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fragments wrote:I usually try to get "big" bass sounds with proper EQ and gain staging, in other words, making room in the mix. But I could be entirely full of shit.

BTW. when we are talking about the room in the mix. I am preparing my track for mastering and my master is hitting up to -8dB. Is that enough room? I think that someone told me I should have like a 10dB room... I have a lot of jumpy levels and I'm kinda lost.

fragments wrote:To me 4-5dB seems like a lot. For me that feels like heavy compression (depending on the other settings and what it actually sounds like, but still) Also compressing things by default doesn't seem like good practice to me. The more I learn about compression, the less I use it as "a rule of thumb". Isn't anything over -10dB of gain reduction technically limiting? (<might be talking out of my ass here...)

Ratio of 10:1. You were close.

While technically OP isn't wrong about using some buss compression to glue elements together, whacking 5dB of gain off the whole mix as a means to control jumpy dynamics is going about it the wrong way. A producer who understands the nuances of compression will be able to squeeze a buss a little bit in the polishing stage to integrate a group of instruments together and give them some shared character. However, if you're not already familiar with the ins and outs of a compressor, you should be working on a track by track basis, just trying to get individual instruments' dynamics sitting at a controlled level. If you've got large scale dynamics problems, you need to tighten up with volume automation before you reach for a compressor. Get the mix to a clear manageable state first, then worry about glue and loudness. Otherwise you're just squishing a turd up against a wall.

I think if your making super complex bass with different effects on then you would want to use compression so things dont get out of hand. But for the most part, its good eq and sound design.

So, what is your drop bus? What instruments, effects, ect you have going on? Are your drums going to that bus also? Im asking because it might help us understand what your trying to get from compression in the context of your mix.

This article is pretty basic but was my ah moment in my introduction to eq and compression.
http://www.dnbscene.com/article/88-thin ... tutorial/2

Icetickle wrote:

fragments wrote:I usually try to get "big" bass sounds with proper EQ and gain staging, in other words, making room in the mix. But I could be entirely full of shit.

BTW. when we are talking about the room in the mix. I am preparing my track for mastering and my master is hitting up to -8dB. Is that enough room? I think that someone told me I should have like a 10dB room... I have a lot of jumpy levels and I'm kinda lost.

Room isn't referring to headroom so much as having space in the mix and arrangement for each piece to fit into. You can always turn a mix down as most DAW have a nearly impossible to reach noise floor. What's important is making sure there's not crowding going on. Is there room in the frequency spectrum for your bass? Is the snare transient sharp enough to cut through the shakers and ambient percussion? Does each part have it's own role, foundation, foreground, background, supporting role, etc?

Think of it like a movie scene. You're gonna have a couple main characters and several supporting characters. And then a set that provides an environment for the scene to occur in, but doesn't get in the way too much. You can't have every extra standing in the center of the screen talking really loud over each other and trying to contribute to the main dialogue. Roles need to be cast and every part needs to play its role. An arrangement that is focused and organized in this way will be a breeze to mix because everything is already in its place.

@SunkLo: I almost edited the post to change it to ratio 10:1, but I wasn't really sure. Thanks for the info! And yea, I agree buss compression for glue/character can work...that just seemed like a lot of compression for that purpose.

@Efrara11: Love that guy's articles on DnB Scene. Pure gold IMO as far as a way to think about EQ and compression!

I really feel like compression is largely misunderstood and used as some kind of band aid by a lot of producers. In the digital realm there shouldn't be a need for tons of compression, generally speaking, since you aren't dealing with the issues of recorded live instruments. Unless your FX chain is causing drastic changes in dynamics of a single instrument or you are trying to control the relative loudness of instruments on a bus or you are trying to impart a bit of character to glue some bussed elements together (which really only works if you are using a non-transparent compressor and shouldn't need much gain reduction) there shouldn't be a need for a ton of compression with a complete ITB production. Unless you are trying to squash the shit out of your mix in stages to make it super loud.

@Crimsonghost: my buss is based on 2 basses and 1 layer for the second bass.

I didn't focus so much on mixing, compressing, mastering and such. The things i spent most of the time is EQing, making melodies, arrangements layering..

Also how do you guys feel about me uploading this not mastered, poorly mixed (I guess) track on soundcloud (private) so you can tell me what (IF) am I doing wrong?

Icetickle wrote:Also how do you guys feel about me uploading this not mastered, poorly mixed (I guess) track on soundcloud (private) so you can tell me what (IF) am I doing wrong?

No need for that, you just told us:

Icetickle wrote:I didn't focus so much on mixing, compressing, mastering and such.