Ableton Forum

I have a song that has floor toms, kick and bass. Any suggestions for clarifying and separating these sounds? At this point they are sounding muddled. Toms are masking both bass and kick. Thank you.

Have a look around the net for a visual instrument Vs frequency table. These can be very handy when trying to get everything sitting right.

I would start by cutting some of your toms low end out. If they are snappy toms then you probably need little down under 200Hz or so but if they are booming toms then you may want to pull down the low frequency and notch a frequency in a thin band that keeps the punch.

One trick is to use a large notch PEAK for an instrument you want to make sit nice and move the notch up/down the freq scale until you hear it affecting the other elements badly. Then invert that notch and tune from there.

There are lots of variables and things to play with. A spectrum analizer (EQ8 in Live 9) can really show you where instruments are dominating if you cannot hear it all.

Thanks Jester. I will try today.