Hi everybody,
I just finished bouncing one of my first completely finished tracks out of Logic and I was really pleased with the way it sounded.Although when I took a look at the waveform compared to some professional tracks that I though were a similar style to it,mine looked flat and weak.Basically the drums were as wide as the other tracks I compared it to,but the actual bass and synths were really small and narrow smashed down at the core of the waveform.I don’t think this is a volume issue though because I actually bounced it out multiple times experimenting with the levels of the drum and other elements.It always looked very similar though.I honestly thought I did a pretty professional job of making this track.I used EQ,compression,panning,syncopated rhythms,mastering,and a whole lot of other techniques that I’ve learned from sonic academy videos(Which I love by the way!).So if anyone could tell me what I’m doing wrong that would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Kelby
could you post a screen grab of the files?
The track on the top is mine.It looks almost as of its just a kick with a little something under it.It looks like on the other track the bass/instruments range out almost as far as the kick, but on mine everything but the kick looks small and smashed down.Any ideas??? Oh and these tracks are a Nu-Disco/House kind of style if that helps any
Any ideas what the problem could be???
It’s a bit hard to say from the picture what the problem is. It honestly could be a myriad of things… For example:
Are you mixing, bouncing, and then mastering the bounce?
Are you mixing/mastering on headphones or monitors?
What kind of compression and EQ are you using and where?
Are you normalizing your final bounce at the master?
To me, my first thought is the monitoring system. I say this because your kick, just from looking at the waveform, is way too present compared to everything else. If the headphones, monitors, or room treatment isn’t exactly optimal, it will be very difficult to balance your elements correctly. Tough to help you without hearing or seeing an arrangement.
Looks like you got loads of transients on your drums… Do they sound clicky? Maybe youve cmpressed them too much with a slowish attack.
Hi Jamie,thanks for the reply.I’m working on KRK headphones and also taking listens to it on the harbinger monitors I use when I DJ. I didn’t mix,bounce and then master the bounce.I just mixed and put a master then bounced.What is the ideal way to do this?Should I bounce all of my tracks individually and then mix and master or should I mix then bounce the complete track and master that?I am basically just EQing the highs out of the bass,lows out of the synths,Mids out of some things and ect.All of that so that everything has its own place.As far as compression I’m just doing some basic compression on my synth,bass,ect.I tried both normalizing and not normalizing when I bounced,which resulted the same for me(I wasn’t peaking any)and if it will help I’ll be glad to post a short demo.
Thanks, Kelby
Phil,I will check out my drum compression aswell.They don’t really sound clicky,but I do think that I might be able to pull the kick back a little and work with the compression some.Thanks!
did you you checked the stereo images? Something similar happened to me when I used stereo wideners an d set up the pan around 200.when I tweaked to be back ti 100write it looked normal.
I’m not using any stereo wideners on any of the channels right now.Could the problem be that some of the tracks are actually too stereo?Is there a way to make the tracks more mono without being completely mono?I know I watched a SA video on creating space and they used one of ableton’s plug ins to make some of the synths “more mono”,but is there a way to do that with a Logic plug-in?Sorry, I hope that makes sense.I’m new to production and some of the mixdown process is really kicking my butt haha:pinch:
Could you post a shojrt clip of the file and i will try it through my speakers?
Here is a little snipplet of my tune.This is the same bounce that you saw in the pic I posted.I’ve messed around with it some since then,but it still hasn’t improved very much.Now that I listen to the bounced file with the volume turned up more I do notice that the drums(especially kick) sound too loud.I think maybe if I tuned them down and added more a bit more sidechain(I barely used any) to some of the the channels,and work with more EQ and compression on it that my kick might cut through the mix more at a lower volume.Then I could also turn my track up to a higher volume without it peaking.Do you guys think that might work??
Here we go.The waveform looks a little bit better on here,but still not what I think it should be Snazzy Pajamas-Hej(snipplet) by Snazzy Pajamas
What are you guys thoughts on it?
bump
Anyone???Please???
I think its just a case off your drums havung too much attack… Could be the sampels them selves or a compressor or transient shaper.
Whats fx chain havd you on the drums?