Making Synth sounds jump out in a mix

[passionmax]

What makes a 808 kick or Moog bass jump out ina mix more. Is it a great Di box like Avlaon U% or a Mic pre or good compressopr. I know people are going to say a combination but there is probably a specific box that is best for synthesizers thanks

[triez]

It's all in the EQ... The Moog and 808 have a great subby bass sound but if you use it straight it will make your mix sound small by using up all the headroom. The secret is to actually reduce some of the low sub on the sound and enhance the character frequencies of the sound so that it comes out sounding big and aparent but without actually moving the speaker cones too much.

[passionmax]

Thanks for the advise. The eq issues makes perfect sense to me. The only thing I still can't grasp is when I hear cd like crystal method the bass and kick or any low end sound always sound very deep or present. It sounds like it is being tracked trhough something like a mic pre or compressor that gives it this clarity. I have avalon 737 api 3124 plus 2 distressors. These have made a very big difference. Maybe I should buy a good eq to achieve what your saying. I though compression will bring out the body of a souind by lowering the transients. so let say a kick. it will lower the initial attack and bring out the lower half of the sound making it fuller. by using a good compressor the sound of the compressor will enhance the low frequencies that you might not hear otherwise. Then eqing it so it stand out more to make it fuller. I have done this but it still sounds alittle dull. Let me know. thanks

[thethrillfactor]

Originally posted by passionmax
What makes a 808 kick or Moog bass jump out ina mix more. Is it a great Di box like Avlaon U% or a Mic pre or good compressopr. I know people are going to say a combination but there is probably a specific box that is best for synthesizers thanks

Its both in the mixing and the arrangement.

Not having everything in the same freq's help. Not having everything panned extreme left and right and center helps.

If you are having a problem making the sounds jump out, look at first your arrangement and if that's not it, than its in the actual mix.

But that's a whole other subject in itself.

[jazzius]

Originally posted by passionmax
. I though compression will bring out the body of a souind by lowering the transients. so let say a kick. it will lower the initial attack and bring out the lower half of the sound making it fuller. by using a good compressor the sound of the compressor will enhance the low frequencies that you might not hear otherwise. Then eqing it so it stand out more to make it fuller. I have done this but it still sounds alittle dull. Let me know. thanks

Most compressors aren't very good at catching transients......they tend to let a transient "spike" through before clamping down on the "meat" of the sound (the thump in the case of a kick)......so they can actually make your sound smaller....if you want to kill transients, look to overloading something (pre-amp) or a digital limiter...

.........i agree with Thrill......it's more about the arrangment, the choice of sounds at the beginning, the distribution of frequencies...effects...get these things wrong and no ammount of lovely gear will fix it.......and of course that old chestnut.......your monitoring......

[triez]

Using a fast attack on a low bass sound on some compressors will result in subtle distortion, as will a fast release on every compressor as the compressor can often try to track the actual waveform of the low bass resulting in a kind of harmonic distortion.

[smoothmoniker]

I'm sure you've already done this, but make sure that you're actually printing individual tracks for each synth part, not trying to mix multiple parts in the synth or module while in multi-timbral mode, and then grabbing a stereo mix of the whole thing.

nothing kills a mix faster. Take the time to print the individual parts to your recorder, even if you turn right around and do a submix of multiple pads, etc. prior to your final mix.

-sm