I have been producing for about 2 years, I know what sidechaining, EQ, etc. are, I usually keep my music fairly sparse to avoid frequency clashing, but my mixes sound kind of bad. I like most other things about my music- the sound design, the arrangement, etc- but not the mix. I have spent lots of time worrying about every other part of my music and I am at the point that although my tracks have most of the pieces I want, they are mixed so poorly that they sound like shit. (My best mix/master sounds about as good as your average producer's pre mix, I would say.)
Currently making drum and bass. I can get it reasonably loud with a good amount of dynamic range, which I like (the volume hovers somewhere between -3 dB and 0 dB, constantly fluctuating up and down a little). But my drums seem really bad for some reason.
For example I made part of a track last night (32 bar intro + 8 bar drop). I tried to make the drums much louder than the lead synth to make things sound punchier with Maximus on but then FL Limiter chops off maybe -6 dB from the drums because they are peaking super high (around 6 dB whereas everything else peaks around 0 dB).
What's the solution? Do you keep the synth quiet enough that the drums seem loud, or do you make the drums louder but then have the volume get crushed by the limiter? Or should I just make sharper volume envelopes for the synths during the drop so that they don't have to fight with the drums?
I watch a lot of SeamlessR's videos because of his excellent sound design advice but on his mixing videos he basically says "set by ear, that's how you mix".
I usually use Fruity Waveshaper to compress / distort everything to make things sound very punchy very easily, but would it be better to use normal compressor instead like Maximus? Waveshaper is basically a compressor with 0ms attack/release which adds distortion but also means you basically can't give the drum a long attack and compress the body.
Would appreciate any advice, if you don't use FL Studio VSTs I would still greatly appreciate general advice like "do X with the compressor", etc.
TL;DR how to mix drums with the bass in DnB? I drive drums hard into limiter, drums get crushed and sound like shit, what to do, thanks.
Submitted April 29, 2018 at 11:54AM by whatthefuckmane https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/8frsz5/should_i_drive_my_drums_hard_into_the_master_and/?utm_source=ifttt