ok, so exported my track, burnt it to a cd and listened to it in my car along side some
professional tracks. the kick sounded absolutely spot on, almost identical to the
professional track. volume, shape, thump, everythin. the drum group also sounded good.
everythin else sounded quite flat and quiet. the pads and synth etc. do you think its just
a case of brightening the sounds up and bumping up the volumes of them. maybe bring
the kick down a touch so the other sounds can fit into the mix?? otherwise the master
volume will be too loud.
plz help. need to get this nailed once and for all!!
you could try some subtle multiband and limiting on your synth groups… will enable you to get them a bit louder without bumping the peaks too much.
cant believe i’ve never used a multiband compressor until you just suggested there phil.
its a godsend!
what tutorials have it being used in phil so i can have a quick look and see how its best
used?
Oh and a limiter 4 that matter plz phil
I defo used it in the mastering tut… not sure what others.try the search filter using search term compressor.
think of using it like a subtle bit of mastering on your groups and youll be sweet.
how close to the reference track am i looking to get my volumes of the synths etc?
because i understand that the mastering phase will bump up the levels a bit. so am
i looking to get it close or considerably close? i understand the closer the better.
the problem for me is that i havnt had anything signed yet. so im not 100% sure at
what point i’ll hit the nail on the head in terms of overall sounds and mix.
do you have any mastering on your master out?
normally you can get pretty close if you have a decent limiter on the master.
i would only ever shave of 3-4db with the ableton one. could go to 6db on Waves L3 and maybe a touch more on some others like the sonnox one or slate FG-X
[quote]phil johnston (13/11/2011)[hr]
i would only ever shave of 3-4db with the ableton one. could go to 6db on Waves L3 and maybe a touch more on some others like the sonnox one or slate FG-X
[/quote]
sorry phil, i dont understand what this means!
and no, i dont put anything on the master, but i do have the waves limiters. do you think
i should put the limiter on just to bump things up a touch?
keep it subtle though yeah?
If you are comparing your track with other released tracks yeah it would be a good idea to put a limiter on the master if it’s waves you could get 3-5 db easy with no noticeable change in sound.
When you say that Phil, do you mean a constant 3-4db or peaks at 3-4db during the loudest points of the track?
I mean you could set the gain reduction to 3-5 db - which gives you the same increase in volume
also, do you mean leave the limiter on when your sending it off to labels?
If your sending it out to lables as a demo then yes leave it on.
If you are sending the final master to a lable you would have already discussed if they are doing the mastering or not.
cheers phil. thats helped a lot
your very welcome!