Loudness perception and maximization

[Dhinojosa94]

A while back a posted a horribly mastered track i made, and ever since ive been working hard on improving my mixing and mastering, here is a remix a made a couple days ago.

[SOUNDCLOUDPLAYER]https://soundcloud.com/davidhinojosa/wild-ones/s-6pXVf[/SOUNDCLOUDPLAYER]

I would like some critique on the mixing and mastering, not on the track itself.

One thing that always bothered me during mixing and mastering was that the drop sounds quitter the the rest of the song, and it feels like its choking and it has no space, however before using ozone 4 on it, it was actually way louder than the rest of the song, however since there was a huge variation in peaks i decided to have most of the song peak in similar levels. I feel like the drop is actually most silent part of the song, it may be my ears decieving me since ive been listening to it for too much. I looked into variouse tutorials on how to use the loudnes maximizer in ozone and i find myself having to decided between compressing the song so hard it all sounds the same volume or having no volume at all. how would you solve this problem in which the drop seems completley squashed into the song?

[SunkLo]

I didn't listen to it but automate your master limiter during different parts.
There's also a whole section devoted to feedback.

[Dhinojosa94]

I didn't listen to it but automate your master limiter during different parts.
There's also a whole section devoted to feedback.

yeah but i understood its for general track feedback, what im looking for here is help adjusting the maximization of gain

[fragments]

how does that not fall under track feedback. Just post it in the right forum/thread, man.

[SunkLo]

You could instead turn this thread into a discussion on maintaining dynamics after limiting or something. But anything to do with "listen to my track and help me improve it" falls under the feedback forum.

It sounds from your description like you're overdoing the loudness maximization and need to read up on mixing and dynamics some more.

[Dhinojosa94]

You could instead turn this thread into a discussion on maintaining dynamics after limiting or something. But anything to do with "listen to my track and help me improve it" falls under the feedback forum.

It sounds from your description like you're overdoing the loudness maximization and need to read up on mixing and dynamics some more.

well then, how do i keep dynamics? the waveform reveals its a sausage which makes me believe its extremely compressed and has no dynamics, so how would you advice me to keep dynamics while reaching a good level? should i go back to the mixdown and get a more even mix?

[Benji]

well then, how do i keep dynamics? the waveform reveals its a sausage which makes me believe its extremely compressed and has no dynamics, so how would you advice me to keep dynamics while reaching a good level? should i go back to the mixdown and get a more even mix?

If it's a sausage then redoing the mixdown is probably a good idea, I've never seen a professional dubstep track with a waveform like that, I like to look at waveforms on Soundcloud as a reference but I'm not sure if that's the best idea. But also it could be that there's too much threshold/ratio on the compression so it's making everything the same volume

[fragments]

clean mix plus compress lightly in stages. Channels>buses>buses to fewer buses>-2-3dB of gain reduction on the master to catch peaks.

Waveforms on SoundCloud can be tricky, isn't it the waveform after the SC compression to 128k MP3?

[Artie_Fufkin]

Soundcloud waveforms are junk. I uploaded silence one time and it gave it a waveform. lol
Use your ears, adjust levels/compression of instruments in the intro, and automate volumes/compression for the drop if you need to.

[SunkLo]

Soundcloud waveforms are junk. I uploaded silence one time and it gave it a waveform. lol

Yeah just squish it less man. Mix it cleaner. You'll have to go back a few stages. Possibly to the arrangement stage to declutter things.

I'm a big proponent of the waterfall compression that fragments mentioned where you cascade audio through compression busses before it hits the master. Think of it like branches on a tree. The main trunk is the master and the twigs are your individual tracks. At every junction, you apply a bit of compression to glue the components together. By the time you get to the master, you should only have a few busses joining together which are already balanced by themselves. Working in groups and subgroups allows you to compartmentalize things and even the dynamics out before it gets to the master, meaning your master compressor has to do a lot less work, thereby sounding much more transparent.

[Gribble]

Soundcloud waveforms are junk. I uploaded silence one time and it gave it a waveform. lol
Use your ears, adjust levels/compression of instruments in the intro, and automate volumes/compression for the drop if you need to.

its only mp3 compression it wont add waveforms to silence!

[Coolschmid]

its only mp3 compression it wont add waveforms to silence!

The only thing making it worth responding to you is to tell you that its not worth responding to you.

[Gribble]

its only mp3 compression it wont add waveforms to silence!

The only thing making it worth responding to you is to tell you that its not worth responding to you.

Fuck off you retard!

[mthrfnk]

I'm a big proponent of the waterfall compression that fragments mentioned where you cascade audio through compression busses before it hits the master. Think of it like branches on a tree. The main trunk is the master and the twigs are your individual tracks. At every junction, you apply a bit of compression to glue the components together. By the time you get to the master, you should only have a few busses joining together which are already balanced by themselves. Working in groups and subgroups allows you to compartmentalize things and even the dynamics out before it gets to the master, meaning your master compressor has to do a lot less work, thereby sounding much more transparent.

Damn I was explaining this to someone yesterday, nice analogy

As for SoundCloud waveforms, yeah they're BS... it's not just MP3 compression, SC uses an algorithm to create the image obviously and most of the time (imo) it seems exagerated. In spite of that, SC's compression isn't the best either, it's been mentioned by loads of people (and I've encountered it too) that SC's compression can mess with overly loud or bassy elements - it's obviously quite aggresive comrpession so that there's less toll on their servers every time a track gets listened to.

[skimpi]

Soundcloud waveforms are junk. I uploaded silence one time and it gave it a waveform. lol
Use your ears, adjust levels/compression of instruments in the intro, and automate volumes/compression for the drop if you need to.

soundcloud waveforms are relative to the loudest part if you get me? so if you upload silence i presume it should look like a big grey bar as the silence is the loudest point haha. That's why a quieter track doesnt look any quieter that a super loud one as the loudest point will still be at the top of the soundcloud bar

[killakam98]

If it's a sausage then redoing the mixdown is probably a good idea, I've never seen a professional dubstep track with a waveform like that

Calvertron - R U READY?!?!?!

[Add9]

If it's a sausage then redoing the mixdown is probably a good idea, I've never seen a professional dubstep track with a waveform like that

Calvertron - R U READY?!?!?!

lol qft