Getting a more "Fuller" sounding song

[MichaelA]

How is this possible? I'm making a Basshunter-styled pony EP, and I have EVERYTHING(or at least, I believe everything) possible instrumentation wise, yet it still sounds so empty.

For example, this is what I want:
http://youtu.be/RzFEvRN0bLk?t=1m15s

And this is what I have(minus the vocals). Skip to ~0:57 for the break:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40367185/BasshunterEPSong1.mp3

>Not an up-to-date WIP, but It will do<

As you can see, It still feels bland. I made this really fast, so there isn't much effects and I guess some reverb can help, but other then that, MOST of my songs either sound too empty(as in the song I linked), or too Full(such as this).

So any help would be appreciated. To be honest, I think it might have something to do with either my sound design or EQ'ing, but I'll leave you guys be with this.

[guitarskills]

Th bass drum does not have any impact. That seems to be the main problem. Your treble and mids are good, but the bass is lacking. I suggest turning up the bass drum(and cutting the bass drums treble) and then using compression on it to make a harder kick.

[Versilaryan]

Nonononono. Do not turn down the bass drum's treble if you want a fuller bass drum. In fact, if anything, you should be turning up the treble, or layering a clicky sound to give the bass drum more attack. The bass drum requires high frequencies to be heard. Otherwise, it's just a low thwomp that you can hardly hear.

Case in point: Listen to any metal song at all. Hear those bass drum rolls? That's because heavy metal kicks have lots of treble (and little to no actual bass). So up the treble on kick drums if you want them to be heard.

That bass drum does need a little more umph, though, so try compressing the hell out of it or layering an 808/909 with it (or turning up the 808/909). Turning up the treble would be good so that the kick cuts through the mix. Then turn up the snare and high hat more. High hat especially -- I can hardly hear it, and that means it's REALLY soft for a high hat.

Texture-wise, the two main differences I hear between yours and Basshunter's is that Basshunter's has more high frequencies and more of a stereo presence. Try adding a light stereo chorus on the lead, and add stereo wideners to the snare and hi-hat. (ESPECIALLY that hi-hat. Widen the hell out of that thing.) If you haven't already, move the snare, the lead, and anything but bass sounds and the hi-hat a little off-center. If everything is panned in the middle, you get a less dynamic mix and everything ends up sounding flat.

Upping the snare and hi-hat and adding stereo wideners should add more high frequencies to the song. You could also try using the EQ to cut out some of the mids in the pads in the background and then make them louder.

Adding a sub-bass is also an option.

[Kryptage]

Please Please Please, do me a favor and find that irritating frequency in the main bass at the beginning, I was in pain from that high frequency! That will clear that up a bit.

When you're listening to your mix always ask yourself if you think that the frequencies are there, or perhaps if they are too present. If you don't seem to have enough mids find where you can get more, whether its a new sound or EQing around some instruments, just whatever you do, you should avoid boasting frequencies in an EQ at all costs.

You need to find out how to get your sounds to sit better without boasting. Number 1 thing you need to do is check your levels. Adjusting levels changes the way you perceive the sound in comparison to everything else. So you might not need EQing at all, your levels might be wrong. Your lead is synth is one instrument I think you need to change the levels on right away. I think your percussion might be a bigger problem though.

Right away you can get some power by finding the box frequency in your kick drum. It normally sits around the 200 - 600k range depending on the sample, basically just bring out your EQ and raise up around those frequencies until you find the boxiest sounding frequency and drop it out.

Then make a copy of your bass drum and compress the hell of out it, and take out the bass. Mix it in with your bass drum you already have, that will give you natural highs you want that sound more like a beater head, without having to boost any frequencies. You will have to do a bit of EQ around the first drum a bit though, cause your highs and mids might get a little boost from the double.

Next up your snare doesn't have much depth. It's more like a sweep than anything. You have to try and give it bit more definition.

I think you are right that your mix is having an effect on the power. Though it is fixable, and I think you got something here that can work, just gotta fix your EQing, levels, and possibly some compression to tighten some sounds up.

I hope that helps!

[guitarskills]

Nonononono. Do not turn down the bass drum's treble if you want a fuller bass drum. In fact, if anything, you should be turning up the treble, or layering a clicky sound to give the bass drum more attack. The bass drum requires high frequencies to be heard. Otherwise, it's just a low thwomp that you can hardly hear.

Case in point: Listen to any metal song at all. Hear those bass drum rolls? That's because heavy metal kicks have lots of treble (and little to no actual bass). So up the treble on kick drums if you want them to be heard.

But... thats metal... Bass drums in those are real. Bass drums in techno (at least the bassy bass drum in your layer) , looking at a spectrogram of any 4 on the floor song, will be a sine sweep starting around 150 and going down to 50. Why does it matter if you take down the treble on that one if the only higher frequencies is the air. You don't even want the air on your bass layer, you would want that on the layer that makes the texture of the bass drum... Am I just completely wrong in this? ;_;

[Versilaryan]

If you want that kind of bass drum, then fine. If you want a loud, thumping bass drum, then you're going to need a more realistic bass drum sound than that. If you ask Pickle for the bass drum stem from that track, you'll see lots of treble in those hits.

I don't think I've ever heard any electronic music where the bass drums are just an 808 kick. They're almost always acoustic hits EQ'd, layered with an 808, and then processed to make sound more electronic.

If you're talking about lowpassing only the 808/909 bass thump layer and not any of the other layered kick drums... There's no point in doing that. If you need to do that, find a better 808 sample. >.>

[guitarskills]

I didn't actually mean a low pass, I just meant reducing the treble... Okay, I guess I wasn't really thinking... Disregard any advice I give you, okay?

[PrincessAddictia]

For more punch in your bassdrum you can try to boost frequency around 3kHz to bring out that snap more.
Another trick to make kickdrums punchier is to use a transient shaper plugin (Flux Bittersweet is free and does the job).
To the topic of a richer sound: Reverb is the key. not only on the leadsynth. you can put a little bit of short reverb on your kick and bass(cut the low frequency of the reverb).

Another thing is that the leadsynth in your track doesn't sound all that phat (don't get me wrong it sounds good just not very rich). there are a few tricks to make such synths phatter:
1) clone the synth an pan one to the right an one to the left and maybe make little changes (detune or something) to one of them.
2) you can layer a standart hypersaw lead underneath.
3) you can put a sidechained pad behind the leadsynth.

Hope that helps.