Quiet Bounce

[Josh16]

Ok. By compressing harder, you mean lower threshold and high gain levels?

[JCBigler]

I would raise the threshold, and increase the ratio to 4:1 or 4.5:1, then push the volume up. I usually leave the make up gain set at zero unless I'm really compressing the hell out f something, which is rare.

It's all a balancing act of all the different levels all along the gain structure and all of the dynamics and EQ usage.

Josh, where in the U.S. Are you located? Perhaps there is a member here who is in your area and give you a few pointers.

[CME]

Unless you're using too much make up gain compression shouldn't make anything clip. And a slow attack fast release will emphasize punch.

I also just read where you're using a hp at 50 hz. While I haven't heard your kick, I usually boost around 30-50hz and cut just below that.

Do you have Dropbox or something similar? Maybe you could upload the mix without anything on the master buss and we could take a listen to what you're working with.

[Josh16]

Here is a bounce with everything bypassed. Nothing on the master and no EQ on the individual tracks. Thoughts/Advice.

https://soundcloud.com/joshua161995/trying-to-mix

[Southsidemusic]

Yeah well apart from the Clap is too loud and the Kick sample sounding very "decay and roomey" I can't hear anything there that wouldn't sound way better with a touch of finesse

If this is the "Raw" material I don't know what the issue is, Inran the snippet thru our Apollo Quad and summing mixer and shoved on a few plugins and BAM! Really sweet and no issues here.

If the you are trying to get a Phat Sound from a POS headphone as you said you might be fooled by the sound you persieve on them and not what is actually there. As mentioned here before, You have to have a good listening setup otherwise it doesn't matter what you put on the songs, you will still only hear what the listening device can produce so maybe get a pair of rocking headphones or better yet, a good pair of monitors and you will see that a whole new set of doors will open in the soundscape

Christopher

[Josh16]

Southside: Good to hear that whatever you did sounds good, that way I know it be fixed. I have few questions though. What exact is an Apollo quad? What's the benefit of a summing mixer? What kinds of plug ins did you put on it? Lastly, was the kick fat and deep or mostly the mids and high-lows?

[Southsidemusic]

Hey

Apollo Quad is a groovey interface like the top end Avid stuff with DSP for plugins from Universal Audio. Expensive but VERY GOOD

A summing mixer is a box that basically does what a large console does aka sums the audio from example 8 or 16 channels down to 2 tracks (stereo) and puts the glimmer and shine aswell as bottom end and more to the audio! Wouldn't be able to do what we do without summing mixers but thats not something I would recommend right now as they are expensive as heck.

Regarding the audio you posted:

I ran a few plugins on it like UA Pultec EQ, LA2A compressor and 1176 LN and on the master aux I have Slate VBC and Clariphonic DSP and that was it.

It needed a few tweeks to get rid of the "boing" and decay on the kick and a bit of low end EQ but after 3 minutes it sounded way better.

Chris

Originally Posted by Josh16

Southside: Good to hear that whatever you did sounds good, that way I know it be fixed. I have few questions though. What exact is an Apollo quad? What's the benefit of a summing mixer? What kinds of plug ins did you put on it? Lastly, was the kick fat and deep or mostly the mids and high-lows?

[Josh16]

Alright. Damn, got a lot to learn. Thanks Southside.

[Josh16]

Hey guys, questions. As of now, I mix with the midi for flexibility. Should I record the midi to audio then apply my plugins and mix? Also, in trap and sometimes hip-hip there are these deep, thoarty almost, kicks. Any ideas on how I could get that? (Example of the type of kick I'm talking about: https://soundcloud.com/samgellaitry/reflectionz)

[CME]

Tried to figure out how to DL your practice mix. Was gonna play around with it. See what I could do. Seems to be a decent mix. And as far as the kick in the other song. Honestly it doesn't seem really deep to me. At least at the beginning. Later there's some other samples added in which are deeper. But the original kick in that track seems to have a lot in the 80-120 range.

And for your MIDI question, there are 3 good reasons to record it to audio. 1. You can regain some resources as the VI is using too much CPU power. 2. The performance varies from time to time and you want to set it solid. Strike (at least older versions) had an option to "humanize/randomize" it's performance. It's a really cool feature, but sometimes I got tired of it not playing the exact same thing every time. So I would sometimes record it so it would be the exact "take" every time. 3. It can also be handy to have the audio version for later recall. I did have a few sessions that I reopened later and for some reason the VI didn't recall exactly what the same settings it had before. So before finishing a mix and moving on, laying it down as an audio file isn't a bad idea.