Kicks that Stand Out (like Johnny Juliano)

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Zee one

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Im finding my kicks kind of tend to blend in with the mix too much, how can I better make them stand out?

Johnny Juliano is a good example of someone who has kicks that I like...does he use noise gating? How does he get his kicks to come out so bold and so loud?

Actually all his instruments seem to stand out as well, and seem to have their own special space...I find with my mixes things tend to blend in with each other too much.


How do I get my sounds to stick out more, namely my kicks. Any idea how JJ does it?


Im still a newbie so I don't quite have the ear to tell what he is doing...I do feel though that there is some gating involved.
 
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your asking a question that many people will give you a different answer for. i''ll try to give some basics on what i do. With kicks and snares try layering it will help you to get a fuller and fatter sound. when it comes to synths make sure every instrument has room to breathe. Make sure your not playing alot of instruments or synths in the same octave. once you've laid down your track EQ is your best friend. this is where you make room for your instruments by cutting or slightly boosting certain frequencies. reverb can also help give your sounds a sense of space and depth. This is just a couple of tips. hope this helps. and also there are tons of tutorials on youtube about all of the subject matter you mentioned. Keep Producing Homie
 
@B3

Thanks buddy, I am doing quite a bit of research on youtube. One question, when you say layering kicks..do you mean using the same kick sound to layer on top of the original?

Thanks
 
usually when layering i use different kind of kicks. i might like the high end characteristics of one kick and the low end characteristics of another. you can then either assign them to different channels in the mixer and then buss them together or you can assign them to the same channel. If you assign them to different channels you have more control over the sound because you can eq filter or compress them separately. one more thing if i do decide to layer my kicks i usually will not use more than three however i have seen some people layer five or more kicks together to get the sound they want.
 
I noticed that some of the kicks he uses in his beats are the same as the ones he sells in his kits...only in his kits the kick volume WAY low...almost unusually low...Im curious, does anyone have an idea whether...

A. He boosts the kick volume to better match the rest of the mix, using the metronome as a reference

or

B. He lowers the whole mix to fit around the kick volume, while at the same time mabye boosts the kicks just a bit

?
 
Boosts the kick via multi-bandcompression and a limiter.

But of course I'm still perfecting my own mix! ha
 
watch his youtube vid on mixing. he uses the metronome as reference for his instruments and once the volume is low on instrumentation the kicks have room and will sound loud
 
hey guys try to figure out battery 4 its awesome virtual drum machine that gice you ability to
pan
fx
more effect
sample edit
channeling and mixing
all part in different sections

GooD StuFF
 
Ok cool, that makes sense. I have yet to even complete a beat, yet im almost finished with a current project, I just need everything sounding right first...learning as I go.

Anyway, so: now that I have everything down so the kick can stand out, what is the most efficient way to get the volume of everything back up? and do I want it just under 0 db?

Thanks
 
This is just a guess, and i haven't tried it out yet but. and oh yeah everything should be volumed so that the highest "peak" is at -10db, leave the master fader alone.. but yeah, Here is something to try out.. When the kick is sounding good and tight in the middle, just have the volume on the kick lower than the rest of the instruments. Go to the mixer, Make a high pass filter on most instruments and cut around 3-400, on more low frequency instruments, use EQ for more precision. Find out where the kick sound best, and remove those frequencies from your Brass(or any low instrument that might crash with the kick) Now you should have enough room for the hardest kickdrum to come blasting through the speakers, but be patient and keep it low. When all leveling and panning is done bring the kick and bass down so its much lower than rest of the instruments.

Now slap on a couple of multiband compressor on the masterchannel. Here you can boost the lows up to normal level with compression on the lows, (your drums should be clean and low before this stage tho, only just eq'd a bit maybe.) Add a limiter too, to make the kick stay.. and a 32 band EQ to boost the sweetspot on the lows. Now the mix should be sounding fuller, atleast the drums should stick out. I would suggest maybe to compress a little heavy on the frequencies right above the kickdrum. Just so the kick gets more "fake headroom". might make it sound a bit punchier.

Then you can playaround with the rest of the upper frequencies but it might work if you do this right. Im not a great mixer, its much easier mixing dirtybombap, with the drums and all. But what i do is just making everything sound good at -10db.. then i know when its time to mix its really just to bring it all up with fx on the mastering. But hey, just trying to help, might be worth trying out. One in a hundred thats whats he's doing..
 
hmmm...thanks for the feedback.

When you say -10db do you mean everything playing together or each track separately (both).
 
I keep everything down so that the masterfader peaks around -10db. without touching the masterfader. gotto turn the volume on my interface so high tho hah. but usually the mixes sound pretty good when i do that
 
Lord Knows Hes Got the cleanest mix in the game. but alot of dudes are catching on tho,

for starters:
-get urslef a good pair of head phones
-some good studio monitors for referencing
-quality sounds

try reducing your overall volume to where the kick sits nicely using the metronome as a volume leveler reference as shown on his wav pirate tutorial.

**I use a eq to cut the SOME of the low end of the kick so its not clashing with the bass frequency then idealy boost the mids, then add some compression to bring back the pushiness loss, im still learning tho but most times my kicks are far too punchy :)

make sure ur sounds are equality! i cant stress that enuff
 
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