- Joined
- Jun 7, 2010
- Location
- Northampton
What would you all say are the basics to having a track that is playable on a big system and stands up to other tracks when played at a loud volume?
Basic engineering / mastering requirements to have a playable club track?
- Thread starter WhoSayReload?
- Start date
Decent mixdown 
seriously tho that' s it imo.
Should add when you're mixes are tight you can literally just use a bit of Maximisation and Limiting to get it loud enough to play. Personally I kinda brick wall stuff until it starts sounding shite then reel in back a bit and just use that.
seriously tho that' s it imo.Should add when you're mixes are tight you can literally just use a bit of Maximisation and Limiting to get it loud enough to play. Personally I kinda brick wall stuff until it starts sounding shite then reel in back a bit and just use that.
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- Joined
- Jan 14, 2009
Unfortunately if you wanna start comparing your tracks to those released by big name artists you're gonna enter into the loudness war...
Basically this means elements within your track (drums mainly) are gonna need to be pretty heavily compressed (as well as the whole track in the mastering stage) to be able to compete with the loudness of modern tracks. Limiting is a big part of getting a track loud in the final stage, but it will help massively if you suitably compress certain things in your track before you get to the mastering stage.
Speaking from experience I finished a track a while ago and although the mixdown wasn't bad, everything in the track was undercompressed, so when I went to master it and push it louder, there was only so much I could do pushing it into a limiter before things started to sound really shit.
The main thing you'll find if your track is generally undercompressed is that modern tracks will dominate it in the mix and make your tune sound weak by comparison, as elements in your tune will appear too quiet due to the mix not being "fat enough".
But as Russla says, it's all just about general mixdown (including compression where needed), and then after that basically just running it into a limiter - the better the mixdown, the more you should be able to push it louder without it falling apart.
Hope this helps!
Basically this means elements within your track (drums mainly) are gonna need to be pretty heavily compressed (as well as the whole track in the mastering stage) to be able to compete with the loudness of modern tracks. Limiting is a big part of getting a track loud in the final stage, but it will help massively if you suitably compress certain things in your track before you get to the mastering stage.
Speaking from experience I finished a track a while ago and although the mixdown wasn't bad, everything in the track was undercompressed, so when I went to master it and push it louder, there was only so much I could do pushing it into a limiter before things started to sound really shit.
The main thing you'll find if your track is generally undercompressed is that modern tracks will dominate it in the mix and make your tune sound weak by comparison, as elements in your tune will appear too quiet due to the mix not being "fat enough".
But as Russla says, it's all just about general mixdown (including compression where needed), and then after that basically just running it into a limiter - the better the mixdown, the more you should be able to push it louder without it falling apart.
Hope this helps!
saganspirit
Member
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2014
Unfortunately, there is still an obsession with hyper-compressing mixes. The cold truth is that until this changes, you should follow 'nifty's' advice above. One day we'll get back to more natural sounding, musical mixes. One day.
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2010
- Location
- Northampton
Great reading, this was the kind of insight I was looking for. Respect.
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