Hi guys.
I’m new to this forum.

Recently i’ve started getting more in depth with getting my mixes ready for mastering (by myself)
But i encountered a problem.
I’m having a hard time controlling my drum peaks.
I’ve tried compressing, EQing, limiting, saturating etc.
While saturating does work at some degree with helping me maintain the crest factor of my track
It still does not help enough with my headroom and my limiter starts pushing too hard because of my drum peaks
How do i fix this problem?
What am i missing?

 

Try adding a clipping plugin, use it similar to a limiter; Also you might want to mix lower, I start my production with a limiter set on the master Thresh. -8 db.
Another thing that might benefit you is chaining analog gear to try to thicken up everything between the peaks and smooth out the peaks to a similar Dynaminc

 

What does this mean? Are the drums to silent? Too loud? Drums have their peak at their transients and if the transients are too high you have to limit them. You can also use a transient shaper.

Sound examples are always important.

 

Last edited: Jul 6, 2019

A limiter normally limits signals below 0dBFS, depending on the threshold. So, if you already have set it to 0dB and it still limits too much, you need to lower all your channels (apart from send fx, ofc). Problem solved.

 

They are right when i want them to be volume wise
But their transients poke out way too much even though they sit in the mix which f***s up my headroom for the mastering phase

 

Well, you have to decide. Either you lower the transients by limiting them or using a transient shaper, like @No Avenger said (please change this name ) lower the volume, or you do not have headroom.

 

Applying the L2 and bringing the threshold down to -8 db gives me plenty of room when I mix, and when i go to the master phase I take the L2 off from the master fader and Start my Mastering process with about 7.8-8 db of headroom

 

What's wrong with it?

 

Lieglein is on to something with the sound-examples-are-good bit. It would help to hear the track.
And, I may be looking to far into it, and questioning your mix in the process, but I have found that I sometimes have drums that sound good in a mix, but aren't really sitting *in the mix. This is a common mistake in Hip Hop (though it can happen in any genre,) as people think that they can literally put the drums "on top" of the rest of the tracks. So, just make sure that they are a part of the mix, not living on top of it; as I said, I've made this mistake before, it's not uncommon.
That being said, all I can do is refer you to the above comments, as they are all solid advice.
Good luck with your track. '

(Also, on a tangent, I see no problem with No Avenger's moniker. I may be biased in this though, as I've always wanted a tiger. )

 

Sounds to me like you’re trying to get more rms level out of your mix and when you limit the stereo output your drums get less power...Does that sound right? If so use distortion and harmonics in parallel to your drums and clip the drum sub group a bit that way you can limit the main output and get your rms to around -8 lufs and hard hitting without having too much gain reduction on your main limiter...(If that’s what you meant lol)...

 

Thanks for the advice fellas
Ill try all the pointers you guys gave me
Ill also upload the track so you guys can get a better idea of what i mean

 

Sometimes reverb and/or effects will straighten out a snare.

 

Ich übersetz das doch immer und dann hab ich immer "oh ja super, der "kein held" hat wieder was geschrieben".

Was meinst du wie ich die Krise krieg, wenn fudsey plange was schreibt?

 

I've read your OP and this above, and it sounds like you need to mix for loudness instead of mastering for loudness. Forget mastering limiting for now, until your mix is sounding "punchy and loud" on its own. Try to go for loudness in production and mixing, and the mastering will be much easier (and much more transparent).

Transient designers can boost or attenuate the transient, so that the overall loudness stays consistent. Compressors/limiters react to the energy in the low-end, not so much on the high-end transients. Depending on the genre, some kicks are not having a ton of low-end (but more transients and lower mids) but instead let the bass act as a "kick". Try to find the balance and try to get the drum bus sounding good and controlled. Then add the other elements and maybe duck them to the kick (to make the kick "appear" louder than it is).

 

Last edited: Jul 7, 2019

Avenger = Rächer , nicht Held.

Und was heißt FP? hab noch keine Übersetung gefunden.

 

Keine Ahnung, aber das hört sich so schon bescheuert genug an, wenn man nicht weiß wie mans ausspricht.