Dubstepforum.com

Hey,

I'm having huge issue with my mixing and mastering I've gotten my track structurally and like tune wise to a good level. However actually getting it to a high quality without clipping and loud is nearing impossible. Now I use Logic Pro 9 and I've been down the limiting your ass off road before and it's horrendous

I basically thought right I'll try tackle this myself and reasearched gain structure and all that ... I went through the dubstep production bible but still sadly the mixing and mastering section ain't ready.

Basically I just need to know firstly all about this gain structure how to make things sit in the mix how to listen subjectively ... i.e. how to make it sound banging.

Cheers in advance,

Louis G!

If the mixing mastering seciton isnt ready yet look up a post called 'the moneyshot thread' where alot of the resident mastering engineers drop some serious knowledge...

LouisG wrote:Hey,

I'm having huge issue with my mixing and mastering I've gotten my track structurally and like tune wise to a good level. However actually getting it to a high quality without clipping and loud is nearing impossible. Now I use Logic Pro 9 and I've been down the limiting your ass off road before and it's horrendous

I basically thought right I'll try tackle this myself and reasearched gain structure and all that ... I went through the dubstep production bible but still sadly the mixing and mastering section ain't ready.

Basically I just need to know firstly all about this gain structure how to make things sit in the mix how to listen subjectively ... i.e. how to make it sound banging.

Cheers in advance,

Louis G!

If you want your stuff sitting in the mix properly you should try to keep frequencies from clashing. I think a visual equalizer can help with this. Just solo out your individual tracks and see what frequency bands they occupy. If they overlap too much then take out an eq and at least HP and LP whatever is clashing. And with the clipping and loudness issue just remember that when tracks occupy the same frequencies they add in loudness.

Basic A wrote:If the mixing mastering seciton isnt ready yet look up a post called 'the moneyshot thread' where alot of the resident mastering engineers drop some serious knowledge...

Yes this one, pretty much best thread on DSF, read it over a few times and come back to it a couple more later on.

http://www.dubstepforum.com/this-thread ... 74832.html

for mixing, i usually just leave all channels at default unless i have an idea already for what level it should be. after that, i make the track and then twiddle with the volume knobs on the rest of them just trying to get something that flows nicely. And if it comes out too quiet, just load it into audacity and use the amplify tool and turn it up to the highest point without clipping.

jrisreal wrote:for mixing, i usually just leave all channels at default unless i have an idea already for what level it should be. after that, i make the track and then twiddle with the volume knobs on the rest of them just trying to get something that flows nicely. And if it comes out too quiet, just load it into audacity and use the amplify tool and turn it up to the highest point without clipping.

dont want to beef around... but its not what id call good gain structuring. Nice if it fits your needs... but most people would end up having a hard time finding the right balance... and would hit the ceiling very early in the process...

besides, amplifying alone/normalizing isnt what id call the most cleaver way to pursue the chase of the horrendous, but highly desired grail of loudness... and my question to that would be, why not simply crank the volume of your output fader, which is basically the same?

as i said, if u produce heat with it... stick to it... i have bad habits that serve me well.. but im well aware of the fact that they are not the most ergonomic faces of my creative self...

my shot : read the moneyshot thread. really. itll answer your questions.

For getting Loud mixes I think it comes down to 2 things,

-The use of EQ correctly so that all elements of the mix work around each other and you don't have any rogue resonant spots in the frequency spectrum that are going to keep the mix down.

-As well as this compression on individual channels helps you gain more apparent loudness, there's only so much compression you can add to the stereo bus before it sounds unnatural.

Mate I get that ... I've been trying all of that and like I get the EQ thing not too hard but the compression how do i know when it sounds unnatural and stuff and like so does gain structure matter all tht much?!

Try listening for flatness, distortion, smearing of transients in unnatural compression.

Drop an already master track in a similar style you're going for into the project an a/b your track against it for a general idea of how your mixdown is fairing.

Look also for "the Mixing Engineers Handbook" by Owsinski, thats helped me a fair bit.