Ok, so Saturday I tidied my desk up a bit and moved my speakers (shitty speakers, not good monitors) so that they were about ear height and in a triangle with my head. The bass speaker is sat in the middle now too, as opposed to everything on top of each other like before. So yesterday, I was making a beat and played the kick drum and it was sounding slightly distorted and way too deep, and had the horrible sound like it was battering my desk to death. It only stopped when I turned the drums down in the mix, but then you have the problem of not hearing the drums properly. I tried a couple of other kicks and they were all the same, so anybody got any fixes for this? Would a bass trap help? I'm getting fed up of my speakers, I'm definitely gonna buy a set of monitors asap.
Too much BOOM on my kicks.
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T
The Arkitekt
Guest
experiment with 60hz-90hz on you kick, lower some of those frequencies untill it's not sounding bad. I might be mistaken, but keep in mind the boom comes from 80hz-95hz. Also pick good drum samples
Id say brick wall filter the kick off at about 60hz and also take it down at 300hz. The boomyness is at the low end and the muddyness is in the 300hz region. The definition is around 85hz-95hz for hiphop kicks.
Drop low end(below 60hz) drop muddyness@300hz then slightly boost around 85-95hz to make up what you have filtered out. The amount you take off at 300hz and boost at 85-95 is all to taste depending on the particular kick. It is always best to have bass speakers near to the ground for better sound transference of the bass frequencies, at least I think it is. Something to do with reverberation i think.
You can also boost kick in the higher requency ranges to add more definition and clarity. As long as it isnt conflicting too much with over instruments covering that frequency range.
Also as woohff says, you might be trying to mix too loud to start with and then having everything fighting for headroom.
Drop low end(below 60hz) drop muddyness@300hz then slightly boost around 85-95hz to make up what you have filtered out. The amount you take off at 300hz and boost at 85-95 is all to taste depending on the particular kick. It is always best to have bass speakers near to the ground for better sound transference of the bass frequencies, at least I think it is. Something to do with reverberation i think.
You can also boost kick in the higher requency ranges to add more definition and clarity. As long as it isnt conflicting too much with over instruments covering that frequency range.
Also as woohff says, you might be trying to mix too loud to start with and then having everything fighting for headroom.
T
The Arkitekt
Guest
By using a graphic equalizer. I think 2good is pretty straight forward if your looking at the actual frequencies, the rest is just trying it out for yourself
He would only need to ask for a deeper explanation, and I could try to translate, lol.
Separation, Compression and cutting!
If you're not doing those 3 on your drum track you're half ass mixing and you're definitely putting your overall mix at a disadvantage from the start.
1- Separate drums....kicks (each of them, I usually use more than one type of kick), snares (the same), percussions, hats ( hats with the same tone can be on the same track as long as there not toooo diff't) etc etc
2- NOW U CAN COMPRESS THEM ALL WITH THE SAME COMPRESSOR, JUST PUT THE COMPRESSOR ON A RETURN SEND AND ROUTE EACH DRUM TRACK TO THAT COMPRESSOR.
***don't have them going to the master fader and the return with the compressor on it at the same time, route the channels that the drums are on to the compressor only and from the compressor to the master fader***
3- Cutting- cut the lows, If u have multiple kicks cut them at diff't freqz. Don't have the deepest kick any lower than 48-49 hz....it's a waste if u do because humans can't hear below that anyway.
Start with those three and you'll be on your way....(p.s) starting with good drum sounds in the first place is a good idea as well!
If you're not doing those 3 on your drum track you're half ass mixing and you're definitely putting your overall mix at a disadvantage from the start.
1- Separate drums....kicks (each of them, I usually use more than one type of kick), snares (the same), percussions, hats ( hats with the same tone can be on the same track as long as there not toooo diff't) etc etc
2- NOW U CAN COMPRESS THEM ALL WITH THE SAME COMPRESSOR, JUST PUT THE COMPRESSOR ON A RETURN SEND AND ROUTE EACH DRUM TRACK TO THAT COMPRESSOR.
***don't have them going to the master fader and the return with the compressor on it at the same time, route the channels that the drums are on to the compressor only and from the compressor to the master fader***
3- Cutting- cut the lows, If u have multiple kicks cut them at diff't freqz. Don't have the deepest kick any lower than 48-49 hz....it's a waste if u do because humans can't hear below that anyway.
Start with those three and you'll be on your way....(p.s) starting with good drum sounds in the first place is a good idea as well!
Formant024
Digital Smokerings
ill o.g.
throw noobs into the deep, shit isnt made to be simple hehehe better get used to it
Watch out for phase cancelation as well....
Like Drama was saying if you have multiple sources sounding at the same frequency they can actually ghost each other and that part will begin to disappear - in a case like this you have to start dissecting unwanted frequencies with channel EQs...
Like Drama was saying if you have multiple sources sounding at the same frequency they can actually ghost each other and that part will begin to disappear - in a case like this you have to start dissecting unwanted frequencies with channel EQs...
7thangel
7th Angel of Armageddon
ill o.g.
you guys are making a simple thing more complicated especially because it's skipping a major step...at least half way decent monitors (not even mentioning what the soundcard and/or da converter may be because it wasn't listed). another situation would be placement and the room.
jumping to eq or any other processing, except the volume fader, before remedying those issues is akin to putting the cart before the horse.
oh and not compressing isn't half ass mixing and sending dry drums and compressed drums to the master can and has been done (even if not using extreme parallel compression techniques)
T
The Arkitekt
Guest
Also, sometimes drum compression will mess up your kick and ruin the dynamics making it just sound like a flat out boom. Lots of samples (if your downloading preset drum libraries) already have an amount of compression added. I usually don't compress too hard unless needed. My kick is already bumping before and after EQing (you gotta pick the right samples), so I only add a slight compression for the purpose of making the drums stand out a little more.
5th Sequence
Hip Hop Head, Certified
I was just going to say. Everything you guys said is right on point with the exception of one major thing being left out. You absolutely have to have good monitors for this to work. You need to accurately hear the changes you are making.
All of the EQing, compression, routing, etc in the world is going to be masked by those average speakers.
You could do the techniques everyone mentioned and have it start sounding "good" to you. But if the speakers have emphasis in the low end, then how do you know the changes you made are for the better? you are merely over compensating your mix so that it sounds good on your system and your system only. That's the opposite goal of mixing and mastering, you want it sounding good on anything it's played on.
It's like painting or mixing colors with really dark tinted sunglasses in a low light room. Do yourself a favor and trade those dark tints out for some reading glasses in a well lit room, get monitors!
My .02. Invest in some decent monitors, then go back and relisten to the tracks. Now when you apply all of the techniques mentioned before, you will be more confident in the changes you make because they will translate better on more speakers.
You know....these threads never get anywhere. There's always someone that's going to come thru and attempt to discredit someone else's opinion or the way they do things.
Cell2Dee, I helped you with getting your chops to sustain and not sound so choppy right? RIGHT!
Even took your sample and physically laid down a recording so you could hear what I was TYPING about right? RIGHT!
With that said, take some of the advice that has been given here and apply it. THAT'S THE ONLY TRUE WAY YOU'LL EVER KNOW WHAT WILL OR WON'T WORK.
The advice I gave you I apply to what I do. Check my tracks, hear how they sound in the drum department. If what you hear in my production and the technique used works go with it. Doesn't mean other advice given here won't work. Diff't strokes for diff't folks. Just apply some of the advice (that you can understand) and see if it works. It's not magic and it doesn't take a "wanna be rocket scientist" to do it. It's about trial n error on your end with your set up!
VVVVVVVVVV A hit dog will bark! VVVVVVVVVVV
Cell2Dee, I helped you with getting your chops to sustain and not sound so choppy right? RIGHT!
Even took your sample and physically laid down a recording so you could hear what I was TYPING about right? RIGHT!
With that said, take some of the advice that has been given here and apply it. THAT'S THE ONLY TRUE WAY YOU'LL EVER KNOW WHAT WILL OR WON'T WORK.
The advice I gave you I apply to what I do. Check my tracks, hear how they sound in the drum department. If what you hear in my production and the technique used works go with it. Doesn't mean other advice given here won't work. Diff't strokes for diff't folks. Just apply some of the advice (that you can understand) and see if it works. It's not magic and it doesn't take a "wanna be rocket scientist" to do it. It's about trial n error on your end with your set up!
VVVVVVVVVV A hit dog will bark! VVVVVVVVVVV