Skrillex assistance. NO, this is not about bass or leads...

[Specimen-Yarp]

His snares always have that 200hz pop that cuts through the mix, I think he sidechains his midrange and subbass to he snare. Maybe making them sound larger than they actually are?

wow never thought of using sidechains with ur mid ranges n stuff... i think im gonna contruct a track with tons of different sidechains n stuff.. but i wont get too lost in the chains hahaa.

[MRocchio]

Soundcloud

This is my first attempt at making a "Skrillex" sounding snare. Let me know what you think.

[Ldizzy]

His snares always have that 200hz pop that cuts through the mix, I think he sidechains his midrange and subbass to he snare. Maybe making them sound larger than they actually are?

wow never thought of using sidechains with ur mid ranges n stuff... i think im gonna contruct a track with tons of different sidechains n stuff.. but i wont get too lost in the chains hahaa.

i honestly think uve described what i HATE about his tunes... poor post prod...

it really simply sounds like he oversquashes the master output and has his snares playing WAY TOO LOUD in the mix...

thats it. + the overall weird distortion is also explainable by poor compression technique.

[jrisreal]

His snares always have that 200hz pop that cuts through the mix, I think he sidechains his midrange and subbass to he snare. Maybe making them sound larger than they actually are?

you just gave me something to try.

[Sparxy]

Soundcloud

This is my first attempt at making a "Skrillex" sounding snare. Let me know what you think.

Not bad. Not enough pop or crunch IMO. More compression. Mess with the attack and release. If you're layering bus them all and compress them together. And get out an EQ and boost the shit out of 200hz

[MRocchio]

Soundcloud

This is my first attempt at making a "Skrillex" sounding snare. Let me know what you think.

Not bad. Not enough pop or crunch IMO. More compression. Mess with the attack and release. If you're layering bus them all and compress them together. And get out an EQ and boost the shit out of 200hz

I will try that, thanks.

[bassinine]

Soundcloud

This is my first attempt at making a "Skrillex" sounding snare. Let me know what you think.

Not bad. Not enough pop or crunch IMO. More compression. Mess with the attack and release. If you're layering bus them all and compress them together. And get out an EQ and boost the shit out of 200hz

I will try that, thanks.

also, when using NY compression - the compressor on the return track will work wonders in you make the threshold VERY low. so the compressor starts working at lower volumes. high ratio, long attack, fast release, will work. but finding the sweet spot for your threshold is what it's all about.

[Ascian]

His snares always have that 200hz pop that cuts through the mix, I think he sidechains his midrange and subbass to he snare. Maybe making them sound larger than they actually are?

wow never thought of using sidechains with ur mid ranges n stuff... i think im gonna contruct a track with tons of different sidechains n stuff.. but i wont get too lost in the chains hahaa.

i honestly think uve described what i HATE about his tunes... poor post prod...

it really simply sounds like he oversquashes the master output and has his snares playing WAY TOO LOUD in the mix...

thats it. + the overall weird distortion is also explainable by poor compression technique.

That's exactly how to nail the sound.. The only thing is, I think it's genius post production.

A good mix and master aren't always clean, it's about lending the mix to the style of production and all of Skrillex's tunes do that perfectly.

Skrillex would not sound as good or be as popular if it wasn't for that over limited sound.

[FluidMoShun]

somebody shine the skrillex spotlight, this man needs skrillex assistance

[Ldizzy]

His snares always have that 200hz pop that cuts through the mix, I think he sidechains his midrange and subbass to he snare. Maybe making them sound larger than they actually are?

wow never thought of using sidechains with ur mid ranges n stuff... i think im gonna contruct a track with tons of different sidechains n stuff.. but i wont get too lost in the chains hahaa.

i honestly think uve described what i HATE about his tunes... poor post prod...

it really simply sounds like he oversquashes the master output and has his snares playing WAY TOO LOUD in the mix...

thats it. + the overall weird distortion is also explainable by poor compression technique.

That's exactly how to nail the sound.. The only thing is, I think it's genius post production.

A good mix and master aren't always clean, it's about lending the mix to the style of production and all of Skrillex's tunes do that perfectly.

Skrillex would not sound as good or be as popular if it wasn't for that over limited sound.

we have similar yet diverging opinions ...

the reason why this type of poorly skilled self mastering gimmicky technique works is because of three things... 1) the loudness war... 2) the very poor playback system a lot of people are exposed to... i.e. as it was well described somewhere on these forums, the reason why these kids dig the midrange cack over the heavy low end stuff is because they listen to youtube videos thru shitty ass laptop speakers and trendy ass wesc earplugs... a very few people have actually LISTENED to/felt 20-50 hz properly in their lives... (something u often experience only once u start mixing in clubs)... 3) the urge and stressed out feeling it puts into his tunes... distortion can be good (e.g. : dave pensado admitted using distortion over christina aguilera's vocals to make it sound like she's screaming a bit too loud.. psychological stuff)...

so yes, in a sense skrillex mixing/mastering skills is a testimony of an era we live in... but techically speaking and logically speaking and even emotionally speaking... it is not the best possible way of mixing a tune... and there is a way to retain all of these feelings with a WAY MORE efficient mixing style... to me it is REALLY like mcdonalds in away.. what ur telling me is "well the people love it... and i think its genius"... to that i say... "yeah, it might just be the most popular/sold/mass-appealing food ever... so might as well call it the best food ever made... but ... u know.."

im not stupid, when i play on a shitty venue with dirty drugged out kids with expectations of getting smashed hard in the face... ill push every skrillex remix there is... and ill FEEL IT.. and shout in the microphone... and all.. but if u give me a real low end response, ill make a crowd feel WAY CRAZIER.. with stuff that has much much more depth... i dont hate some brostep tunes out of a desire to be someone else then everybody.. they just lack in sonic qualities i think are worth the dislike if absent..

and i aint talking about his production skills, which in my sense are more then okay even if they're located way deep into the cheezy spectrum (i dig cheeze)... its all good

skrillex is like the trousers i wear the day before a date so i dont have to wear it on a date...

[Sparxy]

His snares always have that 200hz pop that cuts through the mix, I think he sidechains his midrange and subbass to he snare. Maybe making them sound larger than they actually are?

wow never thought of using sidechains with ur mid ranges n stuff... i think im gonna contruct a track with tons of different sidechains n stuff.. but i wont get too lost in the chains hahaa.

i honestly think uve described what i HATE about his tunes... poor post prod...

it really simply sounds like he oversquashes the master output and has his snares playing WAY TOO LOUD in the mix...

thats it. + the overall weird distortion is also explainable by poor compression technique.

That's exactly how to nail the sound.. The only thing is, I think it's genius post production.

A good mix and master aren't always clean, it's about lending the mix to the style of production and all of Skrillex's tunes do that perfectly.

Skrillex would not sound as good or be as popular if it wasn't for that over limited sound.

we have similar yet diverging opinions ...

the reason why this type of poorly skilled self mastering gimmicky technique works is because of three things... 1) the loudness war... 2) the very poor playback system a lot of people are exposed to... i.e. as it was well described somewhere on these forums, the reason why these kids dig the midrange cack over the heavy low end stuff is because they listen to youtube videos thru shitty ass laptop speakers and trendy ass wesc earplugs... a very few people have actually LISTENED to/felt 20-50 hz properly in their lives... (something u often experience only once u start mixing in clubs)... 3) the urge and stressed out feeling it puts into his tunes... distortion can be good (e.g. : dave pensado admitted using distortion over christina aguilera's vocals to make it sound like she's screaming a bit too loud.. psychological stuff)...

so yes, in a sense skrillex mixing/mastering skills is a testimony of an era we live in... but techically speaking and logically speaking and even emotionally speaking... it is not the best possible way of mixing a tune... and there is a way to retain all of these feelings with a WAY MORE efficient mixing style... to me it is REALLY like mcdonalds in away.. what ur telling me is "well the people love it... and i think its genius"... to that i say... "yeah, it might just be the most popular/sold/mass-appealing food ever... so might as well call it the best food ever made... but ... u know.."

im not stupid, when i play on a shitty venue with dirty drugged out kids with expectations of getting smashed hard in the face... ill push every skrillex remix there is... and ill FEEL IT.. and shout in the microphone... and all.. but if u give me a real low end response, ill make a crowd feel WAY CRAZIER.. with stuff that has much much more depth... i dont hate some brostep tunes out of a desire to be someone else then everybody.. they just lack in sonic qualities i think are worth the dislike if absent..

and i aint talking about his production skills, which in my sense are more then okay even if they're located way deep into the cheezy spectrum (i dig cheeze)... its all good

skrillex is like the trousers i wear the day before a date so i dont have to wear it on a date...

Really interesting post. I agree to a certain extent. The worst part about this post is that Skrillex isn't even the worst culprit of squashing the life out of tunes.
I've bought Circus tunes recently that are literally squashed to fuck, you can hear that its squashed its so bad. The mastering is terrible and it actually sounds like shit. If you look at the tune's waveform its just a perfect square block of sound, its insane. There's really no need to squash a tune that much!!! its awful!!!

It's perfectly possible to have dynamic range in harder tearout tunes, I don't see why labels are so intent on making their shit so compressed when it sounds so awful.

[Ldizzy]

lack of professionalism, self mastering.. etc..

these tunes usually dont compete on a real dj set... i always have to scratch them off even if they're really good... cause they're a major letdown energywise... u can't have loud if u dont have soft...

#noimpact

[Sparxy]

u can't have loud if u dont have soft...

#noimpact

Real talk
I completely agree. I've stopped playing certain tunes for the same reason.
Compare any Circus release to any Chestplate release and you'll see the massive distance (mind the pun) between mastering quality
The other thing I don't get is that labels like Circus should have loads of budget, they can afford the best mastering engineers in the world. So why on earth do they do it!?!? It simply doesn't sound good at all

[Ldizzy]

i kno.

some people are just artistically stupid ... i guess

[orangeapplesauce]

This was my attempt. I put a reverb on just the snares, turned the dry/wet to about 25-30% and pumped the decay time to about 6-7 seconds.

[gpivo1]

This was my attempt. I put a reverb on just the snares, turned the dry/wet to about 25-30% and pumped the decay time to about 6-7 seconds.

Reverb won't do much dude, it's all about the SAMPLES. Buy the High Rankin Sample Pack and Vengeance Essential House Vol. 2, Layer snares from both, EQ and bounce. Simple. You shouldn't even need to compress them much at all.