Headroom in Dubstep

[decklyn]

I've been record shopping a bit lately (about to rock my fist dubstep set on the 2nd), and I've noticed that the compressor used on the percussion during pressing of most european records swallows the drums a little bit. I've been wondering why the hell it's so consistent for the percussion to be so far back in the mix and I quite realized that it's likely a tactic to get more bass out of the sound systems, rather than just a trend in production.

Does that make sense or am I nuts?

[misk]

i've noticed that too. its subtle, but its there. i figured the same thing, that they want to squeeze a little more bass out of it.

[ludofuzz]

its gotta be.......ive pondered on that very same thought too!!

[skunk]

no thats definitely not the reason

[toiminto]

for me it is,
i tend to mix everything under ~150 Hz on top of everything else, round plus 3-6dB (on dubstep tracks that is)
tho it can be a bit of a trap for djs also, I've used it as an effect, keeping some -5dB headroom at all times, just for a bass solo where I pump it up to 0dB and either cause some heavy low frequency attack, or in case of tight limiters or levels already at max, some heavy distortion either way is fine

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[shokman]

I think its more likely that its the inexperience of the producers making these particular tracks.

I hear alot of tracks where the bass is just too powerful in the mix and the beat just cannot sit well with it. A good understanding of compression(and sidechain methods), EQ and sound systems is required if you have any hope of having your big beats sitting well with huge amounts of bass.

Not even joking but forget trying to do that strictly in reason or fruity loops. unless you are going to bounce down individual pre processed tracks at like -5db. Then you might just have a chance producing a well mastered track.

Hitting up reason with a mastering track and hitting BASS BOOST just aint gonna cut it.

[Littlefoot]

if you wanna hear odd sounding mixes, try Caspa!

I was listening to the For the Kids ep today, great music, rubbish mixing.. the extremes of the spectrum jump out with different instruemtns leaving loads of unwanted space, but at the same time not really giving much definition

not slagging him off mind, just think he could do with sorting that out!

[toiminto]

I think its more likely that its the inexperience of the producers making these particular tracks.

I hear alot of tracks where the bass is just too powerful in the mix and the beat just cannot sit well with it. A good understanding of compression(and sidechain methods), EQ and sound systems is required if you have any hope of having your big beats sitting well with huge amounts of bass.

i mix in ableton and if i'm feeling tweaky, I take it track by track to pro tools. I push the bass to the limit on purpose. Aint eatin' my beats..
Mastering wise I use regular and multiband compressors & eq's, with a complementary brickwall limiter squeezing some last bits of power from ~-0,5dB up.

So, at least for me it's not an inexperienced -thing. I just like my bass dominant and high frequencies on the wraps

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