Two Songs, Both Alike In Dignity

[fredrossperry]

Hi, I am not a pro, so (kindly) chase me away if you need to.

I am using Waveburner 1.5 to prepare a master for a collection of 13 songs made with Logic Pro. I've managed to get a good overall level across the 13
songs using only gain. But I've got one outlier that I can't get as loud as the others due to peaks in the snare and tom parts.

If I reduce the snare and tom in the mix, it won't sound the way I want. If I put a limiter on the track during mastering, it sounds too mashed for my taste, and the snare and tom lose their snap.

Is there a common way of dealing with this situation? Maybe some combination of EQ and limiting of just the snare and toms in the mix, to kill the peaks but retain the snap?

Thanks for your time.
fred

 

[GeckoMusic]

You could apply soft clipping in the mix on the offending channels. It maintains the snap of the drums without making them quieter. Also you only distort your drums a little and leave the rest untouched.

Or you can lower everything else to match the song with the lowest perceived volume.

 

[RemyRAD]

You can also use another technique of highly compressing and/or limiting your master mix. Then combine that with your unmolested mix. Combining the two can frequently held to retain initial snap & punch. But remember, you'll likely need to lower both by 6 DB so as not to completely overload everything. And you may want to play with the compressor/limiter's "look ahead" feature? This look ahead stuff can really knock the life of your mix. Especially because it knows when the peak will be occurring. TURN IT DOWN TO ZERO. Than some of the peaks will actually get through, which analog limiters do. And I like them for that reason. A little creative clipping on drum transients can also help to reinforce the third harmonic distortion. This will provide a little more of a crack sound on the drum transients since it will be rich in odd harmonic distortion. All tricks of the trade.

I've done lots of tricks and received dog biscuits?
Ms. Remy Ann David