Ive decided to scrap the song Ive been working on and made this little clip. Any of you guys out there that use FLP take a look, I just dont know how you get your levels to nice, everytime I make a track, it goes over the 0 threshold mark on the dB meter, and I know its not good. I tried giving each sound its own space (I dont know what you call it). For example one goes to the 30 mark, one goes to the 24 mark, one goes to the 18 mark, etc. Am I doing it wrong? Because I always end up with some that I need to lower the volume on to make it fit under zero.

What do you guys do to make it sound crisp (not including panning and stuff like that)



MP3

FLP

If someone wants to edit the flp and repost it would be more than awesome =] .

Thanks.

EDIT: the vocals there just for fun, so dont mind that =P

Last edited by erq on Sep-06-2006 at 17:59

dont use fruity but on the sample itself. i cant hear a bass. i think the lead is too loud. i think your problem might be eqing. your giving each sound its own volume space but you need to give it space in the spectrum also. cut all the low end under 150hz out of your lead and cut the muddy end out also then boost it in the 2000 - 4000hz range to give it life. you also need to eq your bass as its lost in your track.

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thanks for the super quick reply =].

Yeah, EQ is like rocket science to me. Ive tried to do what you told me, I think youre talking about the synth lead, not the guitar right?


mp3

this one I tried to eq the guitar like you said

clip 2

here's some eq tips substorm helped me with. they will bring your track to life.

kick:

I dont compress my kicks, but i have i great set of kick samples, so they dont need it! But i do eq them a bit. Cut around 30, a small boost around 35, Cut around 150 - 200, small boost around 2500.

I know this i verry general, but on the other hand, its a verry general question. It often depens on how your kick sounds!

bass:

Step one.

Layer one.
A dry bottom end around 40 - 80hz , play around with eq and Audiorealism Bassline.

Layer Two.
A mid bass with some delay and reverb around 125hz, play around with eq, delay, reverb and some stereoexpansion to get that egde that cuts through the mix, and also bring some warmth, Novation V-station is good here.

Layer Three.
A high bass with more delay and reverb around 4000-8000hz, not much of this, just to get some air and clarity and fills the mix more. Here i use ReFX Beast, got that sharp and wide sound.

Step Two

And its important to listen so that the kick gets the room in the bottom that it needs.To make it a bit more present Cut around cut at 35z AND give it a little boost at the same range 35hz, then you can cut at 150hz to take away some of the rumble, last you can give it a small boost around 2500hz to get it more agressive.

I dont compress the kick, but i depends on how good the kick is, but i usually dont.

Step three.

Here i have created a RETURN/SEND track in my sequencer (Live 5), and i name it BASSCOMP. Put in a compressor, here i use Waves Renaissance Compressor with these settings.

Manuel/Electro/Smooth
Attack: 0.50
Release: 80.3
Treshhold: -8.0
Ratio: 8.09
Gain: 0.0

Step four:

I set the KICK, BOTTOM LAYER + MID LAYER, to SENDS ONLY, in this case the BASSCOMP, i leave the high bass as it is.

So now you can star mixing, and remember that its often the quality of the sound that makes the diffrens, and it makes your work easyer.
And where u put the notes.

i did all this in my mix and it helps alot. also these percussion tips he gave me worked really well.

percs:

Regarding precs: Have a simple loop between the low and the mid bass, and try to tweak it so that it works well with the kick, keep it dry.

Have a wet loop with delay and some stereo expansion.

Use a nice clap and boost it around 2500 so that it get some punch from the kick, and keep it center with a litle reverb.

And then a Hihat around 8000, with a little reverb.

Cut the wet loop sample around 200.

Have a dry ride playing at low volume in the background, pan it a bit.

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woah, thanks for the thorough reply, thats awesome =].

Most of this stuff is all new to me, but Im tryin it as Im typing this.

Thanks again!

Couldnt have said it better my self!

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First thing you want to do is put everything on a mixer track. Then you want to have your kick and bass the loudest, with kick being somewhat louder than the bass. They're combined peak should be no more than -6 to -4 dB. Next, nothing else should exceed -10 dB. For instance you need to compress that supersaw-esque synth. That will make the low cutoff parts just as loud as the fully open parts. I was able to reduce that pluck of yours all the way to -20 dB and it was still very audible. The saw lead is at a constant -15 dB and very audible.

You've started a very good habit of leaving the first mixer track open. That way you can route all of your channels through that track in case you need a general drop in gain before mastering.

Some things I was able to do.

Saw lead: Compressed it and brought the gain down so that the overall volume never exceeds -14 dB. Widened the stereo on the chorus and panned mixer track 2 a little left.

Everything else on mixer track 2: Put them on their own tracks and compressed them separately before routing them back to Send 1.

Kick: Supplemented it with some mid and high to make it punch. Reset its pre-mixer volume so that I could better control its volume at the mixing stage. Fixed your EQ, too. Now there is a peak filter at 92 Hz and I'm rolling the bass off at 20 Hz. I've also got a high shelf that's reducing the mids because I felt they were too loud. Then I compressed it. (This is the way I like to mix. EQ before compressing. There are different theories on this one, and this is the practise that I like to make.)

Note that I'm using some kicks that I have, though, so when you add in your own kicks, you'll have to change my settings.

Closed Hat: This was more or less fine. I panned the Hat a bit left though, to give you some stereo image.

Pluck: Thoroughly reduced the gain. Rolled off everything below 521 Hz because bass doesn't so much matter on melodic instruments. ie, you didn't need to boost the low end. You also didnt need to boost the high end so much, so I toned that down a bit. Finally, I panned it right to balance out the panning on the saw lead, and ping ponged the delay to give more stereo image.

Bass: This and the kick needed the most work, I'd say. I fixed the sampler so that there would be no tail on the bass, and it wouldn't bleed from note to note. Next, I rolled off below 56 Hz, peak boosted around 75 Hz, giving a warmth to the low end. I notched out around 92 Hz to make room for the kick, then did a broad boost in the mid-range to bring out the definition and character that mid-range provides. Finally I compressed it all to hell. I could have done some high pass delay work, but decided against it.

Tambourine: I panned it left a bit and brought the mixer track gain down.

Clap: Here's a neat trick. I always run my claps through a distorion plugin. This flattens out their peak, makes them sound louder than they are, and fills in a lot of character that wasn't there before. I think it fattens my claps. If anyone else thinks otherwise, they're welcome to think so, but I'll continue in this manner.

A note on the vibraslap: I made it pan to an lfo, then added some ping pong delay to give it more stereo character. Remember that I also have it in its own mixer track.

Thus I managed to get everything peaking at -2 dB in the master. No need to even limit. It sounds really quiet at normal listening levels, but that's because I didn't master it. This is what your average mixdown will sound like. I'll provide you with the flp so you can look it over for reference.

mp3

flp

Oh, and a note when you compress kicks and basses, use a hard knee compressor with a fairly high ratio. This makes it really tight and robotic sounding, which is something of your goal.

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thoughtlessjex thanks so much for the help. Its amazing what you can do when you know what youre doing. Everything youve said is really making sense now, thanks

The sounds used sound like my soundblasters midi synth.

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https://soundcloud.com/ghostea stuff

Hii!

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.p...8B5F4A7756613DF

If you find it usefull let me know, my english sucks to explain what I do in plaintext if you can add me to msn will be better

Thanks FrancoR, Im really diggin that open hihat, how do you get it that way? You guys are really above my level when it comes to producing, and Im learning so much, thanks =]. Sorry I dont have msn =[.

How is the melody, should I change anything around? Does it sound like cheese at all?

I will post an update soon =]

Well, the melody doesn't sound particularly original, but I'm partial to guitar melodies, so I wouldn't call it cheesy. Stick with it. You'll have time for experimentation later.

___________________

www.jexmusic.com - My website