Thinking about send my new track of for professional mastering, got some questions

[cappone]

Should i sidechain everything? I sidechain the most essential but not everything. Should i or should i not?

[the_bastet]

Depends on what you have going on and which sidechain methods you are using.

[Tarekith]

Yeah, that's like asking "should I use a saxaphone in my song?". Sure, if you need a sax and want one in your song

Sidechaining is the latest trend, but you don't have to use it if you're not:

a) solving a problem in the mix

b) after that particular pumping sound

Occasionally I use sidechaining in my live sets, but almost never in my studio songs. Just depends on what you're trying to achieve.

[cappone]

I see. I create music and i think; ''If it ain't broken why fix it?''. Music is like art and as long as it sounds good why change it? The only real trouble i have is making the kick cut through, i sidechain and use highpass filter but i'm stil struggling.
When it comes down to mastering how much difference can i expect between two different mastering engineers? Another guy have been in touch with me and want to master my track, on the other hand i want the best quality i can get from the mastering and I've heard tons of good things about your service Tarekeith.

[Tarekith]

When it comes down to mastering how much difference can i expect between two different mastering engineers?

It depends on the track. A really well mixed track will likely need less done to it, so the differences might be a bit more subtle. A track that has a few more issues will likely present more options for tweaking. Mastering is like any part of the music production process, there's a lot of art involved and different people will approach it in different ways.

If you want to send me your song, I'll master it and send you a small section of it. You can decide for yourself if you want to pay to get the rest of the master file, or go with your other guy. I likely won't be in the studio until Monday though.

[cappone]

It depends on the track. A really well mixed track will likely need less done to it, so the differences might be a bit more subtle. A track that has a few more issues will likely present more options for tweaking. Mastering is like any part of the music production process, there's a lot of art involved and different people will approach it in different ways.

If you want to send me your song, I'll master it and send you a small section of it. You can decide for yourself if you want to pay to get the rest of the master file, or go with your other guy. I likely won't be in the studio until Monday though.

Ok thanks! I'll get in touch with you via private message soon. The track is not 100% done and I'm still mixing it and changing parts but I'll soon be there. I'll send over a demo when I'm done!

[ImNotDedYet]

Even though you're high passing, don't forget to make a cut in those items for the kick's fundamentals. It takes some time for a high pass filter to actually cut something. In fact, I've found helping there are arrangement tricks in helping the kick through, but really cuts help moreso in getting the fundamentals of the kick and the snap of the kick to come out. And the snap of the kick usually occurs much further up the frequency spectrum.

[cappone]

Yes I think I find the ''snap'' around 1,2khz. I do boost those levels too. I think the problem also is that I might need to increase the volume of the kick, I got more headroom to do so so hopefully i can solve it via increased volumes and playing around with the eq.

[cappone]

Ok I'm know sure what is going on right now but I got a nice melody in ableton playing through massive, it sounds great and I loop it but when it's starting over again and it loops it sounds bad and not like the first time i played it. Now the 3rd time it loops it sounds like it did when i first started it and it contiunes like this, first loop bad, 2nd loop good and so on. It sounds kinda ''pitched up'' or something. Are my ears just tired or is there something going on beacuse i can't figure it out, especially not at this time of the night lol.

Thanks!

[ImNotDedYet]

instead of increasing the kick at 1,2, look to lower other elements at 1,2.

Can't speak to your loop issues. Sounds like you might have an envelope/automation that's kicking something in/up that's causing the sound issue.