Hello All, I am struggling to keeping my kick dynamics in mastering in Ableton, it’s getting squashed when I use limiters on Master bus. I give 6db to 8db headroom for mastering. I tried parallel compression but no help.
One trick I found by Izotope.com for preserving the dynamics of a mix is to mix at high levels, just enough to avoid clipping on master bus, only use limiter just a tiny bit BUT I don’t know if it’s the right way to mix at hot signals.
Please help, any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Kick getting squashed in mastering
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Re: Kick getting squashed in mastering
Have you tried using a sidechain on the compressor? That allows the kick to cut through while other tracks are compressed.
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Re: Kick getting squashed in mastering
Yes I tried sidechain on my Sub bass track, so the kick can cut through but even with this trick my Kick still getting squashed in mastering.
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Re: Kick getting squashed in mastering
Is the kick much louder than other parts of the track? If so, you may want to try dropping it by a few dbs and use more sidechaining and EQ and mild saturation to make it cut through more at a lower volume, then introduce the limiter afterwards.
I haven't tried this trick myself yet, but I've heard that putting all other tracks into a bus and sidechaining that to the kick can work really well.
It might also be a sound design issue - leads/pads/snares might be masking the higher frequencies in the click/transient and pushing you Into making it louder.
Also if your trick with iZotope sounds good, maybe just leave it at that. There's no one correct way to master.
I haven't tried this trick myself yet, but I've heard that putting all other tracks into a bus and sidechaining that to the kick can work really well.
It might also be a sound design issue - leads/pads/snares might be masking the higher frequencies in the click/transient and pushing you Into making it louder.
Also if your trick with iZotope sounds good, maybe just leave it at that. There's no one correct way to master.
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Re: Kick getting squashed in mastering
A lot of times you'll see this because there's too much sub bass in the kick. A little of EQ to reduce the frequencies aroun 40-50Hz by 2-3dB can help a lot.
Last edited by Tarekith on Sun May 02, 2021 9:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Kick getting squashed in mastering
Thankyou Double Tap, your trick sounds like a plan to sidechain all the tracks with a bus into the kick, I will definitely going to try that, hopefully this will work. Thankyou again!!! Blessings!!!Double Tap wrote: ↑Sat May 01, 2021 9:33 pmIs the kick much louder than other parts of the track? If so, you may want to try dropping it by a few dbs and use more sidechaining and EQ and mild saturation to make it cut through more at a lower volume, then introduce the limiter afterwards.
I haven't tried this trick myself yet, but I've heard that putting all other tracks into a bus and sidechaining that to the kick can work really well.
It might also be a sound design issue - leads/pads/snares might be masking the higher frequencies in the click/transient and pushing you Into making it louder.
Also if your trick with iZotope sounds good, maybe just leave it at that. There's no one correct way to master.