MIXING AND MASTERING DRUMS and song

PhillieDNB

New Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2011
im really looking into mastering and all this sort of stuff but i need some guidelines.

For drums, is there a set level for all of them like snare and all that?
and what should i do to master it and all that

is there any like REALLY good useful masterclass
or anyone that can help?

i just want to be able to make my tunes but master them so they dont sound like poop amature sounds:slayer:
 
Your Kick and Your Bassline are probably your main aspects of the track, idk probably the snare in DnB as well im guessing (?).

So they should be around 1 or 2db louder than everything else. Your whole track volume should always lie at about -1db just so when you do an external master you can make it louder etc.

You need to EQ drums, bass, and synths so they dont clash with each other, where EQ lacks in some aspects of the track boost it with others.

Your basically trying to fill out your frequency range so the track sounds "fuller".
 
I would go a little lower on the dB's mate, -1 dB is pretty close to the maximum.
I normally have my master peaking at somewhere between -6 and 3 dB depending on the tune.
This way you'll always have that 3 dB of headroom for the mastering process.
 
Make sure you eq your drums so they all have their place in the mix
Kick should peak at 100hz
Snare at 200hz
 
im really looking into mastering and all this sort of stuff but i need some guidelines.

For drums, is there a set level for all of them like snare and all that?
and what should i do to master it and all that

is there any like REALLY good useful masterclass
or anyone that can help?

i just want to be able to make my tunes but master them so they dont sound like poop amature sounds:slayer:

remember mastering is post-production and mixing is during production (or at least i do it that way, you could mix then master post production)

when i 'master' my tracks to play out... i use a touch of eq, compression then limiter (y)

---------- Post added at 17:12 ---------- Previous post was at 17:10 ----------

Make sure you eq your drums so they all have their place in the mix
Kick should peak at 100hz
Snare at 200hz

it aint that exact... around those figures... kick can still hit around 80hz no problem, and snare from 150hz-300hz (depending on the sound you want)
 
Hmmm... I dont think you should think of it in terms of "leave (blah blah) amount of headroom" or "kicks and snares and sub need to be peaking at (blah blah) hz" because it tends to get confusing and/or over complicated if you get into the swing of trying to make ALL your tunes do exactly that.

Make your bass... make your beats... EQ them out of eachothers way. Dont follow too many specific guidelines because thats where it can get complicated.

As far as limiting and the master bus, make your beats and bass and whatever else and then just bring the master channels overall volume down to the point where your master isnt anywhere near peaking. A better way to stop it peaking is by doing it the other way around and getting all your levels sounding nicely mixed and then you just bring ALL your channels except the master down. I might do a tutorial...

EDIT: REASON: EXPLINATION FAIL.
 
basically you want your kick and you snare to both sit at exactly the same level. all hats, rides breaks etc need to sit underneath this. The bline needs to sit comfortably with the kick n snare without overpowering the drums. subs will be at about the same level as the hats, rides etc. your risers need to be very subtly in the mix because these will overpower everything if too loud same goes with ambient fx. its all about trial and error, and if you're thinking of getting tunes mastered, the mastering engineer should make reccomendations of changes that will benefit your mixdown and ultimately make the final product better.
 
dont expect mastering to fix shitty tunes, they will still be shitty. get them sounding as good as possible without mastering
 
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