Mixdown, Dynamics & EQ (and related) Topic

[M Unic]

The second example sounds amazing ! awesome melody to!

[Dj Reaper]

I have made a lead with a couple of layers. Hope this helps, if it is pointless just tell me and I´ll remove to not spam the topic full..

Sorry, I didn´t want to lose time on making a melody in the pianoroll so I played on my MIDIkeyboard (and I fucked it up a bit ). But it is about the sound anyway.

I just started palying with one lead and than added further layers until I got quite a full lead, and yes also mine is not the best lead, but I hope you can see a bit how layers (and especially octaves) affect the melody. And ofcourse lots of reverb and delay to make it big:

[ljk32]

The second example sounds amazing ! awesome melody to!

Cheers mate, but if you're talking about the second melody within the first sample, that isn't mine.

[M Unic]

The second example sounds amazing ! awesome melody to!

Cheers mate, but if you're talking about the second melody within the first sample, that isn't mine.

Oh sorry man ! my bad. I automaticly assumed they were both from you

Anyway as my search for knowledge continues i stumbled on this:

http://productionadvice.co.uk/how-to-av ... -your-mix/

I don't know if its really helpful but i thought it was quite interesting

also I never knew about loudness and dynamic range.. or atleast that they both are measured in decibels..
This might explain to me why some sounds even if they look like they are on the same level one is much harder then the other.

there's so much to be learned

[Xander]

Hey guys,

Every sound needs space in the mix, 2 sounds (example: 2 detuned saw leads) that use allot of the same frequencies and they are layered together will sound very mushy and has way to much high frequency's in the case of 2 detuned leads.

Only one of the leads takes the spot, the other one needs to support the whole lead so the sound doesn't get thin and powerless. So that means, making a more harsh hardcut on either the high or low end.

Example:
http://www23.zippyshare.com/v/88429411/file.html

[Cardioid]

Hey guys,

Every sound needs space in the mix, 2 sounds (example: 2 detuned saw leads) that use allot of the same frequencies and they are layered together will sound very mushy and has way to much high frequency's in the case of 2 detuned leads.

Only one of the leads takes the spot, the other one needs to support the whole lead so the sound doesn't get thin and powerless. So that means, making a more harsh hardcut on either the high or low end.

Example:
http://www23.zippyshare.com/v/88429411/file.html

Not necessarily.. If you want to make one whole lead, you don't want to create 2 different leads which don't quite blend in with each other. If you want to create one phat lead with multiple layers or synths, then routing the 2 synths to a bus and eq-ing (and further processing) the 2 together is a serious thing to consider. And of course the trick is to make it sound like one lead already directly from the synths, and not just adjusting 2 different synths which don't fit together.

[ProspectOfficial]

That's just plain wrong. You do need compression on your kick, as you want that one to be constant in volume (or atleast not too much peaking), but other than that, using compression on anything kills the dynamics in your mix. Of course there's a taste question involved in this as well, but I tend to use compressors only on sounds which I keep adjusting the volume of.
Also, merged this into the general mixdown topic.

You can use a compressor to make the clap have more punch/adjust the sustain. You can use a compressor for side-chaining for various reasons and you can use compressor on various samples like a piano. A compressor is very useful IF you know how to use it. It can fatten the sound for like a screech or lead or whatever without taking too much dynamics. Also note that a compressor can be used for parallel compression. It can be used more than only kicks
But yeah.. it depends on someones taste.
If I am wrong.. please correct me

If you're only using a compressor for sidechaining and boosting your sounds, you're doing it terribly wrong my friend... I'm sorry to say, but you've also got EQ to boost the punch in the clap, and there's no such thing as a sustain on a compressor. (Attack, Release, Make up Gain, Treshold & Ratio are most common) Surely a compressor can boost your sound, but i don't use a compressor quite often in my mixdown ''just to boost'' that particular sound, you've got other techniques for that (EQ, fattner, volume knob, etc.). I mostly use a compressor to get that sound which doesn't really fits well in the mix, to fit it IN the mix, by dimming it down a little bit together with some corrective EQ'ing. So if some sounds for instance have got a huge peak somewhere, i'll compress it so that it won't have that enormous peak anymore, and will fit more nicely in the mix. But a compressor just for sidechaining and boosting isn't really what's it all about...

I hate the fact compressors fuck with ur soundquality, even peaks can be eq'ed, try to use as less compressors in your mix, the only thing i use them for is sidechaining and indeed for kicks, to get that punchy sound,
My opinion..

[Echidna]

I hate the fact compressors fuck with ur soundquality, even peaks can be eq'ed, try to use as less compressors in your mix, the only thing i use them for is sidechaining and indeed for kicks, to get that punchy sound,
My opinion..

Its not the compressor messing with the sound quality, its the user not knowing how to use a compressor properly!

I've said it a million times before, compressors are essential in all areas of music production & sound engineering. They are not a drag and drop, preset bashing units. Compressors will hold an unstable fader in place during the mix, tighten up drums, synths as well as providing the classic side chain and other compression effects.

[D-Rian]

Why should compressors fuck up the sound quality? I love compression... but i mostly use analog compressors... like the one built in the SSL Desk. Or a 1176 to really make sounds "smacky smashing"
I use compression on everything. Sometimes to sculpture a sound. For example giving it a hard attack and sometimes i use it just to reduce the dynamic range to get a more consistent mix. Another great example is parallel compression on drums (Not on a hardstyle or hardcore kick!).

Now i will explain why i do this.
I do it this way, because the next step after the mixing will be the mastering. And i want my track loud! Where do you listen to hardstyle/hardcore... ? Maybe in the car, on big events or in the club... But nearly never on a really audiophile sound system at low volume. So lots of dynamic range can be overrated in this genre.

When it comes to mastering, a mix where compression is used to flatten out hard peaks in leads and so on can be made louder! If the single instruments play on a more consistent volume in the mix, then you can make the master louder. I try to master my tracks to around -7dB RMS. Lots of professional hardcore tracks have around -7dB RMS. Maybe i am kinda supporting the loudness war, but this is how i like hard dance music and also what my clients expect.

PS: If you want an example for a track that is deadly overcompressed and mastered way to loud: Angerfist & Outblast - Catastrophe It has about -5dB RMS. Don't do it this way

[Harha]

Few days ago I started wondering about the 32bit floating point wav render setting in FLS. I figured out that it gives a ridiculous amount of "headroom" for your rendered .wav's. By that I mean that normally when rendering with lower setting the track starts clipping immediately after 0dB and the rendered wav is "crushed" but with 32bit float set it also clips but the information of the over 0dB going peaks is still preserved so when lowering down the volume of a clipping rendered 32bit float .wav the waveform isn't anymore crushed but in it's original state. Kinda fascinating, so I'm asking that how could this feature benefit me in any way?