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Track sounds good on its own but...
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| G-Con |
Hello
I finished a track a few months back which I was very pleased with (its actually got signed) I didn't master it as my mastering skills are limited and I didn't want to make it worse by trying.
I have mixed it well though and on its own, its sounds solid, clean and punchy. However a friend of mine wants to include it on his latest mix cd but he said that when he plays it with another track, it doesnt sound punchy enough and the kick sounds too quiet. He said that if he turns up the volume to get the kick sounding loud enough, then the rest of the track sounds too loud.
What would be the best way for me to try and resolve this? Like I say, its been mixed quite well and when played on its own, the kick sounds fine (not too quiet). I'm sure this is due to the lack of mastering but I'm unsure what I should do to make it sound okay alongside other tracks so it can be mixed into.
Should I just stick a limiter on the master and crank up the input?
Cheers
P.S. You might say if the label are signing it then surely they will master it. I assume they will but its a few months away from a release date and either way, I'd like to try and solve this myself so I know what to do in future projects... |
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| Pjotr G |
| so the kick is too quiet relative to the rest of the track. How can you blame this on mastering? Re-do the mix. You may feel like it sounds just fine on its own, but reality is, if you listen to anything on its own for a while, your ears get used to the "faulty" mix. It's the cross reference with other tracks that can snap you out of that. And this happened when you heard it in a dj mix, while you could have cross referenced it while mixing. |
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| G-Con |
| quote: | Originally posted by Pjotr G
so the kick is too quiet relative to the rest of the track. How can you blame this on mastering? Re-do the mix. You may feel like it sounds just fine on its own, but reality is, if you listen to anything on its own for a while, your ears get used to the "faulty" mix. It's the cross reference with other tracks that can snap you out of that. And this happened when you heard it in a dj mix, while you could have cross referenced it while mixing. |
Ok i will go back and re-listen but I'm fairly confident that on its own, the kick is loud enough in reference to the other elements of the track. I thought it would be a mastering problem as mastering can give tracks that extra punch and loudness, something that mine would be lacking when played alongside mastered tracks. |
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| BOOsTER |
What I like to do is when mixing is having paused winamp running on background...and whenever I wait for a track getting frozen I unpause the winamp and listen similar songs (style-wise) so my ears don't adapt that easily to my possibly faulty mix :)
you might want to try it, I think it really does help ;) |
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| richg101 |
| the sad fact in our music style is that all tracks have to have very similar mix characteristics. if your track sounds weak compaired to the others then i think its time to redo the mixing. |
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| mellyG |
| sounds like you need to actually master the damn track. |
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| Limit |
| it is actually possible for your track to be fine...the problem could be that the track your friend is mixing it from has a really punchy kick. Your track may not has the same characteristics in the kick as that other track he is mixing it form...this is all to possible, and the remedy is to have him drop the bass a bar or two on the original track then bring in your track with full kick...so this gives it the switch from heavy hard punchy kick to softer kick a smooth transition, or the problem is that you just need to compress your kick a little more. Mastering wont fix any major problems all mastering does is add the spice to the sauce...it makes it taste a little better...but if you cook , it will still taste like , even if you add spice. |
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