So I listen to some nice dnb tracks and there´s one thing I haven´t yet figured out. Others tracks sound really full(like a lot of sound in there) with nice background but mine sound rather dull and empty. How to replicate fullness? I thought that maybe white noise is responsible for that although I am not really familiar with that term. Or maybe it´s about symbiosis of bass effects(chorus, reverb) and pad?
How do you achieve fullness?
- Thread starter Quotec
- Start date
It is a combination of many thing done in a perticular way...well every song is different but i know what you mean.
Try adding slight reverb to some of your tracks, minimal on drums, can go wild on pads with reverb, always nice to have a little on the bass too!
Its about the hats/ shakers in the background, mixing in just right so you cant REALLY pick them out of the mix but they make and gel the whole drum loop.
In terms of actual sample choice / bass patch you have made. The fullness can come out of mathematically building your synth (layer samples) so it is detuned just right (opposite waves) the octave spread of your bass, many other elements too that change according to your DAW - for instance in Reason, on Malstrom, i can make sounds wide, narrow, short amp envelope, tonal, and a huge array of other synth settings that you can use to morph the sound and let it breath with the right compression settings.
Aswell, make sure there is always a new noise / fx / hit to grab your attention and draw you to it, making the whole track just just stand out and surprise....you may find it feels "fuller"
Also, get a sub sat under your bass.
And most importantly, experiment till you are nearly bleeding, get a bandage and do some more dial twisting
Try adding slight reverb to some of your tracks, minimal on drums, can go wild on pads with reverb, always nice to have a little on the bass too!
Its about the hats/ shakers in the background, mixing in just right so you cant REALLY pick them out of the mix but they make and gel the whole drum loop.
In terms of actual sample choice / bass patch you have made. The fullness can come out of mathematically building your synth (layer samples) so it is detuned just right (opposite waves) the octave spread of your bass, many other elements too that change according to your DAW - for instance in Reason, on Malstrom, i can make sounds wide, narrow, short amp envelope, tonal, and a huge array of other synth settings that you can use to morph the sound and let it breath with the right compression settings.
Aswell, make sure there is always a new noise / fx / hit to grab your attention and draw you to it, making the whole track just just stand out and surprise....you may find it feels "fuller"
Also, get a sub sat under your bass.
And most importantly, experiment till you are nearly bleeding, get a bandage and do some more dial twisting
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- Feb 3, 2012
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- East sussex
Mastering can widen things and generally make things more full. Do you think skeptical tries to fill every freq with his bass. There are rims and claps with shakers that fill it out a bit more.
careful selection of sounds, so that each bit of the spectrum is filled, followed by careful EQ to ensure that they dont overlap in ways which cause muddyness or painul resonance but still fill up their own space fully, and careful mixdown to ensure the right balance across the spectrum
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- Jul 29, 2013
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- Melbourne, Victoria, AUS
Fullness normally comes from FX and stereo width. Also extra percussion.
Reverb is only recommended for minimal stuff, it can make more intensive music a lot more messy in the mix.
Reverb is only recommended for minimal stuff, it can make more intensive music a lot more messy in the mix.
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- Jun 27, 2013
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- São Paulo, Brazil
This. i was also reading somewhere that you can apply a little bit of compression to every instrument/track of the song. Makes sense, since you're getting the body of those sounds and making them louder.
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- Oct 19, 2011
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- Washington DC
^This and not necessarily compression.
If you think about it in terms of gain staging, it all makes sense. Let's take drums for example. Rather than slapping a heavy set compressor/limiter on the Drum Bus as a whole, applying a small "boost," whether that be achieved via compression makeup gain, saturation, etc., to every channel and then a some light compression to the drum bus (for the "glue") can make each component of the kit have an increase in perceived loudness prior to hitting the bus. This way you have a bit more control over the overall bus mix whereas, applying compression, saturation, etc. to the bus as a whole make yield a result that is loud, but not necessarily clear or a benefit to the dynamic range.
This is just a personal theory of mine that I've seen/heard others apply as well–in other words if I'm way off base please correct me.
I have to disagree about FX and stereo width being the main source of fullness, you can pile on as many FX as you want, but without proper EQ and mixdown, you wont be able to fill the spectrum, and infact you will make the situation worse - the main reason that tracks sound thin and weak, is down to bad EQ and bad mixdown (assuming good sound design in the first place!)
if you want to glue the drums together, you also need to compress the drum bus, I frequently use compression on individual drum channels, but always with compression on the drum bus aswell for dnb - compression should never be used to increase ''loudness'', infact it is for the exact opposite!
if you want to glue the drums together, you also need to compress the drum bus, I frequently use compression on individual drum channels, but always with compression on the drum bus aswell for dnb - compression should never be used to increase ''loudness'', infact it is for the exact opposite!
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2011
- Location
- Washington DC
^ Agree 110% with this.