How to mix dubstep. Part 2 of 5

Never go past 0 DB.

Carefully monitor every process to ensure the levels never creeps past 0DB, this tends to happen more when using heavy limiting in dubstep, but can also happen with aggressive EQ.

A/B Properly.

An easy mistake to make is to make poor judgments by A/B testing to quickly. For example, when applying compression the better setting might not sound so good initially because its not as loud. However once normalized its would be the superior setting. Also A/B test by quickly switching between two or three of your favorite dubstep tracks to see how those producers do things.

Get your dubstep studio as quiet as possible.

Although good dubstep monitoring equipment is essential, it can be wasted money if your room is not set up properly. Some quick and easy tips are to get silent fans in your computer, and invest in some acoustic tiles to dampen pre-delay and early reflections. Essentially your room will be acting like a reverb plug-in unless you add some kind of sound dampening. This can result in over, or under use of EQ.

Test, Test, Test against other dubstep tracks.

A good idea is to listen to your efforts on as many systems and spaces as possible and pay close attention to the results. Over time this will teach you how your mix translates over multiple systems, although to perfect can take more than a lifetime. This is why a mastering engineer is worth his weight in gold. Or printer ink (as thats more expensive than gold!).

Learn the frequencies.

This might sound obvious, but building a mental picture of the dubstep frequency range in your head will pay dividends in all areas of dubstep production. In my view it maybe the most important thing in getting you mix and mastering efforts right. Try and attach words to each area, like warmth (220-320), muddiness (340), knock (600-1k), clarity (4k-7.5k) etc.

Cut it out.

When mixing / mastering dubstep (forget sonic sculpting) its nearly always better to make a frequency cut, rather than a boost. This is because the human brain will deem a sound more natural sounding by using a cut because that is what happens in the real world, sounds are absorbed by different materials (like wood, and concrete) resulting in certain frequencies being removed. Therefore when boosting EQ the brain will not be as used to it as a frequency cut. A good trick if you do want to boost a frequency is to cut all the other frequencies apart from the one you want to boost and then turn the whole volume up. As a rule a 1DB boost is equivalent to a 3DB cut.

How to mix dubstep. Part 1 of 5

1. Intro

Here I will show you how to mix a dubstep track in 12 easy steps.Obviously mixing is subjective, but following this guide will keep you your track on the right track. The thing about using samples and synth's is that no matter how well prepared the sound is, even if you sample it from a commercial dubstep record, as soon as you add it in with a new mix it will lose most of its good features. This is because fat sounds, in fat tracks sound that way they do due to the relationship they have with each other, and they way they were processed (compressed etc) with each other - Not necessarily because they are individually amazing sounds. This is why learning how to mix dubstep correctly will make the difference between getting to the top, and staying at home in your bedroom. The best tip I can give is, listen, then listen some more. The devil is in the detail.

Learning these tips should take around 5-10 mix downs to grasp the basics, I can usually mix down a track to release quality in 3 hours after doing about 100 mix downs. These tips are very effective.

2. Dubstep Frequency Range

These frequency ranges should help you add or subtract the correct EQ, beware, adding a certain element to all sounds will give poor results eg, bite. You can use the frequency map included to great effect.

Dubstep Sub bass: 20hz - 100hz. Prominent frequency 30hz.

Top bass: 44khz - 20khz - Prominent frequency 220hz

808 Kick Drum: 20 Hz - 4khz - Prominent frequency 60hz.

909 Kick Drum: 40hz - 7.5khz - Prominent frequency 110hz

D&B Kick Drum: 120hz - 7.5khz - Prominent frequency 150hz

Crash: 500hz - 20khz Prominent Frequency 2khz

Congas: 120hz - 7.5khz - Prominent frequency 500hz

Claps: 2khz - 16khz - Prominent frequency 6khz

Pads: 110hz - 20khz - Prominent frequency 800hz

Rising FX: 20hz - 20khz - Prominent frequency 1.7khz

Stabs: 500hz - 10khz - Prominent Frequency 3.5khz

You can use the above to give each part to your dubstep mix its own space. This enables the listener to hear each sound clearly with out it sounding muddled. Use careful EQ to create a space for each part, you can either do this by cutting the frequencies of other instruments around the sound you are trying to give space to (the most effective way) or boosting the frequencies of the part in question. Using frequency cuts is best because the human brain will deem a sound more natural sounding by using a cut. This is because of what happens in the real world, sounds are absorbed by different materials (like wood, and concrete) resulting in certain frequencies being removed. Therefore when boosting EQ the brain will not be used to it as it, were as a cut will sound perfectly expectable. A good trick if you don't want to boost a frequency, is to cut all the other frequencies apart from the one you want to boost and then turn the whole volume up. As a rule a 1DB boost is equivalent to a 3DB cut.

Here are the frequency ranges and there associated attributes, boosting / cutting EQ to a part in these frequencies will enhance or diminish the attribute:

Weight: - 20hz - 150hz

Warmth: 220hz - 380hz

Muddiness: 250hz - 400hz

Knock / Punch: 600hz - 1khz

Definition / Bite: 1khz - 2khz

Clarity: 4khz - 7.5khz

Air and Sparkle: 7.5khz - 20khz

If the above is not familiar with you take a few days to learn this by putting it in to practice. Get a dubstep mix you have done, but are not happy with and try and get every thing separated so each part can be heared clearly.

Power Tip: Don't go mad with EQ, use volume first, then if you have to use a EQ, cut of around 2/6db, if finally you need to boost never go over 6db of boost until you have done at least 100 mix downs and are very confident with EQ.

The main reason people go wrong is they see EQ as a 'sonic sculpting' tool. Which it can be, but in small amounts. Try and avoid this to start with. If you ever get a chance to see a professional engineers desk after a mix down, you will see there are lots of subtle cuts, and a few well placed boosts. Not drastic, huge boosts everywhere, like most people do when they start out, including me and probably everyone, ever! Always remember that if you cut one end of the frequency spectrum comparatively you are boosting the other end.

Power Tip: As a rule use gentle wide boosts to bring subtle attention to a part, and narrow surgical cuts to remove problem frequencies.

How to make a good dubstep wobble, DJ, make music.

OK, so you want to make some big bad bass wobble for you next dubstep track. Ill be going over a few different ways to get that shake down sound, and let me tell you its not all about the LFO as you might think.

So the LFO is one way of getting a nice dubstep wobble bass but you can get a very similar and more stable effect by using the filter envelopes on your synth. How this works is simple, you get your starting sound (probably a 2 oscillator square wave, slightly detuned, low pass filter etc). Then you set one of your envelopes to trigger the filter cut off, setting the attack in time with the music. This means when you play a note it will start with the filter cut off in a low position and then quickly open the filter exactly like how an LFO would would work but you just get the first open 'woooow' sound rather than a repeating 'wooowoooowoooow' sound like with a LFO. When this method is played with a quick note pattern (short often notes) it sound very similar to an LFO.

The LFO. This control is probably the main source you will turn to when you want to get your speakers wobbling like a true dubstep champion. You have the following controls:

Rate: This sets how fast or slow the wobble will be. You can either opt for a synchronized setting or free settings were you set the timings by hand. There are many arguments for each, but ultimately its up to you. The most common rate for dubstep is the ¼ or 1/8 settings. A good way to get a wicked variation is to have 2 synths one with a ¼ setting and one with a 1/8 setting and having different rates played per key, so first and second note would be ¼ and the 3rd note a 1/8 setting. This just ruffles things up a bit and keep the track fresh.

Amp: This effectively sets the amount of LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) used, a low setting will mean the cut off will travel less further up to fully open, and a max amp will mean the filter opens up all the way, and then all the way back to the initial position. The automation of this setting can bring plenty of nastiness and joy to a track.

Delay: The delay effect is the time before the LFO kicks in after the note is pressed. Can be used to create very interesting sounds combined with other effects.

Sync to note on: Essential this means the LFO will reset on every key press, if it's off then playing a different note will make the LFO continue oscillating at its current rate and the note change.

Advancing, you can combine the 2 effects having a filter envelope for the first part of the sound and then having the LFO triggered half a second later using the 'delay' setting on the LFO (if you have one). This gives a kind of stuttered leap in to each note, done right its sound very very rude indeed especially for dubstep production.

The main thing to remember when programming synths is subtle movements of each slider works 100% better than drastic switches from left to right. All the advanced subtleness of extreme sound creation lies in the finding of the sweet spots of each control. These are very rarely at either end so be gentle with the synth and you will be rewarded with unique and pleasing (or dis-pleasing if that's your preference) sounds and patches.

The kind of sounds that typically works best for a dubstep wobble are, square waves with distortion, triangle waves and saw tooth waves for nastier sounds. Sine waves can be used but often are not the main preference for dubstep productions.