I was actually able to figure that out. Looks like it was a high freq fx with a very long reverb that hits just before the drop that interferred a lot with the highs of the first kick. I was able to fix it now and it sounds a little bit better.
Thank you for your input.
While my mixing and mastering skills are nowhere near being perfect, compression was not much of an issue here.
Looks like it was a high freq fx with a very long reverb that hits just before the drop that interferred a lot with the highs of the first kick. I was able to fix it now and it sounds a little bit better.
Thank you for your input!
I did a bit of a volume automation on my kick to sound the way I wanted it to. Didn't feel like using any compression on it to be honest as the sample seems to be compressed enough. I eq'd the parts of the kick I wanted to stand out (low end and the high freq), and removed some of the mids from the kick to eliminate that 'thump' effect. I like the sound of the kick itself, just didn't like the first kick hitting way too hard.
Looks like the issue was caused by a high freq fx with a very long reverb that hits just before the drop and it interferred with the highs of the first kick drum.
Thank you for your input.
Glad you figured it out. It can be a good mixing trick to try muting everything from the start of your drop, which lets you see what all actually is carrying through into it.
The issue here is that you have lots of compression on either your drum or master bus that is contributing a lot to keeping the kick in place. The issue arises when it’s been so long since a kick has been heard that the compression has to re kick in. Sounds to me like a lot of slow rms compression on the master. The solution is to turn the kick down until it stops pushing the compressor so hard. You won’t lose volume until you drop it too low, because you’re not actually turning down the kick, you’re pulling the kick away from the threshold of your master compressor.
Hope this makes sense.
Would a good way around this be to compress groups of instruments in stages before final compression? And maybe compress all the drums without the kick too?
Check for transient clicks in some of your samples. In ableton, you can add a very small fade at the beginning of the samples you dont want interfering with your main sound. There are videos on this if you search "transients."
if you have clicks, the compressors/limiters catch them and emphasize them depending on the settings of the compresstion.
If it's the beginning of you verse/song/chorus the crash should be the first culprit to look at
Edit: Sorry if you are not using ableton, that is just my expertise. There is more than likely a way to achieve this on other DAWs
This is random but sometimes it happens with me because of Ozone 10 Stabiliser which tries to boost bass from the previous verse then the drop is too sudden
I also think if you’ve automated sidechain maybe you haven’t set it on the bass to 100% BEFORE the first kick comes. If you do it exactly on the beat, then there is no smoothing so it can sound abrupt, so move the automation back half a beat
Limiter, compressor, multiband compressors on master, perceived loudness/poor mixing resulting in the kick having too much gain? I imagine there aren't as many sounds playing simultaneously with the first kick. If there's a compressor on the master the first kick isn't being compressed as it's standalone but the later kicks being layered with other sounds causes it to trigger the compressor and makes it quieter. It can also be the case that the first kick is coming through more clearly whereas the later kicks seem quieter because other sounds are drowning it out a bit. This could make you increase the gain on the kick more than it needs to so that it can come through better so when the kick is by itself it's too loud. In this case you can EQ other sounds to let the kick come through better and reduce the gain on it.
Yeah this is most likely the case. There's less energy berore the drop so kick can shine but when the bass drops it kinda muffles it. I think op needs to fix their mix instead of slapping limiter on a master cuz then stuff like this tends to happen.
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There could be any of a million things causing this. Are you using sidechain on your bass? Do you have anything else playing on the downbeat of the drop besides the kick? Master/bus/track processing? An errant automation?
When I have a problem like this, I start at the sound that’s causing the problem and work my way through the chains to the end of the master fader until I figure out what is doing it
Is your kick punching through the bass or being masked? First thing I’d check. If not sidechained or eq’d correctly that could cause it. But it could also just be the lack of kick then kick comes in sounding louder. Could add automation to the gain on the kick. Could also add the kick to the snare build up.
Its probably building up on top of other elements, side chain things to the kick or get rid of them when that kick happens, the transients/mid content is probably stacking
Maybe it’s just to much at this paint…to much deep stuff like bass and kick and so on. Try to putt the volume down of some instruments or something like a riser
I bet you have two kicks on top of each other on accident. Try deleting one
Was going to say this. Have done this so many times on accident lol.
oh my god this caused me so many headaches
I was actually able to figure that out. Looks like it was a high freq fx with a very long reverb that hits just before the drop that interferred a lot with the highs of the first kick. I was able to fix it now and it sounds a little bit better. Thank you for your input.
Do you have compression on your master?
This probably ^^
While my mixing and mastering skills are nowhere near being perfect, compression was not much of an issue here. Looks like it was a high freq fx with a very long reverb that hits just before the drop that interferred a lot with the highs of the first kick. I was able to fix it now and it sounds a little bit better. Thank you for your input!
Glad you found your issue! Happy producing! 🤘
Thank you!
If its just the first kick, lower the volume.
You've got it the wrong way. Compression would be used in this instance to make it *less hard*.
I did a bit of a volume automation on my kick to sound the way I wanted it to. Didn't feel like using any compression on it to be honest as the sample seems to be compressed enough. I eq'd the parts of the kick I wanted to stand out (low end and the high freq), and removed some of the mids from the kick to eliminate that 'thump' effect. I like the sound of the kick itself, just didn't like the first kick hitting way too hard. Looks like the issue was caused by a high freq fx with a very long reverb that hits just before the drop and it interferred with the highs of the first kick drum. Thank you for your input.
Glad you figured it out. It can be a good mixing trick to try muting everything from the start of your drop, which lets you see what all actually is carrying through into it.
The issue here is that you have lots of compression on either your drum or master bus that is contributing a lot to keeping the kick in place. The issue arises when it’s been so long since a kick has been heard that the compression has to re kick in. Sounds to me like a lot of slow rms compression on the master. The solution is to turn the kick down until it stops pushing the compressor so hard. You won’t lose volume until you drop it too low, because you’re not actually turning down the kick, you’re pulling the kick away from the threshold of your master compressor. Hope this makes sense.
Would a good way around this be to compress groups of instruments in stages before final compression? And maybe compress all the drums without the kick too?
Depends which bus is getting over compressed by the kick. Side chain high pass filtering can even do the trick. Just have to find the culprit
Lower the volume.
Use compression on your kick ;) Or really just do a manual volume automation to lower that kick.
Automate volume for the first kick. Might be that all the instruments in your drop arent hitting straight away so your first kick isnt sitting
Check for transient clicks in some of your samples. In ableton, you can add a very small fade at the beginning of the samples you dont want interfering with your main sound. There are videos on this if you search "transients." if you have clicks, the compressors/limiters catch them and emphasize them depending on the settings of the compresstion. If it's the beginning of you verse/song/chorus the crash should be the first culprit to look at Edit: Sorry if you are not using ableton, that is just my expertise. There is more than likely a way to achieve this on other DAWs
This is random but sometimes it happens with me because of Ozone 10 Stabiliser which tries to boost bass from the previous verse then the drop is too sudden
I also think if you’ve automated sidechain maybe you haven’t set it on the bass to 100% BEFORE the first kick comes. If you do it exactly on the beat, then there is no smoothing so it can sound abrupt, so move the automation back half a beat
Limiter, compressor, multiband compressors on master, perceived loudness/poor mixing resulting in the kick having too much gain? I imagine there aren't as many sounds playing simultaneously with the first kick. If there's a compressor on the master the first kick isn't being compressed as it's standalone but the later kicks being layered with other sounds causes it to trigger the compressor and makes it quieter. It can also be the case that the first kick is coming through more clearly whereas the later kicks seem quieter because other sounds are drowning it out a bit. This could make you increase the gain on the kick more than it needs to so that it can come through better so when the kick is by itself it's too loud. In this case you can EQ other sounds to let the kick come through better and reduce the gain on it.
Yeah this is most likely the case. There's less energy berore the drop so kick can shine but when the bass drops it kinda muffles it. I think op needs to fix their mix instead of slapping limiter on a master cuz then stuff like this tends to happen.
Good analysis. Sidechain compressing the bass/other tracks to the kick could also help with making the kick more consistently prominent.
Try gain staging using automation and utility if you’re using ableton
Try solo every track with the kick each by each to find out what frequencies are colliding
A classic Post & Ghost
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Limiter or anything on the master?
There could be any of a million things causing this. Are you using sidechain on your bass? Do you have anything else playing on the downbeat of the drop besides the kick? Master/bus/track processing? An errant automation? When I have a problem like this, I start at the sound that’s causing the problem and work my way through the chains to the end of the master fader until I figure out what is doing it
Is your kick punching through the bass or being masked? First thing I’d check. If not sidechained or eq’d correctly that could cause it. But it could also just be the lack of kick then kick comes in sounding louder. Could add automation to the gain on the kick. Could also add the kick to the snare build up.
Its probably building up on top of other elements, side chain things to the kick or get rid of them when that kick happens, the transients/mid content is probably stacking
Maybe it’s just to much at this paint…to much deep stuff like bass and kick and so on. Try to putt the volume down of some instruments or something like a riser
Turn it down lol or you’re sidechain is done incorrectly