hard/gabba style kick is muffling other aspects of my tune

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hard/gabba style kick is muffling other aspects of my tune

Postby Dice Man » Thu Jul 16, 2009 3:26 pm

Sup y'all, bin making tunes for fun for a couple of years now and just started making Breakcore type stuff. I use Reason 4 and the trouble im having is that when I make my hard style kick it tends to muffle out the rest of my tune, or the other way round, the kick gets muffled by the bassline or other drums making the whole thing sound horrible and shite!! Im thinking its something to do with the EQ, but cant seem to find that 'sweet spot'. Also can someone explain or point me in the direction of sidechain compression? Would this work perhaps, or am I way off the mark there?

Cheers in advance :D

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Postby producer_snafu » Thu Jul 16, 2009 6:34 pm

side chain
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Postby rtificial » Fri Jul 17, 2009 12:26 am

You are pretty much right about your EQing. What you are doing is clogging up your whole sound range/spectrum with bass and low end. That is what is drowining out and muddying up your sound.

Remember anything lower than 40hz you won't "hear" but you will feel on a good sound system. So you are not adding anything musically to your track if you go that low. Usually people go that low and then jack the bass up trying to compensate for not "hearing" the bass tone...which then clogs up your whole mix.

Next you have gabber kicks and basslines. They are both probably battling it out in whatever frequency range they happen to occupy. So some side chaining may fix it a bit, but some EQ of the gabber kick would probably help out so that range isn't all muddy down.

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Postby Dice Man » Tue Jul 21, 2009 3:59 pm

Cheers for the advice bays, I will look into sidechain compression fo show. Anyone know any good tuts for this? I will have a look on youtube or summit. I will have a crack at proper EQing when i get my machine back too. I kinda understand it however I know that it is a tricky thing to master (no pun intended there). I think I put way too much emphasis on the 'sub' region ie 40htz and below like rtificial mentioned. Need to start making tunes out of (decent ish) speakers too instead of shitty head phones!!! That will surely help!!

Peace

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Postby geigercounter120 » Thu Jul 23, 2009 12:09 pm

i don't think the article mentions side-chain compression, but there's a good (if a little long in the tooth) article on EQ by hypnotic available at:
http://www.dogsonacid.com/attachment.ph ... id=5441704

which is an interesting read...

my eqing skills aren't great but one thing that came to mind to me is what others said: that too many sounds are fighting over the same frequency space...
my theory is: if it doesn't sound decent before you add eq & compression, then its probably a problem with the sounds (sensu the shit-in-shit-out principle :D )

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Postby Dice Man » Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:27 pm

Too true, you cant polish a turd!!!! I never use anything that sounds shit coz theres no point, no amount of EQing can fix a bad sound. I think it is a case of sounds fighting for frequency space and that like you and others mentioned. It has has happened in a few DnB tracks in the past when making bass lines and heavy bass kicks. Cheers for the link dude, I will check it out fo show!! Really interested in that sort of geeky shit!!! I may bite the bullet and do some kind of production/sound engineering course.

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Postby producer_snafu » Fri Jul 24, 2009 4:59 am

don't distort your low end, yer bass is supposed to be at certain level. you need all the head room you can get.

you ever heard a clean kick drum sample?

it's not to be amped up because you'd lose the true definition of the sound.

sort yer sounds out, even them out, they should pretty much be all the same levels, and if you want something to stand out then frequency split and use stereo effect.

stereo effect is me secret to amping sounds up
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Postby divtech » Fri Jul 24, 2009 5:41 am

what exactly do you mean by stereo effect?

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Postby producer_snafu » Fri Jul 24, 2009 8:40 am

divtech wrote:what exactly do you mean by stereo effect?


stereo delay
it's like a slight as fuck delay on either side of the pan.

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Postby Wobbatha Christie » Mon May 03, 2010 11:38 am

producer_snafu wrote:side chain

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Postby pops88 » Mon May 17, 2010 9:42 am

Along with better EQ and side-chaining, I've found that panning helps. It's possible for the human ear to pick up 11 different points from a stereo speaker. As far as I know most producers tend to use 9 points as standard (including hard left and right). Send the bass through one point on the left and the kick through the same point on the right. It doesn't need to be hard panned to make a difference.

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Postby Spets » Wed Jun 02, 2010 9:25 am

For me, Equalizing always sorts out any frequency wars.

Before finalizing the track, during the mixing and mastering stage, I compress, and limit each instrument I am using, most of the times this sorts any overlapping out, but if there were still any kind of interference, I equalize.

I never heard about the panning technique, I will surely it on the remix I am doing now.

I use fruityLoops, there is a mixer VST called Maximus, it compresses and equalizes at the same time. its very usefull, I dunno if it could work in other softwares. try it.

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Postby popejagged » Fri Oct 15, 2010 12:29 am

pops88 wrote:Along with better EQ and side-chaining, I've found that panning helps. It's possible for the human ear to pick up 11 different points from a stereo speaker. As far as I know most producers tend to use 9 points as standard (including hard left and right). Send the bass through one point on the left and the kick through the same point on the right. It doesn't need to be hard panned to make a difference.


Though it's mostly frequency related, this in particular (panning) is due to phase cancellation. Read up on it. It's really irritating when it becomes a problem.

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Postby phleg » Fri Oct 15, 2010 3:48 pm


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