Kick volumes? Too loud or too low?

S

StanleySteamer

New member
Hey guys, so I am doing research on mixing and I hear a lot of people saying that my kick should be the loudest part of my track so I assume it should be louder than my snare and what not. I have a sample I am working with that currently has drums in it but I am covering those drums with my drums. If I leave my kick high at 100% it sounds pretty covered but when I turn it down to around 75% i can hear the sample kicks pushing through. When its at 100% it makes my beat really loud and it also sounds like the kick is punching too hard almost through the speakers. Any advice? I use FL Studio
 
not the loudest, but it should cut through, it should be around same level as the mix, shouldnt be louder than the mix.
 
even then it shouldn't be louder than -10dbs (prefferably low) - your total mixdown should be at most -6dbs before you master, this way the compressors and what not have room to do their job.
 
The kick is commonly the loudest thing in many genres.
But we're not talking about percieved volume, but the actual amplitude. In other words, the kick is the element (or one of them) that commonly has the highest amplitude in the mix.

And as CM03 stated, you should use plenty of headroom in the mixer, and the loudest element in the mix (as I said, mostly the kick), should peak at around -10 dBFS at the maximum, preferably less.

I just have to ask, do you use the default Fruity Limiter on the master that is there when FL is launched? If so, remove it.
That's at least the first thing I got thinking of when you stated your problem.
Also, try turning down the volume when making music if you have it loud. Naturally it's harder to hear everything clearly when listening to it loud.
 
You cannot give any figures for how loud a kick should be without having the whole track to reference to.
Kick's punch through a mix using good headroom and other techniques other than simply raising the gain. Use s/c to duck slightly, or use filtering to remove sub harmonics and you will instantly hear a difference to how the kick is perceived.

We need to hear the track to give the right advice.
 
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