One of the biggest issues I have is making my final track song more punchy and less flat. when i listen to other artists mixes of track they seen to get the most out of the bass, drum beats and vocal and you can really here them punching through the speakers however no matter how much i compress tracks or alter volumes the whole track finishes up as flat. below is a link to a track I got mastered but I think there is something missing.
What am I doing wrong on home studio 7 xl or is it just me
 
http://soundcloud.com/h2wo/ace-of-base-the-sign-h2wo-remix-2011
 
thanks guys nick

Hi Nick, first of all I suggest you post your songs in the songs forum here at cakewalk.  it's a great community for getting feedback on your mixes.

I'm currently at work so I'm listening to this on $5 headphones and a soundmax soundcard, and my environment isn't the best for critiquing.  having said that, the mix isn't bad.  but I'll address your specific concerns below.

when you say you think it's "flat" - exactly what do you mean by that?  and you have a contradiction in your statements; making a track more "dynamic" and cannot be accomplished by adding heavy compression.  heavy compression and limiting will reduce dynamics, not enhance them.

you say that your mixes are "flat" and that the bass, drum and vocal aren't punching thru.  and I agree with that for this mix - for this genre you really want some punchy bass and kick and you want the vocal to come thru.

what I suggest is that you don't try to do that with compression because you'll never accomplish THOSE tasks with just compression.  but you work on EQ for each of those tracks.  you need to boost the bass in the median frequency range that it is using with a medium sharp Q, then cut the bass in a frequency where you will be boosting the kick.  in other words, give the kick a boost for example (this is not necssarily correct for your song - I don't have the tracks in front of me or an EQ or a spectrum analyzer) at about 75Hz, cut it a little at about 300Hz and give it a little bit of boost for extra punch at around 6kHz.
then high shelve the bass starting at about 80Hz and below, give it a bump at 200-300Hz and then an extra little bump at around 3kHz.
add a compressor just on the bass track with a ration of 3 or 4:1 with a short attack and short decay.

now you need to also roll off all of the low end of ALL your tracks except bass and kick at around 60Hz.

then for the vocal - give it a good boost in the midrange with a wide Q (usually around 2k), roll off the low end completely and bump it a little in the 5-6kHz for some extra sizzle.

add a compressor to the vocal track just for it's own compression.  use some vocal compression settings dependent on the vocalists.  if the vocalists are very dynamic and didn't work the mic much, then you'll need a low threshold and fast attack. 

I suggest adding a "drum bus" if you don't already have one and route all of the drum sounds to it and compress all of them with one compressor.

then you'll need a compressor and/or limiter on the master bus to tie it all together.  but be careful you don't hit the settings of the song where you get a "pumping" from the compressor itself.

check out my website for some more helpful info on EQ, compression, recording techniques and other help.

Hi thanks for that i will give it ago, I use the eq that comes with cakewalk at present but only for tweaks and what you wrote makes more sense. i currently only slightly adjust but don't realy know much about frequency change and peak limiters.
am i write in thinking its all about frequency rather than volume to achieve the correct bass versus drum and vocal effects.
I used to use compresser to keep the instruments within their own range but thanks to your relpy I now know there is much more to it than that.

thanks nick

Hi again sorry to be a pain but most eq's have multiple bands, would you suggest using more than 1 band to achieve the results im looking for, or would you use mulitple bandswith different filters.

great website by the way.

thanks nick

I don't remember what's available in SHS for EQ, but I would recommend a good parametric EQ, not a band EQ and just use multiple nodes on the EQ for each track you want to add EQ to.

if there's not a good parametric EQ in SHS, go to kvraudio.com and search for a free parametric EQ - there's a lot of them.  I don't remember what the best ones are, there are some that are better than others.

nick001


Hi again sorry to be a pain but most eq's have multiple bands, would you suggest using more than 1 band to achieve the results im looking for, or would you use mulitple bandswith different filters.

great website by the way.

thanks nick

Use the built in Sonitis EQ that you should be able to find in the mixer view. It is available on every track.

Boost 11 does a good job of making a full sounding mix

Hi,

I really like what Beagle said, as he is absolutely right.  

Another way you can look at your mix is by thinking of the sound field your trying to fill.

Instruments like high strings, brass, cymbals all cut through pretty good.    Bass and Kicks tend not to come through so much without help.  

I would recommend listening to a mix of a song that you would like to have your project sound like, and analyze the different instruments ( I use the sonitus EQ to isolate instruments) and pay attention to the equalization of it.    As an example if I want my cymbals on my drum track to come through as well as my kick, I increase the highs in a wide band and in a narrow band focus on the kick.  It really all depends on your preference.

Hope this helps, because sometimes it gets things moving when you approach it aesthetically rather than technically.

Cheers,

TheBadger

Beagle is the Bees Knees here..but for what it's worth, I've had a similar problem of lack of punch when mastering for a long time. Although it's not a VST solution, I get great success with my two outboard enhancers - A Behreinger Dualfex II and an real old timer, the BBE Sonic Maximiser 422A. They both bring in a dynamic that I've not achieved using inboard VSTs. I also seem to recall there's a VST version of the BBE now too Just a thougt I'd share that with you!