Inconsistent volume/punchiness of kick and snare

Production
22

Yeah, but drums are usually the sidechain signal. If I remember, that is the case here.

23

yes and I actually had 8dbs of headroom before i did my mastering

24

Did you get to the bottom of it, re mix it?

25

It might be that the drums are being masked by the other instruments. You can EQ around the drums and/or automate volume like you suggested.

26

If this is the case, the problem isn’t really that the drums pop in break downs, it is that the mix is too thick in the full sections. Yeah?

27

It would mean there is a lot going in the same frequency range.

That’s if the problem isn’t just gain staging. There is an algorithm applied when you turn the master fader down which may be like compression.

1 BigUp
28

Yea i didnt touch the master fader. Its most likely a EQ problem but i have trouble learning/understanding how to EQ tracks to fit together without taking away from each sound.

29

The kick has its fundamental at 100Hz and the snare at 200Hz, so you could start there.

30

They can, but they just as likely don’t. Kicks and snares can be all over the place. You’re going to have to just listen for it.

31

What you have to learn is that you have to take away from each sound… It is just how it is. Most sounds have to suffer for the betterment of the collective.

Implicit in that is a hierarchy of priorities, what needs to do what with what. What needs to have the sub weight, what needs to have 200hz body punch, what needs 2k crack, what needs 8k whatever you want to call it.

Don’t take the bad advice of making each sound as big and good as you can. No no. Make each sound fit into the total, to make the total as big and good as you can.

1 BigUp
32

Those are just rules of thumb. I don;t know anyone who follows them so rigidly though. Just comb through the frequencies within 40-60 hz of those and find what actually sounds good. You’ll find that you’ll often miss the point if you just lump at those places.

33

@ op
I think it sounds like this yeah. You are probably lining up two or more quite similar frequency peaks during the bit where the problem occurs

I would just record the kick and snare and change that new rendered kick and snares volume level to fit with the bit where the break plays on top

I don’t respect EQ let alone get it working. Totally with you there. It either takes too much away or it sounds like plastic. I ‘get by’ with drastic and creative little fades all the time and a bit of filtering tbh.