Alright guys,
I am currently trying to mix an electronic song that i made but i am not sure about the levels that i should be having in a mix. I know that the important elements should be the loudest( kick drum and lead synth), but what is the level or db i should have on my stereo out? Also,what is the standard dB of commercial edm music and how do i go about following it?
Setting levels in a mix
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- KVRAF
- 15272 posts since 8 Mar, 2005 from Utrecht, Holland
The main objective is to not let your master output clip. You achieve that usually with all faders of individual tracks set to about -10 dB.
It's not unusual for the master channel to have peaks near 0dB (clipping level) and an average (RMS) level of somewhere inbetween -15 dB fs and -20 dB fs (decibels relative to Full Scale = the clipping level)
Commercial mixes these days have single digit RMS levels, thanks to the loudness war. That's not easy to achieve for amateurs that do their own mastering without totally destroying your mix. It's a fine balance between getting some extra loudness and as a by-effect you also get harmonic distortion.
It's not unusual for the master channel to have peaks near 0dB (clipping level) and an average (RMS) level of somewhere inbetween -15 dB fs and -20 dB fs (decibels relative to Full Scale = the clipping level)
Commercial mixes these days have single digit RMS levels, thanks to the loudness war. That's not easy to achieve for amateurs that do their own mastering without totally destroying your mix. It's a fine balance between getting some extra loudness and as a by-effect you also get harmonic distortion.
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- KVRAF
- 21348 posts since 26 Jul, 2005 from Gone
Who says the kick and bass are the most important parts of the music, and why do they have to be the loudest? Both will do a lot to fill up a mix and you'll find it hard to get other sounds to cut through or it can muddy up the mix.
Part of getting the mix right is to shape the EQ of each track to avoid putting too much in one band. If you side chain the bass with the kick drum you won't have to push the bass so high to be heard. You can also use compression or selectively lower narrow frequencies to keep the level of a track manageable.
Overall, you will have problems if you end up making everything louder than everything else. The idea is that you mix tracks relative to each other, not to make them as loud as possible. Always remember that you have a volume control - mix so that you're not redlining anything and leave some headroom too.
Also, it doesn't matter how loud commercial mixes are - that's down to mastering more than mixing.
Part of getting the mix right is to shape the EQ of each track to avoid putting too much in one band. If you side chain the bass with the kick drum you won't have to push the bass so high to be heard. You can also use compression or selectively lower narrow frequencies to keep the level of a track manageable.
Overall, you will have problems if you end up making everything louder than everything else. The idea is that you mix tracks relative to each other, not to make them as loud as possible. Always remember that you have a volume control - mix so that you're not redlining anything and leave some headroom too.
Also, it doesn't matter how loud commercial mixes are - that's down to mastering more than mixing.
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thecontrolcentre thecontrolcentre https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=76240 - KVRAF
- 35171 posts since 27 Jul, 2005 from the wilds of wanny
Listen to some commercial mixes as reference, then try to match the balance of the instruments in your own track. Don't worry about "loudness" til you reach the mastering stage.
