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Greetings everyone. I have been producing a while now and my tracks are starting to sound
pretty decent already. I am now at a point where I have a handful of tracks that I would like to
get polished and finished. The problem however is that allthough they sound good with my speakers
(pair of Behringer B2030A Truth, no sub) they sound horrible at other systems especially with ones
that have a sub. Now then. I know that the problem is in the mix, expecially with the volume of the
sub bass and very high sounds (hi hats etc). My lack of expertese and lack of a sub don't help me out at all.

I need help.

I am using Reason and Ableton live to see the frequency spectrum since Reason has no spectrum analyser at all.
The thing is, I have been reading these mixdown tips and stuff here but I don't really get how can I see at what levels
are my sounds on in Reason. People say that kick should peak at -6db but in Reason, I cannot see if it does that.
I bounce the track to Ableton and open up a freq analyser and see the spectrum but have no idea what it means.
I only see that the highest peak is somewhere like -12db for example. I would really appreciate if someone who is using Reason
could explain me how can I see the levels of things so I could get an idea if my sub-bass is too loud in comparison since I have
no sub. Thank you in advance and sorry if this made no sense I can try to explain this better if you didn't get what I am
talking about. Point being everything sounds good with my speakers but on other systems, my bass makes the song muddy and high sounds give you a headache.

Use the Mclass maximizer with the limiter turned off on channels or just upgrade to Reason 6.

Project EX wrote:Use the Mclass maximizer with the limiter turned off on channels or just epgrade to Reason 6.

This too reason 6 is miles better

Thank you all!

Another question then. At what level do you usually keep your sub-bass at then?`I allways seem to make it too loud.

I like mine right around -9 to -11

Nothing HAS to be at a certain level I hate how people make it out like that is true, just do what sounds good to you, if you don't have a sub that's quite a problem
I'd actually just invest money into something that re-produces them frequencies otherwise Dubstep isn't the genre for you lol,

The funtcase masterclass videos have some good tips on mastering just search it up on google

i just push everything as loud as it goes without it clipping tbh

disclaimer: anyone lurking or reading this- do not actually do this, i only do it because i am incredibly lazy

OP is there any reason why you dont just bounce all your stems from reason and then mixdown in ableton using WAV stems?

hutyluty wrote:i just push everything as loud as it goes without it clipping tbh

disclaimer: anyone lurking or reading this- do not actually do this, i only do it because i am incredibly lazy

same lol. if i sent it out to get masted i would probably use the -3db rule, because they will make it louder anyway. but i never do that so i just go as loud as i can without clipping.

If your rewiring reason into live, put the kick on its own channel, do the same with the snare, and sub.Then you can mix in live.

Don't mix in reason. That might sound like an ass response, but don't. The sound engine in reason is... funky?. Everything sounds like its in a box, besides there's a crap ton of pointless hoops you have to jump through to actually try and mix down anyway. you're giving yourself a hard task when there are free alternatives that do the job better.

Just grab Reaper and bounce all your stems into there. Then go grab a copy of CM magazine and check out the studio for a few plug ins that'll make mixing down easier, freq analysers and such. Hunt around, there are decent EQ's, Compressors, Limiters e.t.c.

Seriously contemplate this, might seem like a bit of work, but its less work than what you're attempting to do.

In my humble opinion

Or upgrade to reason 6

Thank you for the tips guys!
However, I'm still wondering if I should invest into a subwoofer. I mean, my speakers do the job but I'm not sure if I am missing something at the bottom frequencies because I always seem to make the bass too loud. Or is it just because I suck ?

I think a sub woofer would be a bad choice if your room is untreated. I may be wrong there are a few guys on here who know about room size/speaker size stuff.

I don't really know much about acoustics but I have a big bedroom (at least 20 square meters) and my speakers are against the wall but not in the corner. I suppose my room has horrible acoustics as this is quite a big and rather empty space.

Get a DAW.

something like Reaper is even basically free...

Reason is a daw....

No audio so no A in DAW, also no vsts.

[quote="Brisance"]No audio so no A in DAW, also no vsts.[/quote

what are you on about?
Redrum plays audio as does Dr Rex, as does nnxt, etc.