Kick getting squashed in mastering

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Anya Buddha
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Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2021 3:25 am

Kick getting squashed in mastering

Post by Anya Buddha » Wed Apr 14, 2021 3:39 am

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, :)

Greenapples2019
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Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 6:43 pm

Re: Kick getting squashed in mastering

Post by Greenapples2019 » Wed Apr 14, 2021 11:58 am

Have you tried using a sidechain on the compressor? That allows the kick to cut through while other tracks are compressed.

Anya Buddha
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Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2021 3:25 am

Re: Kick getting squashed in mastering

Post by Anya Buddha » Wed Apr 14, 2021 4:58 pm

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.

Double Tap
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Joined: Thu Apr 22, 2021 1:44 pm

Re: Kick getting squashed in mastering

Post by Double Tap » Sat May 01, 2021 9:33 pm

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.

Tarekith
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Re: Kick getting squashed in mastering

Post by Tarekith » Sun May 02, 2021 12:46 am

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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Anya Buddha
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2021 3:25 am

Re: Kick getting squashed in mastering

Post by Anya Buddha » Sun May 02, 2021 7:23 pm

Double Tap wrote:
Sat May 01, 2021 9:33 pm
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.
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!!!

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