Frequence Spikes

[A1A2]

after converting some of the commercial songs into wav. file, I have notice the biggerest difference between their stuff and mine is the frequence spikes visually. My mixes sound alright, but the snare always sticks out on the graph. What's my problem?

Are my instruments not covering enough frequency ranges, and the snare is dominating that domain??

What can I do to fix that? or it's not even a problem?

ps. I noticed that dance music has the same type of spikes as mine mixes, but, I am doing rock music...

[Dolemite]

The snare sticks out of your music or commercial music?

What you're seeing is probably just different levels of compression/limiting.

[A1A2]

i am saying that the commercial rock songs I have seen "don't" have snare spikes, while my mixes do.

why would compression/limiting make them stick out? isn't compressor/limiter supposed to compress the loud signals like snares?

ps. my drum tracks have those spikes without compression. Is it normal?

[Dolemite]

Then your mixes aren't as compressed. You'll need a combination of compression and limiting to get mixes as hot as most commercial stuff. This shouldn't be hard to do with good plugins, though.

ps. my drum tracks have those spikes without compression. Is it normal?

Yep.

[MONTE]

Another thing that would help would be to slightly "carve out" a spot for the snare by cutting some of the snare's frequencies out of the the other "voices". This will make the snare easier to hear and you won't have to have it as hot in the mix.

[chessrock]

Very good point.

Another thing you should get comfortable with is multi-band compression. If you're seeing a lot of spikes in certain freq's, then a good idea is to compress just those freq's. It will help you to get your mixes louder and more balanced, as these stray frequencies won't be causing all these peaks that tax your compressor and limiter unnecessarily.

[A1A2]

ok, so the goal of achieving a good mix is to even out all the frequencies instead of having a strong, say, 350hz sticking out of the graph?

so, MONTE, your point was to carve the same frequency the snare is taking up from other instruments, so you can turn the snare down, but still as audible?

chessrock, can you name a few multi-band compression plug-ins for PC?

Thanks alot, guys

AL

[dobro]

"Another thing that would help would be to slightly "carve out" a spot for the snare by cutting some of the snare's frequencies out of the the other "voices". This will make the snare easier to hear and you won't have to have it as hot in the mix."

'the snare's frequencies'? What? All of the snare's frequencies? Which frequencies? Aw, c'mon...

[chessrock]

Yea, A1. I think you're getting the gist of it for the most part. That's not to say that it's wrong to have certain frequencies sticking out from time to time, but they shouldn't be peaking over everything else significantly.

I like Brainspawn and P.A.S.

http://www.brainspawn.com/

http://www.audio-software.com/