Mixdown Life

Hey Guys,

So i have just finished writing a new 4 track EP, its melodic dubstep…

Just getting into the mixdown… Having various problems along the way, One of my main problems is getting the low end of my kick to shine through all the syths. I have some sidechain on the synths which helps, but its still not punching like i desire.

Have browsed the net for tips but theres a mixed bag of suggestions.

What do you guys use to mixdown with? Speakers? High volume? Low Volume? Headphones?

Im sending the tracks off to get mastered so i want to make sure i get the mixdown the best i can.

Thanks in advance :smile:

side chaining should help with the kick - maybe you need to mess about with the sidechained compressor a bit, try different attack/release/threshold?

Dunno if you already do it but I try and listen to a mixdown from as many sources as possible to get a better idea of what the mix is like - in the car, on the headphones, in the studio, etc.

I might try sending the synths to a bus (if you haven’t already) with an EQ on it that ducks the fundamental frequency of your kick a little bit.

first of all turn all your channels down and turn your soundsystem up. ideally you listen on studio monitors.

i dont understand why the low end of your kick needs to shine through your synths? why do your synths get so low? there shouldnt be anything except the sub. also kick/sub issues can be easily avoided by tuning the kick up a few semitones until the body of the kick is out of the range the sub is playing in.

but as always, noone can really tell you what to do without listening to your material or even better in addition looking at a spectrum analyzer

As per the comment from @zosomagik , send your synths to a bus, put an EQ on the bus, then have the EQ sidechained to duck out the frequency the kick is hitting at.

Has the added bonus of giving the synths a nice shimmery feel to them if you mess around with the release.

turn down the volume of yo synths…

And take off any compressors/limiters you might have done before you start mucking around otherwise you won’t get a true representation of what you’re actually doing.

this is probably such a basic tip but has helped me sooo much in the past month, starting the tune with a kick peaking at -12 then working all the elements around that

so much better having a reference point for mixing and less need for aggressive sidechaining/compression/eqing to try and get it to pump out

1 BigUp

thanks all!!! some good stuff there, @zosomagik great tip with the send, that works wonders!

i just wiped all compressors/limiters and started again on track 1, mixdown is sounding alot nicer already.

I will put the tracks up when they are mixed down for some feedback on them so far!

i think my next step might be sound treating my room for low end =]

Thanks again!

1 BigUp

just interested in what the logic behind this would be … is it just to secure headroom or ?

one tip tho

take a track where you think the kicks do what you want your kicks to do and play that track from inside your daw and look at it in that context … this always brings something up you might not have considered that relates to how the kicks ‘behave’…

yes securing headroom

1 BigUp