Then potentially the root of your kick could be one octave above that at Hz. Then you can continue from there, next octave the root of your snare, the next octave is the range of your lead, the next octave is the range of your arps.
Now this is a mathematical way of looking at it, but this has been common in music for ages. A string quartet for example comprises of a double bass, cello, viola, and violin, each of which will play in their own octave range. The double bass in the low octaves creating deep sub like tones, while the violin playing some of the highest notes. Think of this when writing. If your music had a double bass but then 3 cellos, none of the cellos would stand out, and they would all mask each other. Below is a chart on what frequency ranges sounds play, and what octaves they naturally can play in as well.
Consider this when picking elements of your song, and limit their ranges to squeeze the elements into the right spot. Loudness Technique 3: Compression One of the first thing that comes to mind when maximizing somethings volume is compression. Compression when used correctly is an excellent way to make something perceptually louder. The big problem I see is producers either incorrectly compressing sounds, hyper compressing sounds, or compressing too many sounds in the mix.
Having a balance between compresses sounds and dynamic sounds will let the right sounds pop at the right moment. The first step is to put a compressor on a sound and tighten up the settings. Bring the threshold quite far down, ratio quite high, attack very quick, and release quite tight as well. Never do the same thing with the release. Next, dial back the threshold so the sound only touches it every so often.
This slight limiting of the dynamic range will give your sound that extra boost of perceptual volume. Love the song! Andy Kong Reply. Bob Holmcrans on November 19, at pm. Appreciate that Bob!
Matthew Bennett on November 19, at pm. Phil Dahlen on November 19, at pm. Matthew Bennett on November 23, at am. Phil Dahlen on December 5, at am. Victor on November 19, at pm. If sending it to mastering? I would take the limiter OFF. John subtmusicmaker on November 19, at pm. Great video explanation btw. Very informative. Kevin on November 19, at pm.
Glad to help Kevin! Trevor Dimoff on November 19, at pm. Do you have a preferred limiter for your work flow? I use quite a few. The the three I showed. Charles Gibbs on November 19, at pm.
Charlie Glasgow on November 19, at pm. Liquid Solids on November 19, at pm. Lou on November 19, at pm. Chuck on November 19, at pm. Graham on December 9, at pm.
Mitlon Sheppard on November 19, at pm. Keep up the good work bro. Yuri on November 19, at pm. Martin Weeks on November 19, at pm. Hi Graham, Thanks very much for an understandable explanation of how to use a limiter. I might be wrong I watch a lot of videos on this Okay I have: 1. Marty Reply. Rick Quimby on November 19, at pm.
Thomas Ferraro on November 19, at pm. I tried this tip on a project I had in my DAW that when exported played at just below -3 when looking at VU meters… but when I try your tip in that same project I get something that plays right below -1 on those same meters… but when I turned up the volume to listen to it loud, it sounded harsh and painful to listen to… But when I take the -3 export and load that into a mastering configured project and use a limiter the same way, it sounded so much better.
So while I think this is a good tip to use, I would caution those with big projects to mix it down to a stereo track and then use a limiter as demonstrated here to achieve that extra couple db… Technically with would be drive through mastering at best… but I feel that one extra step of avoiding additional memory and cpu load pays off!!! Brian on November 20, at am.
Even with my near senior citizen ears I can hear quite a difference between the three limiters. Referencing is critical, yes! Darryl on November 20, at am. Donzizi on November 20, at am. What do I do? Thanks in anticipation. Tom Prejean on November 20, at am. Thanks Tom! Thanks and all the bass-t from kayo Reply. Sam Sharples on November 20, at pm. Kayo, that is correct.
Save raising the loudness of the track for during the mastering process Reply. Great tutorial learned quite a bit. You bet Jim! Landry K on November 20, at pm.
Mike B on November 20, at pm. Des on November 22, at pm. You took the method right out my head. Graham you are a legend. Just a man! But thanks. X-Man on November 24, at pm. Hello Graham, You must be telepathic because for the past couple days I was working to address the same issue, how to get louder mixes without turning everything up, your advice was right on time. Adrian on November 25, at pm. Hello Graham, I tried your limiter trick on a project I just finished, and the client email back asking me to make it louder.
Adrian Reply. Thank you Kind Regards Tomek Reply. Billy Claiborne on December 2, at am. Dan on December 8, at am. Hey Graham, I normally mix into a mix bus compressor, its always on just doing a little bit of work, never more than 3db usually less.
Thanks Reply. Matthew Hall on January 4, at am. Hi Graham, Ive been on your mailing list for a few months now and I would just like to say thanks so much. Kind Regards Matt Reply. Graham on January 4, at pm. So happy to help Matthew! Matt on January 4, at pm. Is this song for sale anywhere? Sasha on July 16, at pm. The times are changing…and I hope the end is nigh for the ear-bleed inducing loudness war Reply.
Sean on July 17, at pm. Thank you sir Reply. The effectiveness and the added character you get from saturation is the reason why it is my favourite tool for reducing dynamic range and increasing loudness. Not all saturation plugins are equal, each one adds harmonics in different ways and will give different character to your sounds, so be sure to experiment with different plugins. Another tool that is great for controlling dynamics is Multiband Compression. It allows for you to split the sound into multiple different frequency bands and then compress them individually.
For the context of this article, I am talking about Multiband Compression as it would be used on your master channel. I am also speaking from my own experience of mastering s of songs and really getting to know and develop an intuition for multiband compression. Most mastering engineers will tell you to stay far away from multiband compression as it can easily do more harm than good, but I would rather learn how to use properly it as it can do wonders for tightening up a mix and controlling the dynamics of it.
I will typically create 4 bands. The first one will be from 0 to around Hz. The second band would be to control the low mids and mids around Hz. The third band would be around — 10kHz. And the final band would be for 10kHz and up. Make sure that the reference track is not being routed through the master channel as it will then be affected by your mastering chain. We can now solo the sub band on the reference track and listen to how the kick and sub are interacting.
A well-mixed kick and sub will have some separation and you will be able to clearly hear and feel the thump of the kick, it should not be masked by the other instruments, if it is, I suggest going back to the mix and checking that the sub is side chained properly to the kick. You can then pay attention to the volume of the kick sub vs the volume of the instrument sub.
We can then use the compressor to tighten them up. I will typically set the threshold to around 3db below the peak of the kick and sub, with a ratio of about or maybe a bit more. Depending on the track I will set a long attack if I want to emphasize transients or a shorter attack if I want to decrease them a bit. You should also check your mix at whisper-quiet levels to make sure that the mix remains balanced and the vocal cuts through the mix. For a full run through of how to set the perfect monitoring level in your home studio click here.
I was definitely guilty of this one when I first started out. I would load up a mix and just start adding EQs and compressors on every track. There was no rhyme or reason as to why I would select each plug-in.
I would just listen to the track and start spinning knobs until it sounded better. Instead of wasting time spinning knobs, you should determine what you want a track to sound like before you start adding plug-ins. That way, you can always work towards a goal.
How do you know which direction a song should go in? One easy way to make sure your mixes sound competitive is to use reference mixes to help determine your sound. Too much reverb can make your tracks sound washed out, making it difficult to hear or identify instruments.
Not enough reverb makes your tracks sound dull and lifeless—like they were recorded in a vacuum. To avoid this issue, check your mixes on multiple sets of speakers. People generally add too much reverb when working on monitors and too little when listening through headphones.
In addition to your studio speakers, listen on your home stereo system, in your car, on your favorite pair of headphones, and even on your phone or laptop to make sure your mix translates to every system. One of the most common mixing mistakes is a lack of balance in the low-end. Often caused by mixing in untreated rooms where standing waves make it difficult to make critical mix decisions, problems in the low-mids can cause your mix to sound unbalanced and make it difficult to hear the kick, bass or synth parts.
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