Hello Everyone,
 
I seem to have some kind of problem with all my mixes (pre-masters).   No matter what I do, when I have the drums just playing a solo part, my kick especially sounds WAY too loud, too much punch, it doesn't sound nice and tidy like when its in the mix.   Does anyone know what I could do?  I do electronic music.

Thank You,
Adam

Automation? 

Are you going to listen to the track with just drums only when it's finished or with everything else? This just might be a case of balancing everything when everything is present rather than getting carried away listening to things for too long in solo which many regard as not a great thing to do.
 
Don't they say 30 seconds max in solo? If it sounds good with everything in the mix then it is good! Getting things to sound perfect in solo and in the mix can be hard and it is wasted energy because it is the full mix that is there at the end of the day.
 
 
 

Hello, thx for the replies.  I have parts of my song where it is only drums.  That is the problem... they start to sound wayyy too agressive when the instruments leave especially bass.   Im sure its something with my EQ/Mix but i dont know.

Well the Automation suggestion might be a good approach.

Yea but I shouldn't have to if my mix is right.   Think about a band playing in a room and the drummer has a solo...   he doesn't hit the drums with less velocity because he is solo at the time.   It's a mix/eq thing, just not sure what im doing wrong.

What compression have you got on your mix buss?

Hey Adam I can see where are coming from. It might be a good idea to spend some time in your session around the area where the drums and all the music are all in and then drums by themselves and where the music comes in again. I would then be listening to the drums and making sure the sound of them are good before during and after the area where they are alone. I agree there doesn't have to be major changes to the drums in the solo areas, they should carry through that area well.
 
When I mix I rarely start at the start. I tend to go to the place where there is a lot going on first and start there. I find that other areas then tend to fall into place after getting that right. Or I go to know areas of difficulty first as well and get that sorted.
 
Yes check EQ and compression on your kick sound and drum buss compression as well to glue them all together too. You might have to automate the drum buss up slightly in the solo areas to compensate for the slight drop in level due to everything else dropping out.
 
Sounds like you may need to start again with the drum sound overall and maybe rebuild it from scratch. Nothing wrong with that. I have just done that with a Hip Hop track I have been producing lately for a girl singer. Even after hours and hours of mixing I just pulled everything down to zero, rebuilt the drum sound from scratch and went from there. Ended up with a great sounding mix at the end of the day though.

Hi,
 
I've been layering sounds to make my kicks. I pick a good sample to be my main kick and add a HH or short hi-percussive sound to help it cut through the mix. I do not compress much and I've found out that tape compression and distortion helps in making it fatter and not too agressive.
I also keep an eye on the spectrum analyzer. If my kick drum is hitting around 60Hz, I put a low-pass filter on the bass just around that area so that it won't mess around with my kick. 
All the rest may get a low-pass around 140Hz if it won't affect the sound much.
 
Maybe your problem is that you have too much things playing on the same frequency range as your kick. Then you eq and compress to make the kick cut through the mix and when you get your drum parts it is way too loud.
 
Also, be aware of your bus compressor and limiter settings. Deppending on how you set your attack and release times it will respond differently on parts where the dynamics of your track changes.
 
There's a very nice video on Pensado's place (YouTube channel) where he talks about bus compressor techniques. But if you want to try, this is what he does: Instead of loading a bus compressor (limiter, maximizer, whatever) on the entire mix, he spread several of those across different busses. One for the bass and the kick, another for the leads, one for the pads, etc. I think it makes sense because the audio that the plugin has to handle is much simpler than an entire mix. In addition, by boosting the busses individually you'll get a lot of extra dbs before getting to the master fader.
 
Cheers. 

aglewis723
Yea but I shouldn't have to if my mix is right.   Think about a band playing in a room and the drummer has a solo...   he doesn't hit the drums with less velocity because he is solo at the time.   It's a mix/eq thing, just not sure what im doing wrong.

It's another thing in recording. If a song has solo piano intro, you let all the frequencies come through and use a higher volume, when the bass and kick join the party, you need to cut the low end and volume of the piano if you want the low end to sound precise and keep the volume in control.
In recording, an instrument that sounds great when soloed can be unusable in the mix.
You just need to trust your ears. If the mix sounds good, then it's good. You just need to adjust the solo-drum part to sound good.