Thanks for all your help guys...

[skidder652003]

Thanks to everyone on here for the overwhelming positive feedback and advice regarding the "basics" of achieving a half decent mix. 

I've learnt a lot in just a week of messages and help online and it just goes to show what a great community we have going here.

This was from wednesdays rehearsal, into garageband, mixed on reaper, taking on board all the pointers coming from you guys.

 

 

[TwoTimesBass]

Good work Skidder, you're a fast learner! Love the sound of the bass licks in the dropouts at the end of the chorus. If i'm being picky (which I sadly can't help in life 😫) watch out for the kick drum hitting the mix buss/mastering compressor too hard. It sounds clipped and pulls the mix down flattening everything else when the vocal needs to stand out. It's already a very loud mix relatively speaking. A multiband compressor would help it you have one in your toolbox so the impact of the kick can be left alone without taking away the smoothing effect of a good mastering comp on the vocals. Alternatively, set up a separate buss to comp the drums & bass so the compressor settings don't effect the vocals if that makes sense?

Either way, sterling work on the effort you're putting in to master the equipment and getting a good sound for the band 👍

[skidder652003]

8 hours ago, TwoTimesBass said:

Good work Skidder, you're a fast learner! Love the sound of the bass licks in the dropouts at the end of the chorus. If i'm being picky (which I sadly can't help in life 😫) watch out for the kick drum hitting the mix buss/mastering compressor too hard. It sounds clipped and pulls the mix down flattening everything else when the vocal needs to stand out. It's already a very loud mix relatively speaking. A multiband compressor would help it you have one in your toolbox so the impact of the kick can be left alone without taking away the smoothing effect of a good mastering comp on the vocals. Alternatively, set up a separate buss to comp the drums & bass so the compressor settings don't effect the vocals if that makes sense?

Either way, sterling work on the effort you're putting in to master the equipment and getting a good sound for the band 👍

any idea of what (roughly) settings I should be looking at for the compression on the kick and bass? Thanks for the input.

[TwoTimesBass]

Hi Skidder,

For kick, I normally start with something like this:

Attack: 0ms

Release: Auto (if you have the option) or around 50ms

Ratio: About 5:1

Hard Knee (if you have the option)

Threshold: Adjust to give about -6 to -9 on the gain reduction meter (and to your ears)

Make-up gain: Only if needed, be careful not to overload.

If there is a Mix or Wet/Dry knob make sure it is set to 100% Wet

The Threshold and Attack knobs have the most influence on your sound typically, increasing the attack lets more of the initial hit of the drum/bass before the compressor kicks in so add a bit more time if it sounds too 'flat'. Threshold acts like a more/less control.