Help mixing out spikes from drum hits

[jerberson12]

hi,

as you can see on my upload, there are several spikes from snare and kick within the entire mix. The problem comes after the mastering. Most commercial mixes i notice is that those spikes are flattened out when in chorus with the instruments, so there's actually no big spikes coming out and the mix still sounds good. If i decrease the volume of those drum hits, ofcourse the entire wave will look flat but you cant here those hits anymore. If i leave it like that so that it will sound very well mixed(has big spikes before mastering), when i go to mastering and gain up the entire mix to attain the right commercial volume, those drumhits will sound squashed. How do i F-I-X it?

jerberson12

 

[philbagg]

If they're visually louder than everything else but inaudible once you turn them down, I'd guess they're being masked. Find out what other instruments are masking the drums, and cut some frequencies in them to allow the drums to be heard.

For the kick, I normally find that sub takes up a lot of headroom. Cut out some stuff from 100hz and below and see if that helps.

 

[Kurzor]

Hope this helps...

A little wordy but bare with me...

Ok, If you are looking at industry grade wave files (any platinum selling album) you are looking at a final mastered mix. They have already been compressed and limited to hell. If you want to control those transients coming from your drum track I will first need to ask if you are happy with the way they currently sound in the mix? if not then try to get it that way.

Once you are then try applying a hard limiter to the final mix. This will cut those long hairs so to speak out of your mix. Be very careful though the limiter should be transparent (as in it's working but still not hearing your drums or mix starting to shred).

A good way to look at it will be if the limiter works mostly when the drums hit and just barely between the next hit. Then after this see where the limiter is set, i.e. if you cut -3db to control the spikes then your gain on the limiter should be set to +3db. Conventionally, what you cut in with the limiter, you replace with the gain. This will expand your entire mix and make it more comperable to those pro mixes you've been looking at. There's a lot more to mastering but for your direct question that's the quickest way to get there. Good Luck!

 

[Chibi Nappa]

If i leave it like that so that it will sound very well mixed

That is good news. I would leave it at that and now worry about what the wav looks like.

when i go to mastering and gain up the entire mix to attain the right commercial volume,

Why?

those drumhits will sound squashed.

Not surprised. They sound like crap on the million dollar major label recordings too.

How do i F-I-X it?

two choices: Don't give the wav a buzz cut

or

Have a song that sounds smooshed.




Pick one. Preferably pick the one that sounds better and doesn't assume the listener is Facebooking while playing music in the background.

 

[philbagg]

That is good news. I would leave it at that and now worry about what the wav looks like. Why? Not surprised. They sound like crap on the million dollar major label recordings too.

two choices: Don't give the wav a buzz cut

or

Have a song that sounds smooshed.




Pick one. Preferably pick the one that sounds better and doesn't assume the listener is Facebooking while playing music in the background.

I agree here.

It doesn't matter what the wav looks like. I loaded "Synchronicity" by The Police into Pro Tools. It peaks at like -5dBFS and has hits and spikes all over the place. It still sounds amazing.

If you're looking at the waveform to make judgements on your mix, you're not really mixing.

However, if you're trying to compete with "radio standard", the only way you'll be able to is to send it to a mastering engineer, and if you're really trying to compete with most of the chart music these days, ask him to squash it so it looks like a block and sounds like it too.

In short: dynamics are good. if you want the whole thing to be louder, turn up the volume.

 

[TexRoadkill]

If they are just some random snare hits that are louder then others you can replace them with quieter hits from somewhere else in the track.

 

[Jouni]

From a complete noob:

Compression.
What I use in that... I take the track, let's say a snare, and open up a proggie called Goldwave, which btw has a quite good display of a wav-file with them peaks... And take the compression tools, from there "reduce peaks".. Then I just increase the treshold until I can hear it changing the sound, then back up A LOT, so I'm on the safe side.
Usually levels those peaks right up, with no audible effect to the sound.
I do this before mixing, and sometimes use the same tool for the complete mix before Mastering tools.