@Alert1 Can you share a clip maybe? Is there no bass element playing at the same
time as the snare or did you really go to lengths to make the snare the loudest thing in
the mix? I never really limit any individual sound in my mix, but maybe we just make very
different music. If I use a snare sample (rare but still) and the transient is too loud, I tend to just edit it. Personally, I loose track of what is going on in my mix when I use a lot
of compressors.
I don’t really get what the issue is maybe. It sounds like you’re maybe already crushing
it with the limiter but then use the make up for a lot of extra volume? So if it’s already
too loud, I don’t see why you would use more.
Side chaining the rest of your mix (or just the drum bus) and soft clipping are definitely good ways to make your snare stand out more without mixing it in too loud. But I would go
back a few steps first.
Use a reference track and try to match the loudness of that.
It depends on what kind of sound you’re going for. My latest track is chill dubstep, so I don’t need a lot of crunch. So, generally I try to get it loud as possible with as little distortion as possible. I didn’t use a reference track though and go by my metering and what sounds good (but I have in the past).
I premaster to -3 to -6 db. I use compression and limiting on each individual track, but only limiter for the master track.
on the dynamics, I only used a little bit of multiband compression on the blue section and some more on the red section. I wanted to let the track breath in the bass / low end.
using a “soft limiter” setting on the limiter (Logic) (not going for the ridiculously overcompressed generic Pryda brostep snare sound)
the snare isn’t being redlined or anything, I usually back down the volume so that it’s loud, but not louder than anything else in the mix
I used a sidechain compressor on a bus and have any bass/synths sidechained to the snare/kick MIDI notes/hits
also: I EQ the snare based on one of the old DSF production megathreads
The war is over, streaming services have taken control over the final volume (except soundcloud). LUFS is now the metering scale to reference. I have a target of -14 LUFS as the long term LUFS as Spotify requests. I am wondering how far if at all this can pushed above the envelope. I dont use ozone and am trying with just the DAW’s plugins and Serum.
This is what it gets me, Hmmmmmmmm not that happy.
My thoughts on this are that we should remember this is only relevant for streaming. For a lot of our music we’re mastering for club playout primarily, and may not even have it on streaming sites. In that case there’s no use in worrying what the loudness standard for streaming sites is. It’s still good information though and you’re correct. I’d say it’s more important to know what you’re targeting when you’re deciding what your benchmark is. If it’s to stand up to a club set, reference tracks from labels that play the type of shit you wanna hear your songs in a set with.
Also, it is true that streaming services have their LUFS levels they will decrease your track to if it is higher than their standard. I also know from first hand verification that professionally engineered music from large artists is being uploaded to streaming services/iTunes at levels that are outside their “recommended” loudness and presumably taking the volume hit. So I don’t know if the best advice is to just set it to what the streaming sites say they want and be done with it. As I say good to know that its happening though
