@Plendix Last night I was listening to the last track I finished (after sharing it in this forum to get some feedback and everybody encouraged me to finish it, so I did and updated the thread with the final result for everybody interested in it). It was on the phone, thinking, all of a sudden, how would it sound like in another device so I had the phone on my hand and there you go. And still, I wasn't happy enough with the kick.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I don't know either how the best in the business manage to get a decent sound on big rigs and phones at the same time.
I mean I have an educated guess that it is not only the mix. The composition and how it is arranged plays a big role.
They try not to have too many events at the same time to not clutter everything up. sometimes only on sound per 1/8 or two, never more than 3 at a time (including vocals). But making these sounds as fat as possible on the other hand.
There are a lot of acts that have a lot going on and are terriffic bands that are perfectly mixed and those don't sound good on mobile either. So I wouldn't care too much.
Maybe use something else. Maybe go for something like Creatives Pebble v2- 2.0 usb. (I like it more than the v3 and its cheap, about 25 bucks). It#s a decently average low end pc speaker that does what it does right. So in its very narrow frequency response its not doing anything crazy. When I check on that I'm happy at "this is still my mix, it lacks a lot, but the main ingredients are there and tell the same story". And switching to something like that while working helps me.
//EDIT// oh and we shall not forget side chaining. It is a sort of compression too and follows the same principle. And that especially is used to avoid cluttering up by giving priorities to sounds.
Plus it brings cool and groovey fx like rhythmic pumping (something a compressor can do too, think portishead, they made a style from overcompression).
//EDIT2// You said you are/were autodidact ('unfortunately'). I don't know how to put it, somehow we all are. Even after going through a school and having older fellows showing me stuff all that did not help me. Like "hey xy, it sounds bad, what would you do?" and xy dials out 5khz and it sounds good. "how did you do that, why 5khz, how did you find that spot" and the answer is very unsatisfying "I don't know.. I did't like those 5k so I dialed them out". In the end it comes down to "one day, after thousands and thousands of hours of mixing we hear the unmixed tracks, our brains simultaniously hear how it should sound and we just mix after our inner soundsource. A year later we die or go deaf because we are 75"

 

Last edited: Mar 28, 2026

Perfect mixes are rare thing. Mostly mixes aren't perfect. Sometimes we find "mistakes" where there are no mistakes.

I don't know if it is your case but we all have tendency to search for "bugs" and we find them even if they don't exist. We always find them as we search for them. It is a big achievement to be able look at things without searching for mistakes.Try to be less skeptical towards yourself and your abilities.

OK, you aren't happy with your kick. Is it terrible? Is it clipped? Does it "fart"? Do you hear distortion? Or is it just good enough?

 

I have to admit that for me, it is good enough... I might be wrong or another person would do it better, but after reading your comment, I have to accept that there are parts of some proffessionally crafted music that I don't like or that I always have that "this needs X more or Y less" feeling and after all, some of them are classics or became super popular... so... who cares? For me, as long as your sound it's not like reggaeton or trap, you're doing good. hahaha

 

It completely depends on your goals. If you can afford to be a perfectionist, then be one and strive for the perfect sound. But, as it is sometimes rightly said, almost no one will notice (hear) and appreciate the result.

True professionalism is the ability to recognize what is unimportant and can be overlooked.

If you learn and have time to learn, it is OK to be a perfectionist. If it is just a hobby for you it is OK too.

 

Last edited: Apr 2, 2026 at 6:31 AM

I was under the impression it means it doesn't follow set guidelines or implentation.
The one thing all engineers suggest or say is the ability to hear it. Logically if someone is not going to follow a set of standard procedures for it to be ground breaking in approach or anything different, they'd still have to know and hear what they are doing.

 

Got it! I should have said "usage", instead...

 

Hello @PulseWave, I agree with the information you provide (actually, I had some idea about it already, not so technically though).

The truth is that the idea of "what would this track sound on my phone?" came up to my mind that night.

But to be honest, my intention is not to use a smartphone to listen to music either I'm expecting anybody to listen to my music on a smartphone because the truth is that I never thought of releasing music due to copyright laws (I use samples from here and there, I even record them if I get the chance to finding something good enough to sample on YouTube or wherever it is, not caring too much about copyrights). So in the end, I have never played with the idea of becoming the-new-star-producer. Hahaha. Just wanted to know about some guidelines on how to apply compression in practice, as I find myself struggling with knobs not to be always quite happy with the result of the compression. That's why the videos and guides provided by all of you in this thread have been so useful. It's been some food for my brain to process and try to learn over time.

 

Sure I know you're joking! You made me have a good crack out of it!

 

Eh, why bother. Just get smart:comp 2 (the quality somehow went down when they released smart:comp 3) and call it a day.

I'm joking, of course.

Or am I ?

Of course I am.

Not.

 

The only compressor you need!



This is what real pro's use.

 

should that be "applied compression non-theory"?

or is it "non-compressed applying theory"? i am confused.

 

I sometimes find perfectly produced music a bit off-putting. As a counter argument, this kid wrote and recorded an album in his bedroom on a 4-track cassette tape machine, and self-released it on his own label. He is now on a US tour supporting Snail Mail and has publications like Rolling Stone Magazine writing articles about him. In conclusion, there is no right or wrong way of doing things, just try to be original and authentic and people will find you.

 

Last edited: Apr 4, 2026 at 3:47 PM

I can't stop doing everything wrong, overprocessing elements, do a little of this, then a little of that, and the next day I open my project and listen to what I did and then I think wtf I ruined the whole track with all that unnecessary stuff. Then I remove everything one by one and usually it sounds much better without all that nonsense. It's true what they say, less is more
if it sounds good, it's good.

 

That's true of all art

 

If you’re making EDM entirely in the box using commercial sample packs and software synths, you usually don’t need much compression. It’s still useful for bus glue, tone shaping, or as an effect (pumping), but you’re starting with sounds that are already volume controlled and processed.

Most commercial samples are already compressed, so adding more can easily turn into overprocessing. The main dynamics you’ll get are from MIDI velocity, not raw audio.

In many cases, you only need around 1–2 dB of gain reduction, if any. If you’re trying to add weight or density, you’re often better off using saturation, clipping, or a limiter instead. Upward compression can be useful for bringing out details, but it’s easy to overdo and can reduce contrast just as fast.

 

Doom compressor on everything job done! just kidding kush videos should be all you need