Kirby Super Star - DeDeDestroyer (help!)

[Dew]

source:

mix:

http://dew-owns-it.com/oops/dedede2.mp3

DAW: FL Studio 9

Rhythm: Shreddage with GR4 and FL Hardcore

Lead+Bass: Ministry of Rock

Percussion: DFH

Synths: Sytrus

Lacks an intro and isn't finished yet.

I'm having some serious problems getting this to sound the way I want it to. I'm pretty sure it's over-compressed to hell and back, but I honestly don't know how to achieve the sound I'm looking for otherwise.

I think it probably sounds fine when I've got just the rhythm, bass, and drums, but as I start adding other instruments, things get muddy and start sounding bad. The kick drum gets totally drowned out unless I boost the hell out of it, which generally makes it sound even worse in the process.

To be clear, I really don't have much of an idea of how I should be applying my compression. Finding reading material on how to mix drums for dance and electronic music is easy, and I know it's not exactly a precise science, but none of that seems to help my music sound any better. Right now after long, extensive, and completely blind trial and error, I have the following:

- Ozone with a "Tighter Low End" preset on my kick (cause someone told me Ozone was this awesome thing I should use).

- A TranShaper on my kick (again, cause some thing on the internet told me I should use one. I have no idea what it actually does!)

- All of my percussion inserts feed into an insert with a Vintage Warmer that has some other preset a random tutorial told me to use.

- A Maximus on the master insert with the "Max Loudness" preset, because it seems to make everything brighter, prettier, fuller, and less muffled. I have no idea how this actually works, either.

What I do know is that the way I have things set up right now, it sounds bad. I also know that, although I have no idea how the tools I'm using work, when I take them away, my sound loses all the power that it DOES have. I have a feeling that I should totally tear out all my mixer inserts and start over, but where do I start? What steps should I take before applying compression, and where should I be applying it?

I do so hate to ask these sorts of things, but at this point I've spent hours upon hours trying to figure it out, and I seem to be incapable of solving my issues with Google and elbow grease alone.

[DarkSim]

Whoooooa this remix sounds awesome so far! I can see what you mean about the kick though. Also, that shredding at the start sounds a bit too machine-gunny for my liking.

I'm not an expert in this genre at all, but when I'm mixing I always keep my kick separate from everything else on the percussion side of things, and get that sounding right by itself. Sometimes I have the snare separate too, if I'm going for really punchy snare sounds, however I find it to be more useful for EQ rather than compression. When using your compressors:

Decrease the threshold to reduce the dynamics of the sound (the difference between quiet and loud), increase it to preserve more of the original character.

Very short attacks on compressors (<5ms) mean you have almost no audible parts where it's not active. For kicks and snares, I tend to use around 30-50ms to give a very short punch at the start of the sample before the compressor hits the wave and squashes it. Much longer than that I don't use so I have no comment on that.

The knee is a measure of how harsh the compression is - a very low knee (say 0-1db) will compress sounds very harshly when activated, but a higher one will ease into the compression more steadily as the threshold is reached, providing a smoother transition into the compressed sound.

Adjust the ratio to determine how much the sound above the threshold is reduced. 3:1 divides it by 3, etc.

Gain adds some volume post-processing, so adjust this for overall loudness.

To make a kick sound super-loud and punchy, go for a high ratio (3 or 4:1), with an attack around 40ms, and output gain so that it's just under 0db at its peak. Then add an EQ somewhere in your effects chain (before would probably be best) and manually adjust that to how you want your kick to sound.

Overall, I'd say remove that master loudness thing and mix your song first until it sounds good. Then add the loudener. It's hard to hear what's wrong if it's got a max loudness preset on the master channel, because it's likely that that preset is a combination of multiband compressors and limiters that are masking the real effects of the individual tracks.

Good luck, looking forward to hearing a finished version soon