Mastering for that fat electro house sound

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11-01-2012
AudioAssembly

Mastering for that fat electro house sound

Has anyone had really good experiences with any particular mastering techniques/VSTs lately to get that fat electro house sound?

I'm having a hard time striking a balance between the heavy compression associated with the style and compression so heavy it hurts my ears. Any advice is appreciated!
12-01-2012
richardik03

I'll just compress the buss channels first to get it to the max level, then sidechain it to the bassdrum to give space for the two of them and then i'll lower a bit the frequencies that are alike of each one (for example i will remove 10-60 hz on the synth and then remove 150-300 on the bassdrum) it may sound weird by reading this but when you compress everything it would help removing the mess in frequencies. A tip appart from this that I was told is to remove any innecessary frequencies from every channel to leave room for instruments that really use them.
12-01-2012
stallion203369

in my chain i use 2 compressors, eq, stereo imager, multiband limiter and dadda life sausage fattener, i find these work really well in the right order. hope that helps
12-01-2012
stallion203369

Quote:

Originally Posted by richardik03

I'll just compress the buss channels first to get it to the max level, then sidechain it to the bassdrum to give space for the two of them and then i'll lower a bit the frequencies that are alike of each one (for example i will remove 10-60 hz on the synth and then remove 150-300 on the bassdrum) it may sound weird by reading this but when you compress everything it would help removing the mess in frequencies. A tip appart from this that I was told is to remove any innecessary frequencies from every channel to leave room for instruments that really use them.

I find that when you EQ before compressing, you want that stage to cut the unwanted frequencies, then do all your compressing then EQ again but this time you do the boosting. i dont know how much you know about compressors but they react to certain frequencies, so if you boost the hell out of say 100hz then the compressor will work harder and attack the 100hz range before compressing everything else. all i all it will change the way everything sounds compared to EQ - Compress - EQ.
I that makes sense haha
12-01-2012
richardik03

Quote:

Originally Posted by stallion203369

in my chain i use 2 compressors, eq, stereo imager, multiband limiter and dadda life sausage fattener, i find these work really well in the right order. hope that helps

I guess you use the sausage fattener just for the bus, right?
12-01-2012
stallion203369

Quote:

Originally Posted by richardik03

I guess you use the sausage fattener just for the bus, right?

Yeah i do but i also find that it works well on the master channel, only slightly though cause it can destroy everything haha
12-01-2012
richardik03

Quote:

Originally Posted by stallion203369

I find that when you EQ before compressing, you want that stage to cut the unwanted frequencies, then do all your compressing then EQ again but this time you do the boosting. i dont know how much you know about compressors but they react to certain frequencies, so if you boost the hell out of say 100hz then the compressor will work harder and attack the 100hz range before compressing everything else. all i all it will change the way everything sounds compared to EQ - Compress - EQ.
I that makes sense haha

I like to put the EQ after because i often cut frequencies more than boosting and when you comprees you are loosing a bit of your EQ settings, just different ways to work I've worked with some engineers that even use limiters instead of compressors for the bus channels haha
12-01-2012
stallion203369

Quote:

Originally Posted by richardik03

I like to put the EQ after because i often cut frequencies more than boosting and when you comprees you are loosing a bit of your EQ settings, just different ways to work I've worked with some engineers that even use limiters instead of compressors for the bus channels haha

yeah thats true, i usually EQ first to cut everything out then compress then EQ again. Yeah i've jumped on the limiter bandwagon as well, i multiband compress my basses, used more to expand them
12-01-2012
richardik03

Quote:

Originally Posted by stallion203369

yeah thats true, i usually EQ first to cut everything out then compress then EQ again. Yeah i've jumped on the limiter bandwagon as well, i multiband compress my basses, used more to expand them

To be honest I use only one EQ for each channel almost everytime, I have the idea not to process the bass that much. For me if a sound needs that much processing I'll just change the synth sound (I'm working just with midi so that suits me perfectly). By the way, I found some creative ideas using vocal effects vst's on the bass sounds (mostly AVOX vst's), give this a go! :)
12-01-2012
stallion203369

Quote:

Originally Posted by richardik03

To be honest I use only one EQ for each channel almost everytime, I have the idea not to process the bass that much. For me if a sound needs that much processing I'll just change the synth sound (I'm working just with midi so that suits me perfectly). By the way, I found some creative ideas using vocal effects vst's on the bass sounds (mostly AVOX vst's), give this a go! :)

Yeah thats cool, i still mix like i do with my bands and stuff but was able to transfer sort of the same techniques to dance music. Alot of my stuff is midi as well, but getting massive bass sounds has alot to do with compression, and my EQ'ing dosent look like the rocky mountains haha its more finer cuts and boosts. i agree if you need to over process something then change it. Yeah i've seen a few producers do that vox fx, still hasnt sold it for me yet
12-01-2012
richardik03

Quote:

Originally Posted by stallion203369

Yeah thats cool, i still mix like i do with my bands and stuff but was able to transfer sort of the same techniques to dance music. Alot of my stuff is midi as well, but getting massive bass sounds has alot to do with compression, and my EQ'ing dosent look like the rocky mountains haha its more finer cuts and boosts. i agree if you need to over process something then change it. Yeah i've seen a few producers do that vox fx, still hasnt sold it for me yet

FUCK! I thought my idea was original hahah, just check out Avox Mutator & Avox Warm on your bass, thy give a bit more analog feel when used right
12-01-2012
stallion203369

Quote:

Originally Posted by richardik03

FUCK! I thought my idea was original hahah, just check out Avox Mutator & Avox Warm on your bass, thy give a bit more analog feel when used right

Think i might have to haha, yeah man i thought alot of my ideas were original but some bastards already doing it hahaha
12-01-2012
mine

Quote:

Originally Posted by stallion203369

Think i might have to haha, yeah man i thought alot of my ideas were original but some bastards already doing it hahaha

a couple of my producer mates do that as well
17-01-2012
toMOOSE

ok i must be just wierd then because i eq the individual channels and use the limiter and multiband compressor on the master hahaha.
17-01-2012
icecoolz

There is no one rule. It depends on what you are trying to do. I usually use a combo of EQ, compressor and limiter various channels (percs, bass, riff's, fx. etc are all on their individual buses). I try to stay away from compressions on Master bus. I sometimes use a limiter. And you guys should try the Sonic BBE series. Pretty amazing for mastering.
18-01-2012
stallion203369

Quote:

Originally Posted by toMOOSE

ok i must be just wierd then because i eq the individual channels and use the limiter and multiband compressor on the master hahaha.

Doesn't really matter what you do as long as it sounds good