Mixing and mastering tips

[Wandering Kid]

i never use loops for my percs. and i rarely add effects and signal processors that affect the whole drum pattern. depending on what type of drums im doing the EQing will vary massively. for drum and bass type, fast, complex breakbeats ill have an FX channel for kicks, snares, hats 1/8ths, hats 1/16ths for the main parts and usually a few for extra snares or percs to fill out the break. EVERY FX channel i first have a filter, then a parametric EQ and right at the bottom a spectrum analyser. for breaks i keep the kick more in the mid range frequencies and shelve off all frequencies below 50hz although it depends on the kick that is used. hats ill shelve off everything below 500hz straight away. depending on the snare i want to use, ill sometimes have a 750 to 1000hz thunk and add a little bit of air at around 4000 to 6000 hz just for a tiny bit of sibilance. to bring out the SLAP ill sometimes layer a hard clap with the snare, reverse the polarity to avoid similar frequencies doubling up, then add a little reverb tail to the clap and alter the levels till the timbre is right. the snare usually, at this point interferes with something else. and this is why i use spectrum analysers. because for drum and bass i push the kicks further up into the midranges, it usually ends up coming into contact with parts of the snare and i get problems. depending on the timbre im going for i find the where the peak of the snare is on the speccy analyser and the peak of the kick. then use the parametric EQ to make a slight notch at those frequencies. if the problem is more serious ill use the filters instead to push the kick further down and the snare a little further up so the sound of each is a little more separated. the hats usually clash with the snares at this point but i tend to widen some of them in stereo or pan them apart since this is a convenient way of getting rid of clipping problems without changing the dynamic of the sound too much. tuning your drums also works this way too cuz you are changing their frequencies and you can move the hats further away from the snare by tuning it out. if you cut out all the lows on the hats and some of the lower mids, you can tune some of the hats out by a few semi tones and it wont be massively noticeable that a particular hihat sample is out of tune, although you have to be subtle. i rarely have just one snare and just 2 lines of hihats though cuz i like my breaks complex. but once the basic break is down, every layer of percs you add should be assigned to a new FX channel with a speccy analyser. once i have the basic break going ill tend to add a massive bassline or some other dominant instrument because i want the lead and the most prominant down and up beats to be the focal point of the track. that way, when it comes time to add the extra snares i check them on the analyser and compare it with another spec analyser on the entire track. i then EQ my extra percs to fill out some of the gaps in frequencies that are left over. this keeps your track loud and means you are using headroom most efficiently. i wont for instance, build up the entire breakbeat and THEN do the lead instrument because i would have to work the lead around the frequencies of the break. if its particularly complex that means you'll have to notch off or make shallow cuts to the lead and it'll sound thinner and weaker. if you keep the lead as is, and just whack it on top of a complex break it'll muddy the mix b/c of the amount of frequencies overlapping.

the key really is to work out right at the start which elements of your track you want to be dominant. see whether its feisible to have them both with a high presence. it is for example not feisible to have to have a huuuge sub bass REECE playing through a bassy kick drum. it'll cause no end of problems. you'll find that you'll have to notch something off that will just kill the vibe. big problem areas for me are around 60hz and 100 to 150hz. most of my basslines and kicks end up doubling up massively around these regions. notching off one or the other seriously kills the vibe. and the worst thing you can do is to actually lower the volume of one of them or even worse still, lower the level of the entire track to stop the clipping problems. that just eats headroom. you can however have a huge bassy reece and a kick that is more punchy in the lower mids. similarly, you cant have all your hats in the sibilant range over 6000hz. particularly in breaks i like a set of clangy rides going. i get the clang by cutting away the frequencies over 5000 hz typically and below 150 hz so its all upper and lower mid range. on its own it'll sound like its played through a telephone. but layered against some sibilant hats with the levels and stereo position adjusted to the right timbre you can get away with it and you'll have more headroom. the more headroom the better really cuz it means you can be a bit more reckless with the other instruments you choose to add to your track.

ill see if i can upload a breakbeat or a drum pattern ive made since i normally create the drums in a separate project to everything else (owing to the number of FX channels and the number of EQs, filters and spec analysers on each one. it tends to eat CPU for breakfast. ill bounce down the basic drums then extra layers and fills separately. i hope this helps.

also, unless your ears are really well trained, dont attempt anything without the spectrum analyser! this + dB meters + EQs are my best friends in fruity loops. shame the dB meters arent very accurate though.