I always struggle with this in piggy tracker.. How do you guys go about balancing your levels & sounds?
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Czech Republic
most of the time I just set volume of instruments higher and higher, than I add some new and find,that maximum is not enough for it, so I have to set other instruments lower...
Some channel mixer would be great.
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Brunswick, GA USA
If you know it always happens, try starting with lower volume settings in the first place and turn your output volume up. (that's what "headroom" means, btw)
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San Francisco
chunter wrote:
If you know it always happens, try starting with lower volume settings in the first place and turn your output volume up. (that's what "headroom" means, btw)
this is the way to do it. when i start a track i always set the global volume all the way up and mix my instruments sounds low. mixing as you write in piggy is really vital as the clipping can be brutal.
another trick is to choose what sound is going to be the main interest for your songs and build your mix around that. since i do house type stuff it usually ends up being the kick drum. i set the volume full for that guy and build my mix around it to make sure it is clearly heard through out the song. this also helps to keep mix consistency from song to song for me as the main element stays the same volume from song to song.
to summarize/simplify and add on...best mixing tips i have found are:
1) choose main elements of the songs and set at a high volume in mix with global volume up.
2) build your mix around those sounds making sure to make room in your instruments for these to remain in the front of the mix as you add things.
3) adjust volumes of all instruments as things get added but always keep the main sounds at the same volume.
4) when writing in different song files make sure your main sounds are always consistently the same volume.
5) when creating samples make sure to have a consistent db peak. It just makes things easier. it is better have a loud volume and just turn it down then it is to have a low volume and not be able to turn it up.
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i use the filter alot as a eq.. shifting the filter type away from 00 and towards FF can slowly cut bass and then boost highs. My biggest problem with piggy is keeping things from getting muddy on the low end and overly harsh on the highs and tweaking instruments can really help a lot.
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Cool, thanks! Yeah I ten to have a kind of "washed out" feeling to my piggy tracks. I think it might be from trying to push the vol too much .. I'll back off and try and build up a better mix with the amp turned up instead maybe.
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sweden
mk wrote:
Cool, thanks! Yeah I ten to have a kind of "washed out" feeling to my piggy tracks.
Isn't that a good thing though? 
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London, UK
What Peter said. See filter type to FF and use it as an EQ to roll off any unnecessary low-end that sludges everything up.
(And then render stems and mix in Ableton, hehe)