My melody is REALLY loud

[MrHatTrickX]

Hey guys, I have been making a song and I came up with a problem on the beggining, I started with the drop and the "pumped up" part of the song but the problem is that my melody is just TOO loud....the kicks,claps and pads are messed up and you can't listen to them because of the melody. I'm using fl studio and I dont know if I should simply lower the melody's volumen on the mixer or should I side chain it (but this makes the melody lose it's actual sound and it sounds really weird.

What should I do ?

[Nitrax]

EQ and level everything properly. EQ out what you don't want to hear for every sound, and boost the part you want to pop out in the mix. If it's too loud, make it less loud.

[Tweeka_1]

Turn off the limiter on the master channel and start over =)

It makes a false compression that doesn't sound good imo.

if you're working in fl that is

[Emre]

offtopic but LOL marcus your avatar

[NessPJ]

offtopic but LOL marcus your avatar

Yeah that just made my day! Epic.

[UNIFITE]

As Tweeka says, You should check if the limiter is on. if yes - turn it off.

Else, You are probably experiencing the same thing that lots of us have tried. Created a melody with so much power, but without a clue how to "mix" it, while it keep its power-value. Its a tough one, because frequences are flying around, and you feel the melody becomes "sad" to listen to. -or the lead that is.

Try to play around, and as You mention turn the mixer down to a acceptable level and eq, reverb, delay it and try adding a compressor etc. SUddenly, maybe tomorrow, maybe in a year or 2 You will hit the thing You want!

[Hyperdrive]

Never use a limiter on the master during production. I sometimes use maximizers or compressors on the master channel to make the whole mix louder (when I need a track to be loud so I can play it in a mix or something), but I only do that at the very end, when the overall mix sounds good and balanced.

If you can't get your lead synth/melody at the right volume in your mix you probably EQ'ed it the wrong way, or the sound is just too thin to come through properly. If the synth itself is already thin, it's very hard to get a full and warm sound in your mix, so make sure you use a fat synth (this basicly goes for every other sound as well).
Also, never put too much low frequencies in your synths, if you do that they get in the way of the bassdrum and other low frequency sounds. Don't cut it out entirely, that will make it sound thin again, but if you leave just a little bit in just to keep the warm/full sound you will be able to blend it in the mix a lot better.

Remember to also be careful with the high frequencies; if you have a lot of high frequencies in your leads AND in (for example) hats or other sounds, they will make your mix sound muddy. I find high frequencies and low frequencies the hardest to get right in a mix, but they really make the difference. In my opinion they are more important than the mid frequencies (not that those are unimportant ofcourse).

Plus you gotta remember; if you use/boost unnecessary frequencies it will only leave less volume/room in your mix for other sounds. It takes alot of experience to get your entire mix to sound just right, and often it's very hard to get the source sounds (bassdrum/synth etc.) to sound fat. But focusing on getting fatter sounds before trying to EQ them into a nice mix will make the whole thing easier in the long run.

All in all it's mostly a matter of experience, but I can tell from my own experience that no matter how long you have been producing, you will sometimes encounter a mix that almost seems impossible to get to sound right. If you get really stuck on a mix you can always put the volume of every mixer channel on 0, and start raising them one by one (usually starting with the kickdrum), and start mixing from scratch again (sort of).

If you really can't get it right I'm willing to take a look at your flp file.

[Soundphase]

My melody was really loud, But then I turned it down

and then I took an arrow to the knee

[Soundphase]

Never use a limiter on the master during production. I sometimes use maximizers or compressors on the master channel to make the whole mix louder (when I need a track to be loud so I can play it in a mix or something), but I only do that at the very end, when the overall mix sounds good and balanced.

If you can't get your lead synth/melody at the right volume in your mix you probably EQ'ed it the wrong way, or the sound is just too thin to come through properly. If the synth itself is already thin, it's very hard to get a full and warm sound in your mix, so make sure you use a fat synth (this basicly goes for every other sound as well).
Also, never put too much low frequencies in your synths, if you do that they get in the way of the bassdrum and other low frequency sounds. Don't cut it out entirely, that will make it sound thin again, but if you leave just a little bit in just to keep the warm/full sound you will be able to blend it in the mix a lot better.

Remember to also be careful with the high frequencies; if you have a lot of high frequencies in your leads AND in (for example) hats or other sounds, they will make your mix sound muddy. I find high frequencies and low frequencies the hardest to get right in a mix, but they really make the difference. In my opinion they are more important than the mid frequencies (not that those are unimportant ofcourse).

Plus you gotta remember; if you use/boost unnecessary frequencies it will only leave less volume/room in your mix for other sounds. It takes alot of experience to get your entire mix to sound just right, and often it's very hard to get the source sounds (bassdrum/synth etc.) to sound fat. But focusing on getting fatter sounds before trying to EQ them into a nice mix will make the whole thing easier in the long run.

All in all it's mostly a matter of experience, but I can tell from my own experience that no matter how long you have been producing, you will sometimes encounter a mix that almost seems impossible to get to sound right. If you get really stuck on a mix you can always put the volume of every mixer channel on 0, and start raising them one by one (usually starting with the kickdrum), and start mixing from scratch again (sort of).

If you really can't get it right I'm willing to take a look at your flp file.

I took the time to read your post, Good and all accurate advice