Percussion and mixes

Hello everyone...hope this is the right section to post this...

I have a serious issue with low percussion and mixes. Whenever I use some bass drum or timpani in my compositions, they get lost in the mix. I tend to use pretty thick orchestration including full string sections...do you have any suggestion I could apply regarding mix? 

Thank you ^^

P.S. I am not a music production expert...I just use my daw to have a decent rendition of what I compose

Pull all volume sliders back except the percussion ones - try -3db.

Then turn the master volume up.

It's a matter of balance.

On 12/22/2020 at 9:53 AM, ferdi9749 said:

they get lost in the mix.

EQ.

Normally what you want to do is remove the low frequencies from everything that doesn't need them (almost everything) and leave just the ones that really matter. This means that you need to analyze what frequencies are most prominent on the things you're using and EQ according to priorities of what needs to be heard. I recommend for the bass drum and such percussion a boost on 60hz as a starting point. You can see how that changes if you move it around, but it's a good place to start.

Also remember that many times it's wiser to cut frequencies than to boost them. (Specially since otherwise you can introduce unwanted distortion.) So cutting low frequencies out of violins and other such instruments is a good idea since you won't hear them anyway but they WILL introduce muddiness into the low spectrum if you leave them unchecked.

These are just some general mixing guidelines, but yeah get working on understanding EQ and you'll be amazed at the stuff you can make sound good together.