mellamayne
New member
Let's say i made a beat. It has a sample a bassline and ofcourse drums. How loud should the sounds be, and the overall sound ?
How loud should everything be in the mix
- Thread starter mellamayne
- Start date
I think there are kinda two answers to this question:
1) How loud should everything be compared to everything else? That's a subjective part of mixing. Different people will probably choose different levels for things. You'd imagine that different high level engineers would pick similar levels, but there are different considerations and tastes... do you want to be vocal-centric? There is really no optimum answer. So, again, that question really comes back to a question of mixing.
2) What level should DAW meters be at. Doesn't matter. Up to you. It's best not to have the meters full all of the time because it effectively makes the meters useless. I personally pick a convention that loud things peek at -6 and settle at -12 during production.
1) How loud should everything be compared to everything else? That's a subjective part of mixing. Different people will probably choose different levels for things. You'd imagine that different high level engineers would pick similar levels, but there are different considerations and tastes... do you want to be vocal-centric? There is really no optimum answer. So, again, that question really comes back to a question of mixing.
2) What level should DAW meters be at. Doesn't matter. Up to you. It's best not to have the meters full all of the time because it effectively makes the meters useless. I personally pick a convention that loud things peek at -6 and settle at -12 during production.
City Beats
Twizted Muzic
I don't know, how loud do you think it should be?
You can't ask that kind of question.... for the last time, there are no rules in mixing... everything is subjective. That's why so many record labels go to different mixing engineers, because each engineer has a way they think it should sound... and it's all different.
You can't ask that kind of question.... for the last time, there are no rules in mixing... everything is subjective. That's why so many record labels go to different mixing engineers, because each engineer has a way they think it should sound... and it's all different.
SwagProductionz
@SlurRty on Twitter
on your db scale... it should be around -3 db
City Beats
Twizted Muzic
No it shouldn't... use your ears, not your eyes.
ROBICHEAUX
New member
It should ideally be somewhat less than -3db. Sorry, but sometimes your ears can't hear everything, and there are these things called intersample peaks which go higher than what your DAW registers as a peak, and can cause clipping and worsen your mix. I like to stay at -6 dB too.
City Beats
Twizted Muzic
What I'm getting at is that you can't just tell him "keep your drums at -3... or -6..." or whatever, because maybe his drums weren't gain staged right and they're really quiet... or vice versa maybe they were tracked way too hot... on top of the fact he could be introducing gain through compression, EQ's.. whatever.. so there is no definite "keep your drums here on the dB scale" because every mix is different. The way his drums sound in relation to his bass and other instruments should dictate how loud they are. That's my two cents anyways...
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ROBICHEAUX
New member
oh yeah that makes sense, I just meant on the master don't let it peak too hot.
Well, listen carefully to some best tracks in your genre, what levels do they use, and also consider your personal imagination: what elements you would imagine should be loud etc. With things like drums and bass it is easier because you can tell easily if it's overpowered or underpowered.
I normally don't overthink leveling, because I adjust levels "on the fly" (I let the song play and adjust volumes immediately if something goes too powerful), but I usually lower the volume, not increase (e.g. what you want to stand out leave untouched and lower the quieter elements down). Also sometimes it is better to combine leveling with compression, as our perception of loudness is relative.
What I find the easiest is to balance all drum sounds relative to each other, then balance kick with bass and this is my starting reference point for pretty much everything else.
Aim "balance" and do check on multiple sound systems
I normally don't overthink leveling, because I adjust levels "on the fly" (I let the song play and adjust volumes immediately if something goes too powerful), but I usually lower the volume, not increase (e.g. what you want to stand out leave untouched and lower the quieter elements down). Also sometimes it is better to combine leveling with compression, as our perception of loudness is relative.
What I find the easiest is to balance all drum sounds relative to each other, then balance kick with bass and this is my starting reference point for pretty much everything else.
Aim "balance" and do check on multiple sound systems
