Sound Discovery Livestream track: Sunflash

As I mentioned in my previous livestream. I do a mixdown on all the inserts and synthesizers.

What did I do in the mixdown ?
First of all I see if the master is not (digital) clipping over -0dB. If your master is clipping, put all your sounds in volume down. Then gradually increase your volume on the elements that are the most important of your track. After that increase the volume of the other elements.

When your done with the volume, ill see if any synthesizer still has some effects on. I mostly remove them and replace them with another reverb, delay or any effect on the insert.
When I’m done with replacing most of the reverbs, delays and other effects. Ill EQ on almost all the inserts. Basically removing everything below 120HZ to give room the kickdrum and (sub) bass. Except some of the synthesizers who accomplice with the bass.

In this process ill keep an eye on the volume, sometimes this will increase a little bit or it will be less loud. Also it helps if you route all your percussion and synthesizers to one insert. So you can glue those sounds together.

When the sounds are all balanced and the track is not going over between -3dB – -6dB its ready for the mastering process.
This track didn’t go over -5dB with a peak off -3dB.

What did I do on the mastering ?
The track was not going over -3dB and I started with a blood overdrive.

The stereo enhancer is a automation for the drop. This automation is a mono to stereo. I placed this effect before the mastering, otherwise it will sound not right.

The blood overdrive is there to just give a small saturation and increasing the volume.

The maximus has a small compression. This is just to get the peaks compressed and glue most of the sounds together. The attack is on 5.ms and the release on 204.ms.
There is no make up gain because ill do that with another plugin. I found this handy because I can keep the volume in check.

A mid side EQ to give the stereo separation a clear and hearable EQ.

This mid EQ only boost on some smaller parts of the frequency’s. Because the track did not go over -5dB, boosting is possible. 4kHz boost to give presence. 1000Hz to give the mid frequency’s some presence. And balancing the sub bass and the bass, to decrease with only -1dB.

The side EQ has a big high pass on the sub and bass. By removing the sub and bass on the stereo, it gives the rest of the track a clean balance. Also the effects on the side are noticeable.

This maximus is saturating and increasing volume. Another saturation gives this track just the right amount for the mobile devices and commercial speakers. The saturation is only 5% and the ceiling is -0.5dB.

The last maximus has a volume increase of +5.4dB. This increase is to hit the limiter just with the right volume and keeping the dynamics alive.

two limiters ? Yes it works and it keeps everything in control of the peaks. Basically the first limiter is removing the peaks of the track. The second one gives the peaks room to breath through the limiter. Both ceilings are -1dB.

I hope you enjoyed reading this mixdown and mastering blog, if you have any questions, hit me up on social media and have a nice day !