19 Apr 2018
I'd suggest equalizing your headphones to flat response, first. That with the sine wave method, where you listen to sine wave tones at different frequencies, and equalize one at a time, so they sound equally loud.
Then I would equalize at least the prominent sounds (such as kick and bass as you say), individually, so they likewise have a balanced frequency spectrum (high/low pass filter to taste afterwards). Maybe soft clip extreme peaks/spikes in them. Then mix to taste.
Also, compare Kick and Bass - try inverting one of them. If your sub starts lacking, you don't need to invert. If it gets more powerful, then some of the sub frequencies canceled each other out. It's a good idea to offset them a bit - like the bass with ReGroove. Let it play back a bit after the kick, so it doesn't weaken the click of it. Do it to taste.
Personally, I don't like side-chain compression. I rather automate the mix fader of those sounds, which happen to wash it away. Say, long washy pads, windy noise effects, etc. That's not difficult, just draw an inverted sawtooth shape where you set the lowest point to taste according to your kick, I presume, and set its length (when it gets back to the set audio level) likewise. Then take your automation clip and offset it if needed, so it sounds perfectly right with clicks and whatnot.
Mixing is tricky. If you want everything to be equally loud, then set the levels in comparison to 1 sound. Never play the two together, cause it will fool your ears. Just do an A/B listening while setting the level.
Or, if you mix something for a chorus for example, then set the level of the least important sound, then start setting the levels of the more and more important sounds, mixing them one by one from zero, until you finish mixing the most important ones - probably bass, kick and vocals. (For example: I would start mixing with pad, lead, hat, snare, bass, kick and finally vocals ~ or maybe the bass before snare and hat - you can always make adjustments). Don't forget that you get used to sounds playing, so if you start with the most important ones, you might end up mixing them a bit 'to the background'.
When it comes to mastering, decide who you make music for? PhD guys, nerds and geeks who care more about technical details and terms? Record labels, that who are most interested in advertising and selling - which risked sound quality and created the loudness war? Fellow musicians to whom you're a competition, like it or not? ...or maybe the listener, that can very much set the audio level themselves and is looking for pleasant sounding, good music?
No need to make it overly loud, nor risk clipping just for loudness. Clipping or limiting extreme peaks and spikes is fine.
When doing a final mastering, I'd suggest going to the busiest part of the music and balancing the audio spectrum according to that with equalization, until you don't hear that one frequency is louder than the other. So, no notch sounds, no resonant sounds, just perfect. You can even try doing this by reversing the part, so transients don't fool your ears.
Once your tone is improved, it's up to you how much, and why you want to limit the dynamics.
Don't forget that a master equalization is going to affect the whole sound obviously. That's why I prefer to equalize everything individually.
Trust me, creating a good sound can be learned quicker than you think.
Never forget, the road to achieving a professional sound is a lot of fun! You will enjoy it.
. Im an autodeduct and my english is not the best. Its ok to offer som food or speak about weather, but if the tutorials go very technical im lost often. Then i translate with google and lost allready.
12, Win10
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