Need an advice from an 808 mixing expert

[Michael Dcruz Gomez]

hi
i was wondering what is the db level of the 808 and kick while mixing
i might sound stupid as i have been told many times to use my ears but still i wanna be sure i am not bluntly wrong

suppose if my main melody of the song is at 14db ( i am mixing at 14db)
then what must be the db level for 808s and kicks according to u

keep in mind that my 808 had the main impact between 28hz and 57 hz and to remove the extra low end i have cut it at 41hz

and please inform me if my cutting from 28 to 41hz is vague and i must be change the eq.

my 808 sample is bass drop 9 from lex lurger's kit and is on the note a4 (i have tuned it)

Need some serious replies

 

[mattytrump]

Hate to say what you don't want to hear but you have to use your ears. Mixing by db level is never going to work because it's about how the 808 fits in the mix. With 808 and kick combos I first figure out which one is going to be the dominant. So if I want the 808 to stick out more, I am going to carve out more of the low end of the kick and let the mid-range pop out more so you can still here it. The other thing to really keep in mind is what frequency is the kick and what frequency is the 808. If they are both hitting at 100hz make sure to carve that freq out on one of them. Usually you can have the kick punch more at 100hz and carve it out of the 808 while boosting the 808 around 60 to 80hz. Also boosting the harmonics of the 808 can make it cut through more, so if the 808 dominant freq is 60hz, you could try boosting at 120 or 240 to make it cut though a bit more. Hope my rambling helps.

 

[Michael Dcruz Gomez]

really love your tips man
thanks for your time
that even harmonic boosting at multiple frequencies is really cool
i appreciate your response

 

[bandcoach]

yep doing it by the numbers never works - otherwise we could find some genius to write a program to do all the mixing that ever needs to be done in the future and we would all be out of job

however, when you say you are mixing your melody at 14dB (I assume you actually mean -14dBFS) is that the average level or the peak level?

the real key to mixing is setting your average level (RMS level) to some point around -20dBFS and mix everything to that - this gives you peak room for transients without compromising or clipping your mix

the rest is done by ear

 

[Adrian-MarQ]

Try bringing in a popular song (or just a song you like) with 808s in it. Bring down the volume of that song until it sounds about the same volume as your track. If you have never matched loudness by ear and find yourself having trouble, google "free LUFS meter" and use the integrated loudness measure to determine the average loudness.

From there, just determine how loud or soft your 808 is in comparison to your reference song.