How phat is too phat?

[Nevs]

One problem I've been encountering during sound design is knowing when to stop. I make my base sound then enhance it with FX and distortion/saturation, however, it seems I could keep stacking these effects into infinity and make a really large sound. I have some sounds that are heavy and loud and others that are also heavy and loud, but not quite as much. How do you know when to stop building the sound and making it "phat". I realize this is a subjective question for the most part but I'm looking for some tips. All my basses seem to be all over the place on the loudness scale.

[Eskimo]

One problem I've been encountering during sound design is knowing when to stop. I make my base sound then enhance it with FX and distortion/saturation, however, it seems I could keep stacking these effects into infinity and make a really large sound. I have some sounds that are heavy and loud and others that are also heavy and loud, but not quite as much. How do you know when to stop building the sound and making it "phat". I realize this is a subjective question for the most part but I'm looking for some tips. All my basses seem to be all over the place on the loudness scale.

Work on them until they sound good
You can bus/group them together and throw a limiter on to even out the volume and see how it sounds, afterwards you might want to do without a limiter if you want to vary the levels or if you are squashing it together.

[alphacat]

When the "phatness" of one instrument or sound takes away from other instruments or sounds in the mix. Classic example is the war between kick & subs. Too much of one and you can't hear the other...

[Nevs]

When the "phatness" of one instrument or sound takes away from other instruments or sounds in the mix. Classic example is the war between kick & subs. Too much of one and you can't hear the other...

I guess what I need to do is tone down an instrument if it's overpowering everything else? I tend to do my sound design outside of the context of a song, so I end up with an assortment of sounds that I've made and processed in Ableton Racks and saved away in a folder, that are all different levels of phatness. I guess what I need to do is go back and tweak the sounds when I try to put them into a song, tone them down or up accordingly, thanks!

[titchbit]

Phatness shouldn't be a factor, only goodness. If it's so "phat" that it's no longer "good", then it's "too phat".