FL Studio Mixdown/Pre Master Tutorial - Hard Dance

*** PLEASE READ ***

Disclaimer: This is only my way of mixing. As said in the video some may not agree with my technique and how I mix a tune but this is how I have learned it and is what I feel works best for my style of tunes. Another thing to keep in mind that mixing differs from genre to genre - Whatever mixing techniques you use for Hard Dance may not translate so well or be best for a different genre. I suggest you use this video as a stepping stone for creating your OWN mixing technique for YOUR style of music.

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Finally! The mixdown tutorial has been done! This tutorial covers the basic process of what I go through when I mixdown a track of mine, I give out some tips and pointers when it comes to EQing and Compressing, ect. Enjoy this tut, let me know if it was helpful in anyway!

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Category:

Music

Tags:

• FL
• Studio
• mixdown
• mix
• down
• tutorial
• mastering
• premaster
• trance
• dance
• harddance
• hardtrance
• 2011
• dj
• Clayface
• clayfacer

[DjKrunosMusic]

I've allways heard from my college professors and people who knows a lot about mastering that you should never get the volume of the master below the 100%. They've allways told me that the easy way to mix a song is to avoid the pre-mastering volumes the maximum as possible, and do that in the end, on the real mastering process, when you add compressors, limiters, eqs, etc. and when you level correctly the volumes. Just a tip I've heard from professionals, what you think about it? Nice vid btw :)

[mmmburgers]

@DjKrunosMusic That's a great way for mixing/mastering. Generally what I do is I keep the mixdown volume so it doesn't peak past -6db, that way when I take it in for mastering there's lot of headroom available for adding additional EQ's, Limiters, Exciters, Stereo Shapers, ect.

But then again everyone has their own way of mixing/mastering, just find a technique that works well with your style of music.

[icyds]

Noob question. Can you please tell me what youre clicking or pressing to turn your "lows" off on the fruity parametric EQ2? I think I know what youre doing... but then again im not sure.

[mmmburgers]

@icyds Hi, on the right area of PE2 where the sliders are for each band, at the very top of each slider you can click and drag to change the shape (Lowpass, Bandpass, Highpass, ect) Then below that there is the dots, you can drag those up or down to change how sharp you want your EQ band to be. Hope this helps!

[ForceAcid]

Yo man, just wondering thus cutting off lows belongs to all genre's for instance i make drum and bass it comes with basses pads and everything normaly a kick and snare are at a 70-80 hz low range so do I have to cut all the other basses and pads on about 100 hz or something?

[mmmburgers]

@ForceAcid Cutting some could do well with Drum n Bass, although I can't say much since I don't know all there is to know about DnB productions. Use your ear when trying to cut certain frequencies, you want to cut enough to make extra headroom in the mix or to make other instruments stand out and clear up certain areas.

Another thing you could do is lightly sidechain your bass/pads to your kick and snare, that would help clear up the low end in case your kick interferes with your bass, ect.

[DoctorHpoduction]

Can you do a video explaining what "arps" are and how to use them?

[EdgeOfPanic]

You cut off the low frequencies of the bass line in order to make more room for the kick.

That in it self is a good thing to do.

What i normally do is i side chain the bass-line to the kick and then add a limiter to the bass-line (compressor target on the limiter) so when the kick plays the bass-line 'ducks' on the kick.

That way you can have both, a kick that thumps and a bass-line that is also very prominent in the mix, a nice side effect is that your bass-line will have a nice pumping effect

[almazonly]

@almazonly sorry i was wrong, u mixed it at the end, didn't know that. Make an Intro please, u dont want people to be blind, right. but the lead is just still loud for me. It is just hitting the critical band frequency, where our ear membrane says to our brains to stop listening to this. u definitely have to mix ya lead and ya perc's. If you're boosting above 14 kHz or so to make a track brighter, you're probably just adding noise. Try the same thing between 7 kHz and 10 kHz for better results.

[almazonly]

You do not have to do this ! It is just ya mix Sucks. that was it.

[ragonetti]

Hey my question is whenever i turn the fruity limiter off on the master track it seems to quiet the entire song. Isn't that a bad thing??

[tracid2008]

Thanks for that!

I am wondering why you use often the blood overdrive. I would love to see an appreciate replacement with an basic compressor.

When i got lessons from a pro, he told me to compress kicks and snares very hard. He told it "compressed to f**k" :)

[TheFrankMedia]

Hey dude. Nice tutorial. Gives an overall idea how to do a mixdown, no matter the genre, I think, though I have a question. In hardstyle, the kick and bass is kinda different, mostly because the kick contains a tok, tail and bass all in 1, which makes it confusing how to EQ. Any suggestions?

[DeJreplica]

Ty! good tutorial... anyways, when i listen my song in fl studio it seems to lack some volume... if i raise volume in master it starts to clip... so i should put limiter on master or what? :o

[DjKrunosMusic]

@mmmburgers totally agree. Keep it up, have fun and, by the way, thank you for uploading tutorials.