Drum and Bass track.. Advice on kicks/snares?

This is my newest track (only been a producer about a year) and I've been messing with my drums, adding compressors/layering/making the kick mono/raising the volume of the individual track and I still can't seem to get my kick and snares to be prominent or punchy enough. Here's the link:

https://soundcloud.com/iamjumbi/jumbi-nil-desperandum

Any other feedback would be nice too. :) Thanks!

It just sounds like they need to be turned up, or more likely, you need to turn down the other elements so there is a better balance between percussion volume and synths.

Sample selection is of the utmost importance, and those samples or loops you've chosen sound very thin and weak; there seems to be zero bottom end on the kicks and the snares have no midrange punch. Might want to go back to the drawing board and find some stronger samples.

Hope this helps out a bit, good luck on the tunes man.

Disable all the sounds and channels except the drums and upload a short section; that could tell us if the samples your using are whack; or if it's a level's thing.

which what andius said, rebalance everything.

also go to your eq; for drums and bass find the hertz range that really lets them shine. anything under 80 should really help with sub bass levels; and 80-150 will give it that good punch.

note that's just a rough estimate, also don't bring up to much hertz below 50 unless it's a super clean sample. otherwise it just adds mud and can detract from how strong of a punch the bass will have.

But yeah just play a sample of the kicks and drums for like 30 seconds.

(on another listen) the highs I believe are just to loud; which is keeping you from being able to turn the rest of it up.

Also what are you using for mixing?

and have you tried running a vst amp to your bass, depending on how good it is, you can raise the bass; give it some slight wet/dry ratio (like 20%) cut the treble/lower or cut the mid/ to make sure none of your bass is leaking any of that hertz range, then add gain (or not). play with it some and it'll give you a louder bass.

Also make sure your compressor isn't to strong, or to slow of an attack; these can really muffle/quiet up your bass. And when layering don't have to many frequencies mashing either. Hope any of those tips help :D

Thanks for the feedback guys! I turned up the kick ~4 dB.

I'll mess with the EQ and try and find that range, since I think the bass is just overpowering them when the song is playing. Someone also suggested side chaining a gate but I would have to look up how to do that. And I'm using Ableton 9 for mixing, thanks for those tips! I'll try them out and see how it goes.

Yeah that's a solid drum sound. I'm about 99% sure it's your other sounds are just to loud.

You can side chain a gate, but I don't think it'll fix the problem.

leave your drums as loud as you like them, before they become overpowering. And start turning down your other channels/sounds that are to loud.

off the bat I'd say the ambiance and the trumpet/horn sounding synth. Since your in ableton, take each channel (excluding the drums/bass) and lower them by 3 db's on the volume knob. starting with the loudest.

are you using a compressor on your bass, then side chaining it to the kick?

You're definitely right, the kick was just too low compared to the other tracks, I'm going through and changing the levels now. I guess I overthought it? haha. I just recently added a compressor to a group of the bass, horn synths, and the deeper lead synth on the second drop that's side chained to the kick track and that is definitely helping.

The updated version is uploaded now and the drums sound much better, thanks for the help. :)

Np! I just finished a song and I need to do the same thing too lol. But I also need to get some sleep :D

Wow man, night and day difference btw. It sounds so much more blended now. Almost like a whole new song! i like it a lot now :D

In the future too, we have an awesome feedback thread for these kinds of questions :)

http://www.edmc.nu/showthread.php?t=477013