Mastering With Maximus On FL Studio 11

[blunt_traumaa]

When ever I master my track on the master channel everything is crystal clear but the only problem is how my kicks sound. I make hip hop but the way the kicks sound its suitable for dubstep or techno. It sounds more punchy ina way. I don't even know how to get the original sound of the kicks back unless I turnoff the plug-in.HELP!!

 

[steffeeh]

I assume you use the tweaked preset that is uploaded when you upload the Maximus. If not, skip the fourth line.

You could check the low-band on the plugin and perhaps switch the processing off (try selecting "comp off" in it) and see if it changes something.

Though you also have processing going on on the masterband, so there could still be flaws in the soundquality theoretically.
Why not try sending a copies of the track to 2 additional mixertrack, one highpassed and on lowpassed, and match the cutoffs so you don't get any strange soundquality.
Then apply the maximus to the highpassed channel, hopefully without damaging the kick and getting the clear sound you like. Don't forget to match the phases!

That being said, I'd still recommend you to set the Maximus to default and tweak it by yourself to match the needs of the track better.

Anyway, I too have noticed some kind of flaw in Maximus that's audible in the kicks when adding it to the master even though there's no processing going in inside it (actually tried bypassing on and off it when it was passive).
It sounds punchier, almost like that "oldschool" laser-ish techno-punch that you had in some kicks, which is kind of annoying if you don't want it.

 

[Ametrine]

That being said, I'd still recommend you to set the Maximus to default and tweak it by yourself to match the needs of the track better.

Yesssss!


Mastering is a tricky process to get right. My general thought and rule that I follow is that your compressors should not be doing too much work.



Anyways, when you compress your low end using maximus (or any other multiband compressor), you end up squashing the power in your low end. It works very well with subs, but it can quickly kill your kicks if you increase the ratio and lower your compressor's threshold.


Something else you could try is compressing your kick and your subs separately. If that doesn't work, I'd say splitting your kicks in two should. Have one that has mostly lows and one that has mostly mids and highs. This way, you can separately compress the kicks so that the low end power is still there.


If you're using FL, the kicks in there are already compressed, so you should barely need any.