db levels in a mixdown

N

NEWBOY

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Mar 12, 2014
Does anybody have any set guide for various db levels of a mixdown for what sounds correct ie... hats, kick, snare, sub, synths??
i usually do it by ear but is there any set kind of standard levels.. including finished mixed level thanks : )
or do i carry on doing what i think sounds ok..
 
Provided you have decent monitoring gear:
If a mix sounds good, it sounds good. If the overall mix is too loud just bring down the master fader. Done.
I think the rule of thumb is that your kick should be the loudest element in the mix, don't hold me to that tho.
 
overall mix too loud?

dunno where you come from, but in the timezone i live in, theres no such thing as a too loud mix.

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and kick the loudest is piss poor advice aswell. if you make techno, oviously, but with drum and bass, its the snare and the bass giving the rhythm, so generally you want that the loudest..
 
groelle said:
overall mix too loud?

dunno where you come from, but in the timezone i live in, theres no such thing as a too loud mix.

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and kick the loudest is piss poor advice aswell. if you make techno, oviously, but with drum and bass, its the snare and the bass giving the rhythm, so generally you want that the loudest..
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I said don't hold me to the kick thing but oh well. Mr. shut down, shut me down. Applycoldwaterhere.jpg
 
actually i am pretty sure the kick is louder than the snare in drum & bass aswell (except for some jump up maybe)

but really going by ear is the best option you just unneccesarily limit yourself otherwise
 
You just have to look at the waveform of dnb tunes to see the kick drum is usually the main peak hitting 0db. Love to hear the logic behind another viewpoint on it though
 
Floating Hunter said:
You just have to look at the waveform of dnb tunes to see the kick drum is usually the main peak hitting 0db. Love to hear the logic behind another viewpoint on it though
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because theyre mastered. while your building a tune or mixing, you want you channels lower for headroom.

Btw groelle yukon was referring to the master peaking too high, not being too loud
 
i find that the snare punches through more than anything else.. does anybody have any tips on making a snare more hard hitting and crisp so it shines through the mix.. i like the sound of distorted snares but once distorted find that they blend in with the mix a bit much.. any tips on acheiving a distorted punchy snare.. and what frequencies would you say i should be raising in jump up dnb...
 
Floating Hunter said:
You just have to look at the waveform of dnb tunes to see the kick drum is usually the main peak hitting 0db. Love to hear the logic behind another viewpoint on it though
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https://soundcloud.com/stholdings/dlr-nymfo-need-for-mirrors-hlz

i only see spikes for every snare, whereas kicks are barely noticable, from viewing that is. i can literally tell you the bpm of both songs just by looking at the snare-peaks.

and this is just a random release from my soundcloud feed..

generally theyre both pretty equally treated volume-wise, everything else sounds bad in most cases anyways.
 
Everybody has there own way of doing things...

Use your ears. If it sounds good it sounds good. If you can get hold of the Roger Nicholls IXL Spectrum Analyzer id recommend using that to help you out. Countless D&B heads over the years have used it.
 
nice gentle slope from 20hz to 20khz in the spectral analyser on the master bus, with no big peaks or bulges in the graph, is how a good mixdown will look, load up your favorite track into your DAW and check out the spectral analysis and you will see straight away what I am talking about



but - having the right curve, doesn't necessarily mean that the mix sounds good, it can still sound muddy and messy if its not EQ'd right.


one of the biggest hurdles people face in mixdown, is not properly EQ'ing, any sounds which jump out of the mix, or disappear into the mix, with just tiny volume changes, are a good indicator that more careful EQ is required


dont worry about loudness or volume too much, concentrate on the overall balance

RE Kick levels, on the spectral analyzer (set to standard Log) you should see the sub rolling around slightly above the kick, and the snare just below the kick - check your favorite tracks for reference, rather than relying on numbers, coz numbers dont mean allot, its all relative
 
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DJ Photon said:
E If you can get hold of the Roger Nicholls IXL Spectrum Analyzer id recommend using that to help you out. Countless D&B heads over the years have used it.
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ima have to check that one out. never heard of it, always using voxengo span (as its for free). millions of dudes use that, too (SPY comes to mind).

imo read the thread over at dubstepforum if you got more questions. 65 pages of knowledge with a lot of people who know their shit pretty well (ie macc). its for dubstep primarily but most of it applies to dnb aswell.
 
groelle said:
imo read the thread over at dubstepforum if you got more questions. 65 pages of knowledge with a lot of people who know their shit pretty well (ie macc). its for dubstep primarily but most of it applies to dnb aswell.
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IMO, this is the point where dnb and dubstep share some similarity, as both rely on the sub-area frequencies.
 
groelle said:
ima have to check that one out. never heard of it, always using voxengo span (as its for free). millions of dudes use that, too (SPY comes to mind).

imo read the thread over at dubstepforum if you got more questions. 65 pages of knowledge with a lot of people who know their shit pretty well (ie macc). its for dubstep primarily but most of it applies to dnb aswell.
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I use that too. Noticed Noisia are using it too. Cant go wrong with it.
 
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