I'm in the process of finishing an DnB EP, but I find that I use a lot of compression to bring out the sound (which leads to becoming loud and without it, very quiet). What would be the industry's standard for a track? I want it to sound good on a stereos, headphones and earbuds.
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tbh i'm really minimalist with my mixes and masters. i just add eqs exciters and comps and then level and tweak the channels.
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The thing I've learned about mixing and mastering is that there's no easy way to. There's no "add this device and your track will be mastered correctly" function in any DAW. The most important thing that I think people miss is that it takes a lot of time. For perfectionists like me it's easy to agonize over getting the mix right because we agonize over everything with details lol. For others it's easier to settle, and that's fine. But for all of us producers alike, getting to that point of "I think this is ready," takes a lot of time, and it starts to take longer and longer the more you learn about what a proper mix looks and sounds like. And it's annoying to spend a whole day's worth of time on a track and still need fixing, but you'll always get there eventually! Take your time, trust yourself, USE EQs TO YOUR ADVANTAGE, and just keep rolling
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i prefer to brickwall lowpass at 16kHz, but audiotool doesn't have a brickwall lowpass, so i just lowpass at 16kHz at 48/oct. the curve is very round and cuts off a large amount of frequencies past 10kHz. I have a preset that makes a sharper lowpass and doesn't remove such frequencies. i also prefer to mono the bass from 150 down, but the bandsplitter uncompresses the signal. i would use gravity to hard clip, but the ratio only goes to 50, so i use waveshaper instead. it shouldn't introduce any artifacts unless you edit the function.
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I use probably one of the most original and old methods ever, and it has yet to fail me when I use it on projects that don't require a lot of exceptional mixing and mastering. I create a steady pink noise at about +4 db. From then I work, one by one, through each sound and get them to where I can just barely hear them. Once I'm done, I readjust if I feel something should be louder or quieter and there ya have it.
With mixing and mastering its not a method that people who know it recommend, but unless I'm going for gold it really does the trick. Even if I were to take a track very seriously, it would still be the very first thing that I do in order to ensure that I have a rough starting point. Not only that, but its something you can continue to do over and over, if you change something, that will provide that same results each time.
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I don't master
that's my secret
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I used to use a slope for a quick highpass on every draft but now i use the curve for my highpassing. Problem is the curve takes up more cpu space than a slope, but it has better sound quality. For some reason, the slope has a sideproduct of smal distortion whenever you're highpassing, say, mid-heavy pads or plucked chords. So i've moved to the curve for my low cuts.
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I haven't found documentation about this, but to me it does sound like 12 dB/octave. You could chain two band-splitters set to the same cutoff frequency in series to achieve 24 db/octave.
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What is the filter slope on the bandsplitter? Does it also roll off at 12 dB/octave?
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Lately I'm using the BandSplitter as a quick filter. It's not resource hungry or big, the filtering is very clean, it respects the full frequency range and it gives you low pass, high pass, band pass or band reject (merge low pass and high pass).
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Agree with @Infyuthsion below, great points! On most of my tracks, i run my master output through 2 of the old 2-Band EQ's, the first EQ being used by turning the dry-wet knob down to around 30-60%, and turning down the volume to -36db, and then bringing up the lows and high-mids/highs very gently (wide Q-Factor) to a max level of -3/-6db, this EQ being used as a kind of psuedo-limiter while at the same time making the whole track louder without peaking past -3/-6db. The second EQ just carves out all the muddy freqs (usually between 240-600Hz). From then on, most the time, it just goes straight into the master output. Note, this doesn't work on every track, and if it does you'll have to spend a little while balancing levels and dry-wet ratios in the EQ's, it all depends on the kinda track youre making.
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Since we're all making our own sounds instead of recording real instruments, worry less about EQs and Compress and Mastering. It's a complex web of different ideas that all affect each other.
1.) What notes are you using for each instrument? Octaves? For example a pad with a 6 note chord will take up way more space then a two note chord. You change the frequency content of a sound without EQ at all by changing the notes you use.
2.) Making more room for the mix to breathe by having gaps or space between sounds.
3.) Generally, Bass mixed in the Middle, Kick and Snare in the Middle, an instrument panned to the sides, and one instrument in the center.
4.) Slam jamming compress and EQ over everything will kill a track.
5.) Sometimes it's just a bad combination of drum SOUNDS and synth design that don't gel well with your notes in which case, maybe transpose the track, try using different sounds, or try moving an instrument up or down an octave.
6.) Pretty much have a small, steep rolloff at 50hz for every instrument track.
7.) Roll off the low end on even high sounds you can't "hear" bass, like for example, high hats. There's tiny small amounts of low end noise you can eliminate even if you can't hear them. Also sometimes can be good to roll off the HIGH end on something like say a bassline sometimes.
8.) For drums, can be cool to split a signal for a drum sound, keep one original for transient, and compress the hell out of the other one BUT, significantly lower the volume of the compressed signal and mix it with the uncompressed one.
Don't worry about having it sound loud, really if you do all this and it sounds sucky but it has lots of room to breathe, it's much much easier to push up the signal/compress the whole track at the end to make it sound more punchy
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Btw "rolloff" means frequency cut. Number 6 he means highpass every instrument track at 50hz. I was confused cuz i didnt know what "rolloff" meant lol
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i understood almost none of what you said...
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I find most people on Audiotool want to master their track and are always wondering why their tracks aren't working, and it's usually because of the mix.
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In my perspective, Multiband Compressors can ruin your track if it's put over absolutely everything.
I find it fine to use it on certain sounds, but putting it over the entire track can cause a big portion of the spectrum to be missing (typically low mids. *cough* @STAGEFRIGHT *cough*)
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When mastering, I would advise to use the Graphical EQ instead of a Crossfader because the first allows you to control the Q parameter. In mastering, you usually want a wide Q especially when boosting frequencies, to make those boosts sound natural.
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Once you have a good mix (correct track balances and tone, good crest factor, no clipping, enough headroom for processing), the usual mastering chain is EQ, compression (preferably in RMS mode) and limiting. You can add distortion and exciting after EQ in very subtle amounts if your music needs it. Compression in mastering should not be overdone, otherwise your accents and hits will lose impact. To make your track sound good across as many listening environments as possible, EQ is what you need to use. In particular, pay attention to the mid-frequency content of your instruments and make sure that they are represented adequately in that band. I agree that mastering in AT is difficult, mainly due to the lack of clear feedback and metering and lack of control over the limiter. But it's not impossible since the basic tools to carry it out are there.
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@andremichelle
Sorry, should've put that question in the right category.
I'm the same, I'll attempt to bring down the EQ and Compressor a notch, but it still comes out sounding so loud.
I've considered paying professionals, but I don't really want to. I wanna do this stuff my own, but Audiotool is different from other
DAWs (im switching to FL Studio once I get a better computer) , I find that there is a lack of Mastering tools? So, it's like I have to manually
turn down everything and then listen over and over to work out the frequency. It's so f*kin tedious.
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To be honest, I do not do mastering at all ... I'm lazy
Mid/Side EQ Processing fr