Kick Drum Mixing..

[nutrinoland]

Hey ..I need some help with mixing....
I find that the kick drum occupies space upto 1 K almost....
how do You guys make this fit with snares and claps and yes Bass too ?
Could YOu tell me a bit about how you mix all these different parts

Thanks

[FSTZ]

Originally Posted by nutrinoland

Hey ..I need some help with mixing....
I find that the kick drum occupies space upto 1 K almost....
how do You guys make this fit with snares and claps and yes Bass too ?
Could YOu tell me a bit about how you mix all these different parts

Thanks

this is a little conversation between the guy I use for mastering (Bob Macc) and an artist posting on the dubstep forum.

I formatted this for print to help out a friend of mine who posed the exact same question.

I assure you, Bob knows his stuff!

Bob Macc on Gain Structuring

DC: Let's say the drums hit up to -3 dB, what should be a fair volume for the sub?

Macc: Sorry if it isn't really answering your question, but -3 is way too high.
Remember that 6dB is half.

So if you have one element at -6, that is half your headroom gone. Two elements at -6dB each = all your headroom gone. Having the drums at -3 will leave you fighting against clipping and struggling to keep everything down and under control.

Rather, set your drums for *around* -8 / -10 (ie, a bit less than half). The bass - if we are talking a pure sine sub - would probably sit best a dB or two below that, any distorted/fullband bass sounds should be effectively treated as different entities and mixed appropriately (due to Fletcher Munson).
This leaves you with a few dB’s headroom, and everything else is just parsley. No more fighting anything, you *will* get repeatable and consistent levels in your mixes, and better mixes as a result.

Good fundamental gain structure from the beginning is the easiest way to get a good mix. You should, IMHO, always be looking to get any/all sounds as right as possible, as early as possible in the signal chain IMHO. Think of a top notch jazz band - they play at the right level, it gets recorded, no mixing/eq/compression, no editing, no fuckin nothing. And it sounds the absolute bollocks. While that doesn't totally apply to dubstep etc, the principle is the same. If your 'band' plays the right thing at the right level with a good sound, your tune will mix itself. All these sidechains and multiband doodads and insane eq curves blah blah - unless used specifically as creative effects - are just sticking plasters for the fact the 'band' fucked up.

Benefits of gain structuring:
- You'll never have to move your master fader again.
- You'll never get clipping again (unless you're really doing something wrong).
- You'll mix more consistently as you won't be 'chasing your tail', pushing things up on the left and turning them down on the right (sound familiar anyone?).
- You'll get a sense for where tracks should sit peak-level-wise depending on what they are (drums ~ -8 to -10, bass a bit lower, pads maybe -18dB, shakers down below that etc).
- following from that you'll start getting the sound right at source, and find yourself moving the faders less = better fader resolution for finer level tweaking.
- Your tunes are more likely to be easily master-able (no clipping or shoehorning under 0dB happening)
- Your ME will thank you for it by making it sound fucking huge.