mix volume

enemysanthem

New member
I have been having trouble while recording an alternative rock sort of sound. i am getting very little volume before overloading. i like the sound especially the low end. although im afraid there may be too much low end. how can i get more volume and try to keep the same nice low end sound?
 
i think you might need to give a little more information about your mix and techniques.

Try looking at a frequency analyser on the master though, just to see if there's a specific freq area that is clipping.
I'm not suggesting eyes over ears for mixing, but this will show you if there's a specific problem.
 
High pass filters are a good start. There is so much below 100hz that affects everything above it. Just check out a meter while you sweep up in frequency a hp filter. Headroom is eaten by subs you cant really even hear. The low end is a sensitive area that takes time to finesse. Everything solo'd sounds great with lots of low end. A mix of everything with low end, sounds like muddy crap. And meters peg.

I would start by sweeping a high pass filter or on each instrument one at a time (no solo-all channels blazing) to see what 'needs' to be there. usually one instruments low end is all that is needed to support the bottom end. Every genre is different, but in most cases for me it seems that Kicks work best with almost nothing below 70hz. Bass guitar holding (not abusing) the subs below. Distorted guitars, especially solid state amped, are usually worthless under 200. Of course there are exceptions to everything because a particular sound is not made by cookie cutter. Remember that the mix of everything together is whats important. If meters are pegged and volume is low, your monitors/ears are reproducing/hearing something incorrectly.

Hope this helped. :)

Jimmy
 
Well, it helped me, but I don't know if it was what he was looking for, cuz he said he liked the low end on his mix so much.








But I think he should try that anyhow. :)

I put a highpass on the bass, but it's a way higher setting on my mixes than yours. It supports what you're saying about the usefulness of a highpass on most tracks.
 
That's the thing with low end in a mix man, it all can't be huge. A speaker can only produce so much at once. Compromise is needed to get everything sweetly huge together. Using some multiband compression can help a mix full of low end, but it is hard to get definition without giving space for individual instruments. It's heart-wrenching at first to cut that beautiful feeling in your stomach of the kick stopping your heart! But when the bass guitar is added, that kick goes to mud and guitars have no definition, you gotta find the sweet spot so they can all coexist. In the end, everything has its place.
 
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