Hey KAB,

when I started out and got stuck in this type of situation, I looked at the structure of electronic music (some helpful videos therehttps://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=electronic+music+structure), tried to find patterns that are often used and recreate and reuse them in tracks myself.

Load some of your favorite songs in your DAW and set the beatgrid accordingly, and then label and tag the shit out of it: create markers for the different song parts, write down after which bar which element comes in - and, probably most importantly - what that makes you feel like. There has to be a reason (emotionally) for why you really like this song in particular, so try to find it!!
I'd suggest you to do this with a song that has few elements first, so you can find out how to make a progression with less - and less is sometimes more!

I'd say you'll get a feel for progression this way, and will be able to translate whatever you want to say with your music more easily into the production!

Good luck and tell me if this worked for you,
Artless Venture ♢ (:

Actually just Séguin sounds cool... Not sure how to pronounce that either but hey there are many weird names out there, say Trentemøller for example that are recognizable as well.

Before buying into the loudness war, consider this:
I am sure you heard of RMS, but there is a newer and better method called LUFS, „Loudness Units relative to Full Scale“. It represents a more accurate information on how loud your track is in general than the RMS method.
YouTube, as one of the biggest platforms to discover music, has implemented such a thing to avoid having audio sounding either too quiet or just being compressed too hard - read more about this here: http://productionadvice.co.uk/youtube-loudness-normalisation-details/

You can either have say one minute of middle-loud vers, and then one minute of middle-loud chorus, or one minute of quiet verse and loud chorus - the LUFS (an integrated value) is going to be the same - and guess what will sound better So let's say after mastering, you have a loud verse and loud chorus, therefore the LUFS has risen too, so it will be turned down for you by YouTube and will sound worse than the version with dynamics.
You can get a free metering plugin here: [url]https://www.klangfreund.com/lufsmeter/[/url
Somewhere on this side there is a simpler and free version of it.

I hope this was an insight for you. I am sure that it is just a matter of time that this method of loudness measuring will spread to other platforms like Soundcloud, since it is already in use for radio, television and most importantly YouTube, to end this loudness war and bring back the music.

All the best,
Artless Venture ♢

True, but I myself still find it way easier if bass and kick don't occupy the same frequencies... If you ultimately are stuck in this situation somehow, I'd use a sidechained multiband compressor for the bass with a relatively narrow band located at the kick's subbass, so it just takes away the frequency from the bass that is nevertheless present because of the kick occupying the same frequency/ playing the bass in this certain moment.

Tell me what you think about this, it's probably not optimal but definitely better than clashing the whole thing.

Also, you can choose the key of the song accordingly so the deepest note in the bassline doesn't go either too high/low (I'd not go too much under 40Hz).

All the best,
Artless Venture ♢

There's nothing wrong with this to me...

I like to play with the general stereo with as the track progresses. Like for example the verse stays more centered and in the chorus it opens up. I do this on with stereo widening plug-ins on individual tracks as well as during mastering, you just have to be careful not to mess up your mono compatibility.

As far as volume goes, I try to find the one setting that works best during all parts, just if it is absolutely necessary I automate this as well, but usually no more than 3 db... If I think about it now I am even wondering why only this much - wouldn't it just make a more dynamic track (=more depth/emotion)? It probably depends on the instrument that is used - say you have a synthesizer playing a melody, with no velocity change and just consistent volume: I wouldn't hold myself back to automate this instead of an well recorded piano, where there is a lot more dynamics going on...

These are my thoughts, I hope this was helpful for you.
Artless Venture ♢

Hey @iAmXan! I think there is no right or wrong here, it just depends on the purpose.

For me personally, I use simple compressors that do affect the whole frequency range mostly when mixing electronic stuff, and/or I want to hear the pumping as a stylistic method (yeah I know not original at all but it definitely works).

Multiband compressors come into play when mixing bass (electronic also), especially if it has treble. Now you are able to just gently compress the treble, but really compress the low end in order to make room for the kick.

I hope this was helpful to you,
Artless Venture ♢

I am living by this quote:

Nonetheless, I will venture into being artless, venture into being artless while still attempting to do what art has always done since the first piece of literature known to us; namely, present humans facing the human condition, humans in a desperate encounter with the silence of the universe, humans left on their own to make an inner decision about it all, each struggling to answer the questions existence itself has presented us with. - V. Virom Coppola

Very true words in this thread...
Artless Venture ♢

Hi JunoDivided,
I am using a free multiband compressor called 5ROCERY, it let's you feed in a external signal and even adjust the band crossover frequencys, I'm absolutely in love with this thing.

Artless Venture