⏰ TIMECODES ⏰ Link to Julia's Masterclass (Mixing & Mastering) in the description! 00:00 Introduction 00:21 Tip 1: Don't layer kicks 01:13 Tip 2: Low end punch 03:02 Tip 3: Multiband compression 04:27 Tip 4: Phase 05:42 Tip 5: Dance with the kick
First of all: She is showing HER way and she has some very interesting approaches. Some stuff she said wouldn’t work for me and my workflow. But that’s totally okay. I worked many years as a mixing engineer for a big techno label and various artists. I learned a lot from the industry and colleagues over many years. I really feel the need to clarify her point on “don’t layer kicks”, since that statement could be confusing and misleading. I have to agree and disagree. If you are a beginner, you should definitely not layer kicks and just use kicks from a pack. You are avoiding a lot of issues that you can not solve as a beginner! Also keep in mind that the kicks from a pack are (most of the times) already multiple layers!! So just be aware of that if you want to layer them AGAIN! But to say don’t layer kicks ever, is wrong. I made several samplepacks for splice and other providers. Of course you CAN layer kicks! At some point you almost have to! For example if you work with analog drum machines. Lot’s of drum machines lack of good transients but have a nice lowend that you can tune to the key you need. (MFB Tanzbär is a good example in this case) To layer kicks is a very common technique to get the right transient, a punchy mid and a tonal perfection on the low-end. The key here is to know the technique and avoid troublemakers and mistakes that can cost you a lot of time and nerves to fix in the mix. If you know what you’re doing, you definitely have a lot more options, but also more things to think about during the process. So if you know how to do it - go for it. Nonetheless she’s doing a great job of explaining and it’s very interesting to see her working techniques. thank’s PML for this video.
I've seen lots of different acts live and when I saw Infected Mushroom live for the first time I thought there was something very unique about their bass hits, they explain in a video they use high and low bass so I would assume they layer the bass.
Love this tutorial. I always preach, if you are going to layer your kick, export the kick and all layers as one sample and use that singular export as the kick going forward. Also when layering, move the layers around until you get the best phase response. This way you get the best of both worlds!
5:18 wow haha, this is actually what I noticed with my mixes, if I play it and go to the bathroom, if I can still groove and notice all the elements instead of hearing just a bad rumble or a chaos of noise than it's good enough, when I noticed this I thought to myself "a club would be an ultimate test" :D maybe one day! and yeah kick layering never made sense to me, note that this is all coming from an amateur producer, sometimes you just hear when something doesn't make sense, people overcomplicate while in reality most good tracks are stupid simple thank you for the tutorial, straight to the point
The concepts are very interesting, but it must also be said that kick layers do not always generate phase problems. You have to see how it sounds in each case and make decisions. In fact, there are musicians like Deadmouse, who use this kick layering technique a lot and no one can decide that their kicks sound bad or strange, and it is they who mix their songs and not an engineer. At the same time, you can fix the problems of phase when it appears when differente techniques. Annddd, sometime when you use layers of kick you can get sounds that you can't achieve with just eq, that depends a lot on the original sound. As the engineer says in one part, I want my kick to stand out because that's my sound, and you hear that her kick sounds very powerful and up front, and that can work for certain types of electronic music, or for certain songs, but it does not mean that all kicks should sound like that, even if it is like a rule in part of edm dance music. There are also musicians who approach the sounds and mix of EDM in a different way. I think what is important in the mix is not to follow strict rules but rather to see each case and ultimately how it ends up sounding, that this is worth beyond what is done or not done. perdón mi inglés, saludos
Value content here! Yet some tips r about "salt n pepper" how much u like is never wrong/right, it's just a matter of personal preferences, 4 example, I don't mind layering kicks if da final sound is better than eqing just one kick
Haha! The track was super awesome when the kick was only low frequencies. Goosebumps. But hey, im into deeper minimal stuff like rrose etc. Cant stand super plasticky clicky kicks. :P 🤘 Amyhoo, super nice video! Some good tips. I also prefer not layering much on the kick. Tiny bit of high freq click if anything.
That depends on all the other sounds pal, no phase problem on the kick but maybe on the other sounds like hihats clashing each other or bass, use your ears or oscillosope
it's not about stereo-to-mono phasing issue, it's just phase in the most simple way: you sum two or more elements, some frequencies will resonate, some will cancel in some degree, either in stereo or mono situation.
Yes, you can. Volumeshaper (Cableguys) works better than any compressor, because it doesn't have attack/release/threshold settings. Result is more precise.
Amazing video! Thanks for this Julia Borelli and PML people. About tip 3, I'm wondering if using Trackspacer serves this exact purpose, but so much faster, simpler and cheaper to buy!?!?
shelving the high frequencies to get a click on a kick? that is eating up so much space for the high end melodic instruments. click are in the mid highs. a little bell there works fo me. my humble opinion
Dont layer kicks? wtf are you saying? Of course you can layer kicks, in fact that is not what you are doing when you are mixing tracks as DJ? Oh my god, if the phase is not right just invert it or at least choose the right sample to layer with
Kinda what I was thinking. I mean you can definitely layer the wrong kicks together and mess up your low end for sure. Saying just don't layer kicks at all is kind of misleading. I layer kicks all the time and have music released on IAMT, Unity, etc...
As a DJ this works because you are mixing 2 tracks that have perfect kicks. This is in context of one track, not a DJ envoirment. If you would mix 2 tracks with phasing kicks, they sound very wierd and nasty for the crowd. And trust me, I've been there with my tracks I tested live
@a-logicofficial6864 agreed. You just can't compare mixing two Mastered Tracks while djing to shaping a kick during the production stage. I think she meant don't just stack a full kick on top of a full kick on top of another. She shows it right after, layering additional pieces of other kicks. (Mids, click, etc). People trying so damn hard to correct this channel it's so annoying
00:22 : THE WORST ADVICE I EVEEER HEARD IN A TUTORIAL !!!! 🤢🤮 I'm sorry it's the first time I comment "unnicely" on a RU-vid video ! But this Channel is for me one of the most Serious for music prod. You teach some "SH**T" to novices producers ! 00:55 : Yes ! We see how much it changes ! And SO WHAT ??? Which one is better ?!? First rule in music production => THERE IS NO RULE ! I don't teach you that you have an INFINIT ways to play with the phase ! (EQ, Track Delay, Sample Start, Pitch, Saturation ................) I personally really like to play with the phase when I layer ! Moving a little bit the low cut of one layer, adjust a little bit the pitch or sample start from another ! Until I found something it sounds good to MY EARS ! It's for me a kind of game to adjust the phase "randomly" to match with something that I like ! I appreciate producers who make attention to the phase ! It's for me one of the most Mixing Part to make your track sounds HUGE ! It's difficult to understand this part of music prod. and 98% of tutorials farts on the phase. But I can tell you that you don't master the phase ! I can find you LOOOTS of examples that you break the phase on your Tutorial ! I just have to go to 3:21 and watch down of the Pro MB : "Dynamic Phase" ...... I don't tell you "it's bad" but your first advice is "Don't layer because of the phase" Then 2 min later your broke your advice on multiband dynamic sidechaining .... 🤡 The other SH****T I often hear on Tutorials : 🧙♂the FAMOUS ANCESTRAL ADVICE 🧙♀ : ========> "TURN YOUR LOW ENDS MONO !!!! (Without explaining why but it's a Religious Rull of Music production ....)" =====> Switch Low ends Mono === > Loosing some Fatness after that but don't care about it it's Mono 👍🤡 Take Care 😘
i dont accept the "dont layer kicks" i think this is wrong, you really need to know how to do it, and if you dont you can learn, of course it has some rules, but saying "dont" is just wrong.
Bro why you guys still layering kicks in 2024?? Are you guys all beginners? Are you aware how many good kick samples out there? For you losers to grab it for free? Omg these dudes are so behind. Wtf omg now it makes sense why 90 percent of music on Spotify dont even make it to 1000listeners 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Firstly,, you can't just say "phase" as a reason to use one keg, and not explaining what that means, and demonstrate the issue by showing how potentially waveforms don't align. A lot of people don't understand what you're talking about. Instead you tell us about all these famous people you work for, so we supposed to just take your word for it. Secondly, if you're using the same kick for all three layers, you can match the phase, and you won't get any clashes, which cancels out some of the sound to those who don't understand why you want to avoid phase issues. Many of the world's top producers use more than one kick going back decades. Two reasons. You might want to have the low end of the frequency spectrum for the kick, but it can get lost there with the bass line on top, that's why you need a click kick, and enough control on the volume, you can't do this with one kick. The other reason is if somebody wants a busy track, with a kick at 80 Hz, again they will want a click kick to help cut through lots of percussive elements. PML, this video need to redo, IMO. It's obviously okay to have new ideas like "just use one kick, and do a load of processing on it with expensive plug-ins ", but the basic premise needs to be explained, not just "take my word for it ".
I just saw this course from PML but tbh very very very far away by professional mixing & mastering… … … Is this a joke?!?!?!? PML guys try searching REAL mixing & mastering engineers like MANMADEMASTERING MIKE GRINSER OR HANNES BIEGER ETC……………..
