How do you make a tune sound bigger

krrs24 · Post by **krrs24** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 2:25 pm

I was wondering if any of you guys can explain how to make a tune sound bigger.Also whats up with bass phasing.

cheers, kris http://soundcloud.com/krrs24/ambush

stevemac · Post by **stevemac** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 2:26 pm

Post in the production forum I reckon dude

krrs24 · Post by **krrs24** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 2:52 pm

sorry

ShadyBrady6 · Post by **ShadyBrady6** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 6:31 am

Make sure you cut the lows off your massive lines if youre gonna stack it with sub bass, that should clean up that mix a lot

Grime Bastard · Post by **Grime Bastard** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 7:25 am

Kicks hitting hard at 60 - 80 Hz

Low-end snares hitting around 200 Hz

Big subbass around 40 Hz

parallel compression on drums

etc...

nowaysj · Post by **nowaysj** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 7:52 am

Stick your head in between the speakers.

faultier · Post by **faultier** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:50 am

sorry to hijack the thread but this also something i'm trying to figure out, how to get my tunes to sound phat (getmi ?)

obviously i'm not even trying to compare my tracks to professionally mastered and released tracks, but even then when i listen to other aspiring producers (which i doubt resort to professionnal mastering for unreleased tunes... or do they ?) tracks on soundcloud i clearly notice that i dont have to push the volume as much as i do when i listen to my tracks exported in mp3

to help you help me, here's basically how i home "master"(the term is used very loosely here) my shit: following the gospel of st macc i'm trying to get my mixdown to peak at around -5 db, filtering out the lower frequencies of everything not sub/kick, and i like to think that my mixdown doesnt sound too muddy, then (and thats probably what i'm doing wrong) i just straight up stick a limiter on the master, trying to get my track to sound as loud as possible without deteriorating the sound too much

problem is, i usually cannot get it to sound as loud as your average not professionally mastered (i think) unreleased artist track unless i set the threshold for the limiter really low, which obviously results in my track sounding like ass

so here are a few questions:

- i noticed that the lower my mixdown peaks, the more i can lower the threshold of the limiter and get the track to sound louder without being deformed too much (probably old news for most of you, yes...), is the solution to my problem to mixdown even quieter so i can push my limiter further ?
- in a lot of threads about mixdown/getting tracks to sound fuller/louder i read about additive EQ which i almost never use, i only reduce the gain of certain frequency bands never add to it, is this where i'm failing ?
- am i just missing the point here and people actually resort to someone else to master their tracks and i just shouldnt even try to do it myself (again not that i consider what i do to be mastering, just trying to get my tunes to be in the same ballpark volume-wise) ?

sorry for the tldr...

serox · Post by **serox** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 11:39 am

krrs24 wrote:I was wondering if any of you guys can explain how to make a tune sound bigger.Also whats up with bass phasing.

cheers, kris http://soundcloud.com/krrs24/ambush

This will explain how to fix this.

http://synth.tk/

benjam · Post by **benjam** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 12:03 pm

This thread helped me out
http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.p ... +mastering

Original Face · Post by **Original Face** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 12:09 pm

dfaultuzr wrote:sorry to hijack the thread but this also something i'm trying to figure out, how to get my tunes to sound phat (getmi ?)

obviously i'm not even trying to compare my tracks to professionally mastered and released tracks, but even then when i listen to other aspiring producers (which i doubt resort to professionnal mastering for unreleased tunes... or do they ?) tracks on soundcloud i clearly notice that i dont have to push the volume as much as i do when i listen to my tracks exported in mp3

to help you help me, here's basically how i home "master"(the term is used very loosely here) my shit: following the gospel of st macc i'm trying to get my mixdown to peak at around -5 db, filtering out the lower frequencies of everything not sub/kick, and i like to think that my mixdown doesnt sound too muddy, then (and thats probably what i'm doing wrong) i just straight up stick a limiter on the master, trying to get my track to sound as loud as possible without deteriorating the sound too much

problem is, i usually cannot get it to sound as loud as your average not professionally mastered (i think) unreleased artist track unless i set the threshold for the limiter really low, which obviously results in my track sounding like ass

so here are a few questions:

- i noticed that the lower my mixdown peaks, the more i can lower the threshold of the limiter and get the track to sound louder without being deformed too much (probably old news for most of you, yes...), is the solution to my problem to mixdown even quieter so i can push my limiter further ?
- in a lot of threads about mixdown/getting tracks to sound fuller/louder i read about additive EQ which i almost never use, i only reduce the gain of certain frequency bands never add to it, is this where i'm failing ?
- am i just missing the point here and people actually resort to someone else to master their tracks and i just shouldnt even try to do it myself (again not that i consider what i do to be mastering, just trying to get my tunes to be in the same ballpark volume-wise) ?

sorry for the tldr...

If your mixdown peaks at -5db you'll have to lower the threshold below -5db for the limiter to kick in. So having the mixdown quieter will make no difference whatsoever, other than forcing you to lower the threshold some more.

Boosting frequencies has its place. If you watch tutorials given by experienced producers you'll see selective, relatively small, boosts here and there - e.g. to make a snare snap or whatever.

I wouldn't worry too much about the perceived volume of your tunes. Be concerned about whether they sound as good as other people's tunes after you've adjusted for perceived volume (i.e. after you've turned down the professionally mastered track until it appears to be at the same volume as your tune).

Lastly, check this (duplicate?) thread:
http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=179852

faultier · Post by **faultier** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 12:10 pm

benjaminC wrote:This thread helped me out
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=74832&hilit=Mixing+mastering

well in case that part wasnt clear thats this thread i'm refering to as "the gospel of st macc"

, i read this thread a couple of times, and i think i learned from it on how to get a mixdown done, but i'm more asking about the next step, get my mixdown to sound louder to play it out/put it on soundcloud/whatever

anyway thx for trying to help out tho

benjam · Post by **benjam** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 12:18 pm

dfaultuzr wrote:
benjaminC wrote:This thread helped me out
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=74832&hilit=Mixing+mastering
well in case that part wasnt clear thats this thread i'm refering to as "the gospel of st macc" , i read this thread a couple of times, and i think i learned from it on how to get a mixdown done, but i'm more asking about the next step, get my mixdown to sound louder to play it out/put it on soundcloud/whatever

anyway thx for trying to help out tho

It was for the benifit of the OP as well dude ( bloody threadjackers haha )
Id expiriment with very subtle EQ boosts , dimension expanders and maximisers if I were you man

nnny · Post by **nnny** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 1:22 pm

Might be something here:
http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.p ... 2#p2203372

faultier · Post by **faultier** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 1:26 pm

@ original face, i clicked your link, saw the same op asking the same question and thought u were takin the piss and redirecting me to the thread i was posting in, hehe thanks though a few pointers i might experiment with in there

@ benjamin c, sorry for the confusion then, but seeing it seems the op has two threads asking the same question to his name, surely its fair enough that i hijack one

anyway thanks for the tips guys

AxL · Post by **AxL** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 4:31 pm

Hi!
in my opinion there are a lot of factors to consider!
First things!! the arrange !!!if you don't have a good arrange (aka all your sounds need to be placed in a determinated range of freq.) your tune is never coming out phat!!
dynamics!!! to bring up your master meter on levels like -9 /-7 rms you need to push hard with comp and limiter plug-in before the master for example group the drum and compres a bit, group the synths and compress a bit, group the fx and compres a bit grop bass+drum and compress a bit too etcc...etc... until you come to the master and finally you compress for the last time!
Using sidechain comp, multi band comp, parallel comp and other advanced tecnique can be helpfull.
A good saturator some times can be better than a limiter, distort all your sound a bit to fatter it and eventually to kill undesirable peak.
on master don't use only one compressor, use an eq to roll off sub freq. below 30hz (and up to 16000 too), use the multiband compression and distorsion, and for last a loudness maximizer

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