loud, quality tracks - am i doing it wrong

Pettro · Post by **Pettro** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 2:10 am

It's all about the mixing. My advise is forget about compressors and stop worring specifically how to make your tracks louder.
I spent hours reading learning trying to understand the theory and started going deeper and deeper into this obsession of bringing almost mastered quality tracks.
One day I figured out I was spending too much time on that stuff and not having fun anymore, so I clear EVERYTHING from my Ableton session view,
then I import one of my all time favorite produced tracks (from Rekorder), I then import into sampler one of my sampled kicks and level it to the same as the rekorder track. From then on I started building a new track. I added the bass first,then snare, high hats, and rest of the instrument. I never messed with the level of an already well mixed intrument after I felt comfortable with its sound.My master kept going more red each new instrument or sound I added but I forget about visuals and concentrate on what I heard.I kept Always comparing with the "pro" track and compensate as needed..no compressor no limiters no "mastering" tricks.
I placed an EQ on the mp3 and mute the parts and check it how well it mixed with my own parts.
I was all over the reds and yes some distortion and maybe sounds horrible to educated ears but at the end I deleted the "pro" track and turn down all my channels -2 db all the same, and through a limmiter on the master and save happily.

I'm far from sounding "pro" or even mastered but the few times I have played after a DJ in a club I only have to turn up the clubs mixer a few dBs and
I'm as loud as the before and after DJ playing mastered tracks.

And what's more important to me is that now I have more fun creating sounds twisting synths and sampling movies, instruments, etc than messing with
compressor settings, mastering busses, and magic tricks to sound as a overcompressed loudy CD. I might never learn the good theory anyways.

Maybe my advise is crap and that's why I have no release yet..hehehe..but I feel very comfortable playing my music and have lots of fun..ohh and I switch a lot between monitors and home stereo speakers to have a more reference.

You can check my tracks in soundcloud (signature) and tell me what you think. Actually on October demo I did throw a subtle compressor in the master..and I think it sound lot worst than the other two tracks with no compressor at all.

I listen to your tracks and I agree they're lacking some low end freqs. Try to emulate the kick-bass of one of your fav tracks, or use some good quality kick and mix from there.

Keagan · Post by **Keagan** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 3:00 am

briobox wrote:
Keagan wrote: for a while now i start with a kick drum and immediately compress it to a point that i know that it will cut through anything
and then i move the fader down to -4db or -6db and bring in the hook, or sample i was working on before and mold the kick around that i like big 909 kicks so i usually don't turn it down much after that
by compress to a point that it will cut through anything, do you mean tuning a sidechain on it or a compressor directly after the kick channel? thanks.

no, sidechaining can get really messy, you've got to be able to get your kick drum and bass playing together with out clipping with no gating or whatever, if you can't do this your kick drum needs to be shaped up a bit or your bassline is too wild

sometimes compressing your kick to get the sound and cut you want and then sending it through the same return track as your bass and then putting a compressor/limiter on the whole thing helps a lot

sometimes it just doesn't work... you cant turn a pile of sh!t intooo..... yeah

Keagan · Post by **Keagan** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 3:07 am

another idea is to get one of those crap minimal loop cd's and mixing with the compressed loops--- you'll see if you start with compression you'll probably end up with a loud track

just start with compression

thomasjaldemark · Post by **thomasjaldemark** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 9:58 am

briobox wrote: I uploaded some things here:

http://soundcloud.com/tr909

The track micro vbr is a good example as well. Far too faint. I have to crank any devise up very high to hear it well.

All comments are very welcome. Thanks again to everyone for your help and advice.

Don't turn up the volume high. If it doesnt sound good on low volume it wont sound any better on high volume, thats just a mind trick

I listened through the tracks and it sounds like you need to learn how to mix the different track elements properly in the first place before worrying about getting a loud mix.

On Micro vbr i would maybe try to:
Crank upp the bass. The kick is weak and it sounds distorted. (and i would add some bassline)
Lower that clap a lot, it takes over the whole mix.

Pettro · Post by **Pettro** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 11:33 pm

This post http://www.mnml.nl/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=53594 took me to this thread http://www.dubstepforum.com/this-thread ... 32-20.html
I mentioned early that I was trying to level a mastered tracks. I'll try the oposite and bring the mastered track down to my level and mix from there.

briobox · Post by **briobox** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 6:23 am

I read the linked post above and made this:

http://soundcloud.com/tr909/sets/compre ... iting-test

A cheesy house-ish track done with:

version 1. no compression

version 2. ableton compressor on the master bus

version 3. ableton compressor and voxengo elephant on master bus (demo, cuts out sometimes).

Would proper mixing allow me to have the uncompressed, unlimited version sound as "good" as the compressor + limiter version. Does the compressed + limited version sound good to you? I don't hear any distortion - or at least none that bothers me - but perhaps my ears are not yet well trained enough?

Comments? I'm still a bit stuck.

Thanks.

(I do suppose the lead synth line could be mixed lower - it stands out a bit the more I listen to it).

clubfoot · Post by **clubfoot** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 9:55 am

briobox wrote:Would proper mixing allow me to have the uncompressed, unlimited version sound as "good" as the compressor + limiter version.

yes. this is what you want to achieve.

you really should read/watch the interviews et al in this mastering thread: http://www.mnml.nl/phpBB2/viewtopic.php ... =mastering

hydrogen · Post by **hydrogen** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 7:30 pm

clubfoot wrote:
briobox wrote:Would proper mixing allow me to have the uncompressed, unlimited version sound as "good" as the compressor + limiter version.
yes. this is what you want to achieve.

you really should read/watch the interviews et al in this mastering thread: http://www.mnml.nl/phpBB2/viewtopic.php ... =mastering

thnx for the reminder... that rob acid video is my favorite!