kick drum centered, just not symmetric...taking my headroom

[shackrock]

take a look at the pics below. The stereo one is a mixdown of the track. there's a hard limiter on it at -.1db. But as you can see, the bottom of the waveforms (each channel) hit -.1db a lot, while the top doesn't. Is there a way I can center this? doesn't look to be DC offset to me, esp. because running a DC offset fixer on it didn't do anything! haha.

 

[RedStone]

How much bottom end is in the kick? anything significant below 40hz?

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

It's not DC offset, it's the instrument; and it's normal.

The reason your waveform is "lopsided" is because the action of the drum skin itself is lopsided. Put perhaps a little oversimply, the mic diaphragm is simply copying the action of the drum skin, which is being pushed in farther than it recoils back out. That is reflected in an electrical signal that is stronger to one pole than the other. if you moved the mic to the other side of the drum skin, you'd likely see the lopsidedness reverse polarity.

You could "even it out" by limiting the signal at the maximum level of the quieter side of the wave, but there's no guarantee that you'd actually like the resulting sound.

I'd not worry about the level asymmetry. That's the nature of the beast. Just process as you need to to get what your ears want and let the visuals fall where they may.

G.

 

[ssscientist]

How much bottom end is in the kick? anything significant below 40hz?

This hits the nail on the head.

Low sub frequencies suck up a WHOLE lotta headroom while not doing a thing for mix clarity, punch or anything else for that matter.

Set a brick wall filter to roll off everything under 30hz.

Then creep it up in frequency until it starts to affect the sound of the kick drum.

Then bring in the rest of the kit and the rest of the instruments and see if you miss anything but the murk.

.

 

[FALKEN]

not necessarily....

it could be distortion. did you run the mix or any of the instruments through some sort of plugin or phattener or sweetener? my blue tube does this and the "lopsidedness" increases as you push up the "gain". doesn't matter what instrument.

 

[RedStone]

It's not DC offset, it's the instrument; and it's normal.

The reason your waveform is "lopsided" is because the action of the drum skin itself is lopsided. Put perhaps a little oversimply, the mic diaphragm is simply copying the action of the drum skin, which is being pushed in farther than it recoils back out. That is reflected in an electrical signal that is stronger to one pole than the other. if you moved the mic to the other side of the drum skin, you'd likely see the lopsidedness reverse polarity.

You could "even it out" by limiting the signal at the maximum level of the quieter side of the wave, but there's no guarantee that you'd actually like the resulting sound.

I'd not worry about the level asymmetry. That's the nature of the beast. Just process as you need to to get what your ears want and let the visuals fall where they may.

G.

that's awesome ...

 

[Massive Master]

Another reason it would be nice if people stopped mixing with their eyes... This has been happening since the Big Bang (which probably had a lopsided wave form). Trumpets, vocalists, certain guitar, definitely common among percussion...

Never a problem until you could actually see it for some reason...

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

This has been happening since the Big Bang (which probably had a lopsided wave form).

My god, John, you're a genius! In one fell swoop you've elegantly explained the disparity in the amount of matter vs. antimatter in the universe. That's a Nobel right there.



G.

 

[lomky]

My god, John, you're a genius! In one fell swoop you've elegantly explained the disparity in the amount of matter vs. antimatter in the universe. That's a Nobel right there.



G.

Don't give a reason to give drummers more ego 'kay?

Origin of the universe pfffft.