UberGawkman
New member
After all I've learned about mixing, there's still this one thing that bothers me, and I don't think that I get it. In a nutshell, what the hell happens to a sound when you turn down the volume, and what can you do to something to make it sound at a lower volume like it does at a higher volume? It's like, there's this tiny logical gap of understanding in my brain.....
Let's talk about, a snare hit, for example. Let's say you have a snare drum track, and the drummer was hitting ear-bleeing rimshots at the time.
When you play back the snare drum track, there's tons of energy in the midrange, making that "CACK!!!" sound that almost hurts your ears. Same thing with a miced snare going through a PA at a concert. But I digress.
Anyway, when you take this snare drum track, and put it with the rest of the kit, it obviously can't be as loud as it was when you were originally playing it back. And when you reduce the volume, it goes from a loud, earsplitting "cack!!!" to a pathetic little "pock" with no oomph at all. I've tried eqing, compressing, multiband compressors, etc... and all I manage to do is make the "pock" a little louder. I've had similar difficulty with kick drum. If it's not super loud in the mix, it sounds all wussy.
So what's the secret? What do you do to make something that sounds great at high volumes to sound good at low volumes? What changes when you reduce the level? And what do you do to compensate? I'm listening to a Soulfly cd (which has an awesome cracky-snare drum), and when you turn down the volume, it still sounds like a cracky snare, just at a lower volume.
.... I hope this made sense and you get what I'm asking.... thanks for trying to comprehend my message!!!
Let's talk about, a snare hit, for example. Let's say you have a snare drum track, and the drummer was hitting ear-bleeing rimshots at the time.
When you play back the snare drum track, there's tons of energy in the midrange, making that "CACK!!!" sound that almost hurts your ears. Same thing with a miced snare going through a PA at a concert. But I digress.
Anyway, when you take this snare drum track, and put it with the rest of the kit, it obviously can't be as loud as it was when you were originally playing it back. And when you reduce the volume, it goes from a loud, earsplitting "cack!!!" to a pathetic little "pock" with no oomph at all. I've tried eqing, compressing, multiband compressors, etc... and all I manage to do is make the "pock" a little louder. I've had similar difficulty with kick drum. If it's not super loud in the mix, it sounds all wussy.
So what's the secret? What do you do to make something that sounds great at high volumes to sound good at low volumes? What changes when you reduce the level? And what do you do to compensate? I'm listening to a Soulfly cd (which has an awesome cracky-snare drum), and when you turn down the volume, it still sounds like a cracky snare, just at a lower volume.
.... I hope this made sense and you get what I'm asking.... thanks for trying to comprehend my message!!!
