, mixed, recorded and arranged this song, but I feel it has that "not so blended" sound. I also produced recorded and mixed all of the rest of the music on the site. Please give listen and let me know what you think. Again, I am trying to improve my recording/engineering skills. Thanks.

Your music could probably benefit from one thing: Mastering. If it's not mastered, it's not going to sound polished and it's not going to sound cohesive. Mixing is important as well, but your issue is likely that you either need to learn the basics of mastering yourself (if only for demo purposes) or find someone you trust to pay to do it for you (if for pro purposes).

If you want to give it a crack yourself, I'd recommend:

1) Har-Bal - $100 tool for balancing EQ spectrum visually. Very efficient and worth every cent.

2) A basic single band compressor. Software like the Waves C1 or RComp will do. Run your tracks through with attack maybe 100 ms, release 200 ms, ratio 1.5-2:1.

3) A basic single band limiter. The Waves L2 is great.

Stick to single band. Multiband= :evil: for anyone but a pro.

I can do well with plugins, but for commercial releases I use professional mastering.

The process he uses is that he takes the stereo master, loads it into PT|HD sends the digital output to some custom european gear that seperates the audio into six frequency bands, he adds a little eq, and compression if needed, makes sure that the levels betwwen the different songs are consistan, then digitally records the result onto a mastering CD burner, in realtime on Matsui Gold CDs.

I'm not poor but the equipment he owns is beyond my means, plus he has a totolly sound isolated room with acoustic treatment. basically a room inside of a room.

He gives me a break as a repeat offender, but it costs me about $1000 per project, but it's well worth it. Takes the mix to the next level.

Check out the demos from an old skool RnB project I produced.
link removed

8)