Club Sound Mixing Tips

General

• the Fact is 50% of Listening Environments are in Mono, e.g. Tablets, Phones, Radio, Clubs (may be Stereo but the Stereo Perception is Not Clear), Even Live Concerts because Not All People are Exactly in the Middle for Best Experience Stereo Field, Similar as in a Car

• the Sub Bass Sits by Nature at the Lowest Spot Possible, but Even Modern Club Sound Systems Do Not Go Below 30 Hz to 40 Hz (or Even Not to 50 Hz)

• You can Safely Put a Low Cut at 30Hz, Even in Dance Music

• Use Compressor to Control and Tighten Up the Low Frequencies, i.e. in  Club You Want a Punchy but Controlled Low End and Not a Rumble

• Use a Compressor to Shape a Sound, e.g. Shape a Kick with a Slow Attack and Medium Release to Avoid Resonances in the Low Mids that May Work Not Well in Clubs

• Take Out Resonant Frequencies per Track, on Busses and in the Whole Mix with a Very Narrow EQ Band, i.e. Heavy Resonant Frequencies Especially in Higher Frequencies but also in the Low Bass Range Cause Ear Fatigue Very Quickly and Occupy the Whole Mix, These can also be Responsible for there Track to Rumble or Sound Ultra Harsh in a Club 

• a Problem is as Soon as you Sum a Left and Right Channel into Mono, Some Sounds Get Louder while or Some Sounds are Suddenly Quieter while in Rare Cases an Instrument May Disappear Total

• Harmonic Distortion Tool, e.g. Black Box to Boost Even and Odd Harmonics but also for Some Harmonic Compression, Helps to Playback a Track Louder in the Club

• “Fat” is Not Necessarily the Lowest Bass Possible, i.e. What Makes You Feel that the Bass is Fat is More Around 80Hz to 120Hz (Body) Whereas the Sub Gives You that Physical Sensation in the Club

• Use Multiband Compressor or Compressor to Control and Tighten Up the Low Frequencies, i.e. in  Club You Want a Punchy but Controlled Low End and Not a Rumble, e.g. Shape a Kick with a Slow Attack and Medium Release to Avoid Resonances in the Low Mids that May Work Not Well in Clubs

• Subwoofers can Playback a Deep Single Sine Wave Much Easier than than Complex Bass Wave, Try as an Example to Low Cut Original Bass at Around 100Hz and Layer it with a Pure Sine Wave to be the Lowest Bass

Other Facts

• Most Sub Woofers in Clubs Work Down to 40Hz (Maybe 30Hz), Only Really Big Ones can Go Down to 20Hz

• is if Your Track is Obvious Off (in a Bad Way) from Most Other Tracks the DJ Plays and Especially than the Song Before, this is Heard Much More in a Club and People will Reflect that, i.e. this Track Does Not Compete in Anyway while on Spotify etc. this is Not Such an Issue

• the DJ May Use his Mixer EQ / Level to Balance Your Track a Bit but Honestly He will Likely Not and Even Worse Probably Not Play Your Track Anymore

• Most Issues are Too Much High End (which Kills Your Ear when Listening Very Loud) or Too Muffled (which Translates in Weak Energy)

• Especially when the PA System Runs at the Edge and Already Distorts a Bit

• Also for EDM Club Music (as in Any Genre), the Music Lives in the Mids, the Midrange is Somehow More Important then the Sub or Highs

• i.e. if You Play a Track Sound in the Club and Most Your Hear is the Sub then the Audience Gets Tired, i.e. the Feeling Lives in the Mids and with that Comes the Power of the Music

• if the Sub or Highs are Overpowering Nothing Musically Comes Through in a Club

• the Sub and Highs have to be Inline with the Mods and Support the Mods, Too Much Highs or Lows Mess Up Loudness

• Good and Healthy Loudness Come from Good and Healthy Mids, also Regarding the Arrangement in the Mids

• a Good Approach in Mixing Mids Good May Still be Mixing the Low End First Until the Mid Reveal by Itself, then Mix the Mids and then Do a Final Clean Up of the Low End 

• Another Tips is to Make a Mix and then Listen Through Many Devices and Ask Yourself if it is Your Song, i.e. is it How You Intended to be? Does it Sound Like Your Song? e.g. You Might have a Dark Song and if You Listen to it Through the iPhone it is Still that Dark Song How You Wanted it to be and that is Good (Authentic) 

• Not Recommended that Kick and Bass Sit on Top of Each Other

• Most Kicks in Sample Packs etc. have Not the Right Decay for Your Track, i.e. You Need to Tweak the Decay

• Recommended to Go on the Tighter Side Regarding for the Kick and Bass Decay Because that will Give You Space

• Recommended to Step Between Maximal 3 Volume Levels when Producing / Mixing, i.e. 1 that is Overall Comfortable for Long Sessions, 1 Quiet and 1 Loud 

• when You are in the Ballpark of a Dance Floor Smash Hit when Comparing in Your Home Studio, You can be Confident that it will Sound OK in a Club as Well, i.e. You Don’t Need to Check it in a Club to Make that Sure (Although it Would be Nice), i.e. Just Try to Match the Reference Tonal Balance as Close as Possible 

• Even when Using Technical Tools which Bring You into the Ballpark the Final Decision is Yours if the Bass Could have +2dB, i.e. Trust the Feeling

• Chop Off at 20Hz with a 12dB (Sometimes Up to 48dB per Oct) per Oct but On Individual Layers that have Such Information, Not in the Mix Bus or in the Mastering Process, but Always be Gentle with Low Cuts

• Recommends in Any Case to Low Cut Information that is Simply Not  Relevant for Your Song, but at which Frequency is Always Song Dependent 

• when Mixing Multiple Sub Basses that Play at the Same Time he Strictly Low Passes (Mutes) All Except the 1 Important Note at that Time

• Use Analyzer (e.g. Voxengo Span) with 3 Curves in 1 Window, 1 Fine Detail at 8192Hz in Absolute Real Time and 1 Max Curve on Top and 1 Side Channel Curve, Scale the Metering to his Mix Volume (his Case -23 LUFS which is Right in the Center of a Analyzer) 

• Mix at a Very Low Average Volume of -23 LUFS (can also be -18dB) 

• If You Already Get a Sense in the Production that it May Not Work, it will Likely Not Work and the Mixdown will Become a Fix of the Production, i.e. the Mix is Here to Illustrate a Clearer Image of What is Already there

• Aiming for a Certain Loudness Regarding Dynamics / Loudness is Nonsense, it is Just Volume and the End User will Either Increase or Decrease the Volume by Themselves, However the Dynamics (Span Between Quietest and Loudest Parts in a Song) are an Important and Creative Decision, i.e. the Loudness Sits Exactly Between the Dynamic Range and You Should Determine How Much You Want that Range to be

• Recommended that if You have Breaks / Drops etc. with Different Volumes, Make Sure that They Remain After Mastering and the Limiter is Not Balancing this All Out to Zero so when You Playing it in the Club the Impact is Preserved, i.e. if Overcompressed Parts vs Quiet Parts are Suddenly the Same there is No More Drop

• Advice is Against Mix Buss Treatments / Limiters During Mixdown, the Things that Makes a Great Mix is Volume (Balancing) / EQ / Compression on Individual Tracks

Mono vs Stereo in Clubs or Live Venues

• Stereo Only Exists for a Very Small Fraction of the People in a Club and these are the People that Sit Exactly in the Center of 2 Speakers and Even then the Stereo Effect is Very Narrow

• the Stereo Effect Itself is Based on 2 Things, the Time and Arrival Between 2 Speakers and Volume

• i.e. if the Volume Between 2 Speakers is Too Different You will Only Hear the Louder One

• i.e. if the Time and Arrival is Different Between 2 Speakers is Too Different You will Not Hear it as Stereo but as an Echo

• so to Summarize Even if a Club Attempts to have a Stereo Playback System, Again Only People that Sit Exactly in the Center of 2 Speakers and Even then the Stereo Effect is Very Narrow

• as Soon as You Step 1 Meter to the Left or Right You can Only Hear 1 Speaker and this is the Speaker that is Closer to You

• How a Club or Live Venue Handles Mono vs Stereo and Left vs Right etc. is Still a Debate, i.e. Either They Sum L+R to Mono and Assign Summed Mono to Each Speaker or They Send the Left Channel to the Left Speaker and the Right Channel to the Right Speaker

• Recommended for that Reason to Make Mix with Mono Compatibility   in Mind and when You Do the Stereo Thing Do in a Way Where the Signal is Always Either in the Middle (i.e. Represented in Summed L+R) or then on Both Sides (Represented the Same in Both Channels), i.e. if You Pan a Hi Hat More Towards Right and when the Club System has Dedicated L+R Speakers then the Hi Hat Simply is More Towards Right and the Hi Hat is Underrepresented in the Left Speaker

Tips to Make Groove and Energy for Kick vs Bass Work Good in Clubs

• in General it is About Volume / Attack / Tonal Balance / Decay

• the Better You Control this the Better it will Perform in a Club

• the Thing is the Hearing Apparatus is Changing a Lot when Listening that Loud (Equal Loudness Contours / Fletcher Munson)

• at Low Volume Ears are Sensitive to Mids and High Mids, as Volume Increases Ears Get More Sensitive to Highs and Lows

• it is Crucial when Comparing to Reference / Measuring with a Spectrum Analyzer that You Listen at the Same Volume and the Spectrum Analyzer has an Anchor to Reliably Make Changes, i.e. if a Mix Jumps in Volume You have No Anchor, also Don’t Use the Auto Scale Feature Dependent on Input in Spectrum Analyzers 

• Recommended 1 Spectrum Analyzer that is Very Dynamic (Moves Along in Real Time) and 1 Spectrum Analyzer wit a Max Curve (Hold Curve), Don’t Trust the Overall Shape of a Spectrum Analyzer

1) Add a Lowpass at 150Hz to Only Focus the Low End

2) Now Listen How the Low End Rides / Grooves

3) Compare it to How the Low End Rides / Grooves on Your Desired Reference

• i.e. Pull the Volume Down so the Reference is at the Same Volume (LUFS / RMS) and Use a Part on the Reference that is Similar and has a Consistent Loudness

4) Check the Feeling and if You are in the Ballpark Regarding Overall Volume and How the Kick vs Bass Relate to Each Other

5) Then Macro How the Kick is Embedded and Macro How the Bass is Embedded, is it a Sub Kick or a High Kick, is it a Very Low Sub Bass or a High Bass, 

• e.g. Different EDM Genre have Different Relations of Kick and Bass (Tech House = High Kick and Big Sub, Techno = Low Kick 

• i.e. What Kind of Combination of Kick and Bass Do You have

6) Then Check the Interplay Between the 2, in Terms of Volume / Groove

• e.g. Sometimes the Kick May be the Loudest and Sometimes the Bass May be the Loudest

• i.e. if Kick and Bass Sit on Top of Each Other, the Attack of Each and Especially the Decay of Each

• Most Kicks in Sample Packs etc. have Not the Right Decay for Your Track, i.e. You Need to Tweak the Decay to Get the Best Groove for Your Track

7) Recommended to Go on the Tighter Side Especially for the Kick but also for the Bass Decay, Because that will Give You Space in Time

• i.e. Stay on the Compact / Dry Side Because in Most Clubs the Sound Gets Boomy at that High Volume

8) Make a Mix that One Wants to Move Your Head