Page 1 of 2

what do i do now?

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 1:20 pm
by Troglodyte
ok so im half way through making a dnb tune and i thought to myself i better stop and clean up what i've got down already, so i read a bit of the mix down section and put it into practice, my overall mix peaks at bang on zero but my snare dont smash like it used to, should i add some distortion or will be able to up it some other way without putting the db's up?

once im all done adjusting levels and so on what do i do next eq'ing or...?

Re: what do i do now?

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 1:29 pm
by Digezt
You shouldnt be anyways near 0 should be well below this, should only be near 0 when mastered, this is why you cant bring your snare out. Typically i have kicks at -15 snare at 10 and hi hats and cymbals around -15 to -20 and sub around -7. Then mix everything else to that, but thats just my way of doing it, im sure someone will go into more detail about it

Re: what do i do now?

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 1:53 pm
by naus
Dont worry about hitting reds mate..... make it sound sick. just make sure you dont get lots of digital distortion.

Peace

Re: what do i do now?

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 1:55 pm
by Echoi
Dont you just love it when someone gives some sound advice, then someone else comes along and says the complete opposite to really confuse matters. :roll:

Re: what do i do now?

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 2:23 pm
by Perfecture
I find a good rule of thumb (not a strict rule though) is to have the kick and snare at generally the same volume, then mix everything else around them. The hardest elements to make sound good together are kick, snare and Bass/Sub bass. So if you got these elements down, punching through and sounding really good together then everything else should be alot easier to fit around them.

Also another good way to give the snare more room, clarity and dominance without increasing its volume is to cut 200hz out of sounds (anywhere from -2b to -15) that don't need that frequency and to maybe slightly boost the snare eq 2-4db at 200hz. This does depend though how much the original Snare sample hits at 200hz though.

Hope this helps.

Re: what do i do now?

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 2:47 pm
by krispy
Echoi wrote:Dont you just love it when someone gives some sound advice, then someone else comes along and says the complete opposite to really confuse matters. :roll:
Yeah no kidding
I have to agree with the second post, try to leave yourself lots of headroom by having your drums at like -9 or so and work from there
Don't let things hit in the red
Try to keep your song mixed at a decent level as you go along

Re: what do i do now?

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 3:01 pm
by Troglodyte
naus wrote:Dont worry about hitting reds mate..... make it sound sick. just make sure you dont get lots of digital distortion.

Peace
well ye what i had first was banging but having played it on a half decent hi-fi im hearing its dirty and i dont mean the the good dirty, i've set myself the goal of learning what it takes to make thick fat heavy tunes that are also clean and crisp,

i read the first few pages of the mixing and mastering thread and all i saw was a guy saying i've left this much headroom bla bla then replies from someone who obviously knows waht hes talking about saying leave more headroom your mixes will sound better for it but he doesn't go onto to explain what to do from there to get your mixes loud and so on

i think what would help me if someone could list a quick plan of what to do, then i'll go research the task's and have a crack at them

Re: what do i do now?

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 3:21 pm
by JFK
Digezt wrote:You shouldnt be anyways near 0 should be well below this, should only be near 0 when mastered, this is why you cant bring your snare out. Typically i have kicks at -15 snare at 10 and hi hats and cymbals around -15 to -20 and sub around -7. Then mix everything else to that, but thats just my way of doing it, im sure someone will go into more detail about it
Agree 100%

naus wrote:Dont worry about hitting reds mate..... make it sound sick. just make sure you dont get lots of digital distortion.

Peace
This is just plain wrong.

Re: what do i do now?

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 3:27 pm
by Digezt
OK, ill try help you out with somethings. But im still learning to .

Kick - Analyzer up and you should see it punching around 100HZ, if not use another sample. Put a low cut filter (EQ) to take the very lows out set this for around 75HZ this will stop the kick going to much into the sub.

Snare - Same as kick but 200hz cut just below this to remove any unwanted noise.

Hi hats, Low cut again to remove un wanted noise, There is always loads of low end noise that comes up on hi hats samples for some reason.

Put a compressor on the sub and side chain to your kick channel. This should be set to remove a couple of dB everytime the kick punches.

Put all of your drums to a send. ( BUS ) this will be the parallel compressor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_compression

Theres loads on the net and youtube about it, I think Depone did a tutorial about it.

You can if you like also add a reverb on this bus or on another, just slight reverb to make the drums sound like they are in the same room, and more natural. Depends what your going for.

Synths.

Analyzer, slide through the frequency's and find parts where the synth is just making noise, or parts that you dont want, cut these out, also cut around 100HZ to leave room for the sub.

Remember as your EQing you will need to mix again as your removing volume from certain parts.

My mixes will be playing around 5dB on the master fader, leaving loads of room for when you come to master and pull the volume up to 0dB.

Mastering something i still havent got my head around, so i will leave that to someone else.

If im wrong correct me, hope this helps you Troglodyte, I might have explained all this and you already know it, if so sorry

Re: what do i do now?

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 9:55 pm
by Troglodyte
Digezt wrote:You shouldnt be anyways near 0 should be well below this, should only be near 0 when mastered, this is why you cant bring your snare out. Typically i have kicks at -15 snare at 10 and hi hats and cymbals around -15 to -20 and sub around -7. Then mix everything else to that, but thats just my way of doing it, im sure someone will go into more detail about it
Digezt wrote:If im wrong correct me, hope this helps you Troglodyte, I might have explained all this and you already know it, if so sorry
thanks i'll have a go at this tomorrow, also when you compress the drum on a bus channel thats a send channel in fl right? plus do you only compress all drum hits with the one bused compressor

Re: what do i do now?

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 1:11 am
by Burnlees
Troglodyte wrote:
Digezt wrote:You shouldnt be anyways near 0 should be well below this, should only be near 0 when mastered, this is why you cant bring your snare out. Typically i have kicks at -15 snare at 10 and hi hats and cymbals around -15 to -20 and sub around -7. Then mix everything else to that, but thats just my way of doing it, im sure someone will go into more detail about it
Digezt wrote:If im wrong correct me, hope this helps you Troglodyte, I might have explained all this and you already know it, if so sorry
thanks i'll have a go at this tomorrow, also when you compress the drum on a bus channel thats a send channel in fl right? plus do you only compress all drum hits with the one bused compressor
You could do that way i think, but the way ive always done it is route each of your individual drum channels to an insert and use that as your bus. and yeah i think he saying to compressor them all under one compressor in the bus, instead of on each of their seperate channels. Although i wouldnt go exactly by what he has said there, as he is being pretty strict with frequencies etc.


I might be wrong though, im a beginner to. :m:

Re: what do i do now?

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 1:19 am
by phrex
naus wrote:Dont worry about hitting reds mate..... make it sound sick. just make sure you dont get lots of digital distortion.

Peace
p i l e o f s h i t

Re: what do i do now?

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 1:36 am
by paravrais
Most of this thread is like the blind leading the blind and the helpful information is getting lost in the chaos. If your a newbie why bother trying to help someone who knows just as little as you do? I wouldn't walk into the middle of a black belt kung fu training session and be like "no no no your doing it all WRONG!"

0.o

Re: what do i do now?

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 8:55 am
by Echoi
paravrais wrote:I wouldn't walk into the middle of a black belt kung fu training session and be like "no no no your doing it all WRONG!"

0.o
But you should, you really should just for the jokes. :D

Be like, "NO NO NO" (then faceplam) then snap at them "You're doing it ALL WRONG, this is how you're supposed to do it"

Then start making Bruce Lee noises "waaaaah" "WAAAAAAHHHH"

Then run like fuck ahah

Re: what do i do now?

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 8:59 am
by wub
Echoi wrote:
paravrais wrote:I wouldn't walk into the middle of a black belt kung fu training session and be like "no no no your doing it all WRONG!"

0.o
But you should, you really should just for the jokes. :D

Be like, "NO NO NO" (then faceplam) then snap at them "You're doing it ALL WRONG, this is how you're supposed to do it"

Then start making Bruce Lee noises "waaaaah" "WAAAAAAHHHH"

Then run like fuck ahah


Less of that Jackie Chan shit. I wanna see some fucking windmilling!

Re: what do i do now?

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:06 am
by donjuan23
Red isnt bad is it?
on tracks as opposed to master? Im confused
-q-

Re: what do i do now?

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:09 am
by JFK
donjuan23 wrote:Red isnt bad is it?
on tracks as opposed to master? Im confused
-q-
Mate, are you serious?

Clipping is bad wherever it may be occurring tracks, master, VST's wherever

Re: what do i do now?

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:16 am
by Echoi
JFK wrote:
donjuan23 wrote:Red isnt bad is it?
on tracks as opposed to master? Im confused
-q-
Mate, are you serious?

Clipping is bad wherever it may be occurring tracks, master, VST's wherever
Well done troll, you trolled JFK, well done.

Re: what do i do now?

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:19 am
by JFK
Echoi wrote:
JFK wrote:
donjuan23 wrote:Red isnt bad is it?
on tracks as opposed to master? Im confused
-q-
Mate, are you serious?

Clipping is bad wherever it may be occurring tracks, master, VST's wherever
Well done troll, you trolled JFK, well done.
SHIT... Totally fell for it :(

Didnt see the post count.

Re: what do i do now?

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:24 am
by Basic A
Red is only good in Tessla.