So, I just realized that I've been mixing completely wrong for the entirety of the time I've been producing music. This is pretty basic stuff, but I managed to miss this for almost 4 years of producing. I spent way too much time trying to figure out why my drums aren't as loud as I should be able to get them while ignoring a basic piece of mixing advice, and I hope this helps other people out there. The story goes:
People typically say to mix to -6 db or so, or have your kick and share hit certain levels and everything else hit other certain levels during the mixdown stage. The purpose of this is to leave headroom for mastering, where you bring the volume back up.
Well, little old me hears this and thinks "Bah, I don't need to do that since I'm trying to master my own music. I'll just mix what I want my loudest tracks to be at 0 db and then form everything else around that, effectively mixing and mastering at the same time! Efficiency!"
After producing this way for a couple years, I've realized for the last year or so that I just can't get my kick and snare nearly as loud as the rest of my instruments when you compare them to a pro track. I've been sitting here thinking "how the hell are they getting that snare so loud without having to make really quiet mix in general?" completely baffled. Tried compressing the life out of my drum tracks, doing extreme sidechaining and volume shaping, parallel processing, even intentionally clipping my snare and kick tracks.
Nothing worked. It seemed like the pros were all in some club that knew these incredible mixdown secrets that the public could never know.
THEN, in one more desperate attempt I decided to lower the volume of all my bus tracks by -5 db and applying some compression, EQing, and limiting on my master just to see what happened. I then realized that if I kept my kick and snare channels at a higher level (e.g. -2.5 db) and everything else at -5 (or whatever) before the mastering channel, the drums punch through the mix soooooo much more because the input volumes are so different going into the master compression (seems so obvious now). I could even get the drums too loud (compared to the other instruments), while still getting a nice loud overall mix that doesn't sound like a distorted overcompressed mess. This was a level of control I've never had so easily before, it kind of blew my mind. I then had the amazing ah-ha moment where I realized there is no big secret the pros are keeping from everyone, I've just been ignoring basic mixing and mastering guidelines this whole time! There's a reason practically every pro/experience producer gives this advice!
So I was clearly too thick-headed to just take basic advice, and maybe there are other stubborn producers who could learn from my mistake. IF YOU DON'T DO THIS AND WANT LOUD MIXES, GIVE IT A TRY INSTEAD OF BANGING YOUR HEAD AGAINST THE WALL OVER AND OVER LIKE I DID.
TLDR; If you want real control over your levels while still achieving loud mixes, never mix to 0 db. Bring the volume up with your mastering chain. Even mix into your mastering channel if you want to. Just make sure you leave headroom for mastering.
Sincerely,
An idiot who's been mixing wrong for almost 4 years
EDIT: typos.
Submitted December 07, 2016 at 12:27AM by Vescape-Eelocity https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/5gxl54/psa_always_leave_headroom_for_mastering_even_if/?utm_source=ifttt