C.G.'s Tips of the Week – Advice From The Certified Genius
Let it breathe.
When I say this, I mean the song. This statement is in reference to compression and especially limiting when mastering. It’s cool to compress bass real heavily but generally speaking you don’t want to over compress or over limit anything, it basically just sucks the life out of the music and takes out all of the dynamics by making everything at the same level. The only time you should have a mix with extreme limiting (in my opinion) is when you’re making a mix for radio. Here’s a few pointers that I like to keep in mind
1.) Listening to an over compressed mix can become exhausting (basically you just get tired of the song because there’s no dynamic range or room for it to breathe).
2.) Compress your bass and kick drum, even your snare drum. You can compress other things too (guitars, vocals, etc.), please just go light with it and don’t suck the life out of the music. Unless you’re going for a specific sound or effect I wouldn’t recommend this
3.) When a song is being mastered, I think it’s cool when there’s some breathing room there too. Sure you want to have the song limited and for it to be loud but maybe some parts of the song should be a little more soft or quiet than the rest. Maybe you want the chorus should be real loud and build up and then the verses to be a little more quiet or soft and build back up to the chorus.
I'm not saying your music needs the dynamics of a movie's film score but it can't hurt to have them to make the music more interesting. Think of it this way, when there's silence or a soft point in the music, the loud parts really stand out and don't even have to be all that loud.
Of course all of what I’m suggesting is my personal opinion and preference but I’d advise you to take my words into consideration when putting your music together (after all, I am a certified genius… kidding haha). Leave some feedback though, especially if you have suggestions for my next entry.
Thanks,
Posted by Christopher “C.G.” Gallucci of C.G. Productionz
PS Look out for my new mixtape Payback: Certified Genius Volume 2 coming out on Monday February 28th!
Also, have a happy and safe Valentine's Day!
