OT: Mastering: Getting a punchy Kick Drum

[yarrick19]

Hello,

I'm trying to do some mastring on a metal album and am having trouble getting the kick drum to punch through as I increase the levels. The kick drum is triggered and sounds pretty good in the raw mix, but when I apply compression and a bit of limiting to raise the RMS levels of the music the punch of the kick disappears and it doesn't cut through the mix. I've done my "homework" on mastering and read Mastering Audio by Bob K. I've been playing w/ the attack and release times on the compressor and that helps some but its still not where i want it. There is not enough time/resources to send this to a mastering house. Anyone have any tips on this? Is this a case where multi-band compression is needed?

Any input is appreciated,
Paul

[crs117]

If you are trying to fix the kick drum in the master then you are already too late. The kick needs to be fixed before you bounce to stereo. You can do some cool stuff to make things more punchy in the master, but if your kick is lost in the mix before the master you will not be able to pull it out with out damaging the rest of the mix.

Go back and remix and fix the kick there first.

Christian

[superpenguin79]

I agree with crs117, if you have the mix that will be your best bet to get your sound in the mix if it has been recorded properly for what you guys are looking for in the first place, and then go with the mastering. Mastering is generally meant more for the sonics of a mix to get tweaked and the volume to be raised than to mix sounds on specific instruments. If you have a solid mix, you'll have a solid master. Best of luck

[mastershredder]

+1



What i've found to be helpful is to have one kick track that is real clicky, and then to have another kick track (just copy and past onto a new track) and have that one be a tad more bassy and thumpy. I normally run the maxxbass plug-in on this one. this somehow for me gives the feeling of a thicker kick drum sound, rather than having one track loaded down with tons of eq and compression.