Making a solid waveform?

Endorphins

New member
I've been producing for a long time now but with my most recent remix which is by far my best track, however the waveform is seriously lacking and its really disappointing. Makes me think I did something wrong. I've had plenty of happy mistakes in the past where the waveform was solid and you can easily distinguish intro,buildup,drop and stuff but back then I didnt even know how to mix and master correctly and I'm pretty sure I was clipping bad since I read an interview where Skrillex said he mixes at 0db lmfao..

So my question is how do you guys get those sexy looking forms you know? I'm sure it's numerous things that come into play.

How I've been mixing the past couple weeks or so is at 6 decibals, I then master with a maximizer with a +6 db gain to bring the track to 0 db, normally I'll do some eqing too and match the gain. However my tracks have quite a few of those random ass peaks.

Sorry to make the post so long, this has been bothering me and I haven't found an answer.

(answer this if you'd like kinda off topic)
I saw in a stream that a artist I like was using izotope to match the mix of tracks, and he said every track should slow from low end down to high end, how accurate is that? Since seeing that I've been very very harsh on the higher end when eqing, and people told me it was the right choice, I also cut everything from 13kdb to 15kdb to leave room for hi-hats and I don't know if that's correct, I believe someone on here told me to do so.
 
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Are you talking about how the waveform of your song should look like? Because that's about as relevant as listening to paintings.
 
What I'm saying is, if you go to any commercial track it has a solid waveform. I was just curious what exactly the waveform is based off of and how they get them so solid. Probs was a bad question to ask how to make that track specifically have a solid waveform but I'm sure you get what I'm saying.

It's just attractive, I like clicking on songs with a waveform that looks beefy and in tact.

Is it simply just clipping like mad or what?
 
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I ask the question here, I get treated like I'm not making any sense and it's the dumbest question. Ask the same question on Reddit I get two very amazing answers that go into detail explaing average volume, peaks, rms and all this nifty stuff I hadn't heard about. I know where I'm going for questions now, this site apparently is only good for feedback. Oh btw the answer was compression, a Youtuber I watched said not to compress anything basically so I blindly obliged and never bothered to learn how to compress properly.
 
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Well, I could've told you to compress the hell out of everything - but the point was that the visual representation of a song simplified down to a 2-dimensional bar is of very limited informational value. Especially more so in Soundcloud where the waveform is always of the same length, be it a 30-second snippet or a hour-long DJ set. Given that it's supposed to work for all kinds of sounds and music, you can probably understand what I'm getting at.
 
What I'm saying is, if you go to any commercial track it has a solid waveform.

Yes, this is purely the result of a more natural and true signal, f*k that (if you know what I'm saying), not software. You cannot achieve this with software (at current standards), you need hardware to be able to achieve that level of truth and emotion. So that's what you are seeing, you see natural RMS levels and peaks. You are asking an expensive question that has now been sorted out for ya. :cool:
 
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Well, I could've told you to compress the hell out of everything - but the point was that the visual representation of a song simplified down to a 2-dimensional bar is of very limited informational value. Especially more so in Soundcloud where the waveform is always of the same length, be it a 30-second snippet or a hour-long DJ set. Given that it's supposed to work for all kinds of sounds and music, you can probably understand what I'm getting at.

No you have to understand what is making it look like that, it is overall not of very limited informational value, but in many cases it also is, in that sense you are correct. The question itself is highly important, there are minor details in mixing/mastering, this ain't one of them...
 
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I've been producing for a long time now but with my most recent remix which is by far my best track, however the waveform is seriously lacking and its really disappointing. Makes me think I did something wrong. I've had plenty of happy mistakes in the past where the waveform was solid and you can easily distinguish intro,buildup,drop and stuff but back then I didnt even know how to mix and master correctly and I'm pretty sure I was clipping bad since I read an interview where Skrillex said he mixes at 0db lmfao..

So my question is how do you guys get those sexy looking forms you know? I'm sure it's numerous things that come into play.

How I've been mixing the past couple weeks or so is at 6 decibals, I then master with a maximizer with a +6 db gain to bring the track to 0 db, normally I'll do some eqing too and match the gain. However my tracks have quite a few of those random ass peaks.

Sorry to make the post so long, this has been bothering me and I haven't found an answer.

(answer this if you'd like kinda off topic)
I saw in a stream that a artist I like was using izotope to match the mix of tracks, and he said every track should slow from low end down to high end, how accurate is that? Since seeing that I've been very very harsh on the higher end when eqing, and people told me it was the right choice, I also cut everything from 13kdb to 15kdb to leave room for hi-hats and I don't know if that's correct, I believe someone on here told me to do so.

Please read my other posts, it is the result of high headroom hardware, impossible to achieve with software. Almost everything you don't like about your current mixes boils down to that. Forget about harmonic distortion and other myths, it's just a more true signal going into a more true compression.

In terms of peak level, the important thing is that the true inter sample peaks do not clip anywhere in your signal chain, keep really good track on that. -0.2 dB from true inter sample peak clipping at the processing stages and -0.4 dB from true inter sample peak clipping on the master is a good starting point for CD, you can stay a bit more defensive with encoded formats. If it does not sound good then it is due to other things... Do not just push the signal up to that level, instead balance the peaks properly towards these figures becoming the net result. This means your focus is on peak level elsewhere much earlier too.
 
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HOly shit.
How.... is anyone taking this seriously..?
Literally asking how to make a track look like an over-compressed sausage...?
 
Its how it is mixed, it should be solid before you master it.. there should be no peaks, the percussion should cut through without creating that kick heavy wave, it takes experience, and a lot of monitoring experience
 
HOly shit.
How.... is anyone taking this seriously..?
Literally asking how to make a track look like an over-compressed sausage...?

A sausage waveform, is generally good... a square limited brick,is shit.... You won't see any commercial tracks square brick waves... they will look full, yet not square... anyway..
 
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