You turn the lead up. Now you can hear it, but the hats have disappeared. Bring the hats up and the lead disappears again. The pluck needs a bit more as well. Before long, everything is loud and the drop still doesn’t feel right.
I’d stop there for a moment. If turning something up keeps creating another problem, it’s worth finding out what’s getting in its way.
Mix Lock has a problem entry that describes this exactly: “The lead sounds too quiet at normal level but too loud if I turn it up.” Here’s how I’d work through it.
What are you trying to hear?
Loop the part of the track where it happens. Keep the listening volume comfortable and leave it there while you work.
Then decide what should catch your ear. In this example, it’s the lead melody. The hats still need to give the track energy, and the other synths still need to belong, but they don’t all need to be equally prominent.
That can be surprisingly hard to accept when you’ve spent ages making each sound. A pluck might sound brilliant on its own and still be doing too much underneath the lead.
Leave the lead alone for a minute
Keep its level where it is and briefly mute one of the other parts. Start with whatever seems busiest: perhaps the pads, the pluck or the rides. Bring it back before trying the next one.
Listen for the moment the melody becomes easy to follow. If it comes back when the pad stops, you’ve found somewhere useful to start. You haven’t proved the pad is a bad sound. You’ve found two parts that aren’t working together yet.
If no single part makes much difference, try taking a couple out together. Sometimes the problem is how much is happening at once.
Take that observation into Mix Lock
Use Problems or the assistant’s step-by-step diagnosis to describe what you’ve just heard. Something like:
“I can hear the lead clearly with the pad muted. When I bring the pad back, I lose the melody. Turning the lead up makes everything too much. Where should I start?”
That gives you a much more useful starting point than “make my lead louder”. Mix Lock has guidance for leads and pads fighting each other, hats creating a constant wash, and reverb blurring the mix. Follow the problem that fits what you’re hearing.
You’re still making the decision with your ears. The app helps you understand what to try and why.
Try a small change and listen again
If it’s the pad, bring it down a little first. Does the lead come through while the chords still feel full? That might be enough. If the backing loses too much, try fewer notes or let them finish sooner. You may find that changing what the pad plays works better than changing its sound.
If it’s the hats or rides, listen to the space between the hits. Are they ringing out so much that the top of the mix never clears? Try a shorter sound or a less busy pattern. You can keep the energy without having every gap filled.
If everything seems to hang around after the notes stop, turn the reverb and delay down temporarily. If that clears things up, bring them back gradually until you get the space you want without losing the melody.
And if the lead still doesn’t speak clearly with those parts out of the way, look at the lead itself. The envelope guide explains how a sound starts and fades if you want to explore that further. Try another patch or compare it with some of its effects switched off, keeping the listening level similar. More volume won’t always give it the character you’re missing.
If bringing another sound back makes the whole mix seem to duck, tell the assistant that too. That’s a different clue from two sounds simply drowning each other out. The compressor guide can help you understand what might be reacting.
Put one useful job in the Fix Queue
From the relevant Encyclopedia guidance, add the applicable fix to your track’s Fix Queue. Keep a note of what you heard:
“Lead gets lost when the pad comes in during the drop. Try simplifying the pad, then check that the chords still feel full.”
Work on that, then listen to the same section with everything playing. Can you follow the melody now? Does the rest of the track still have the energy you wanted? Compare with the earlier version at a similar volume before marking the issue resolved.
You might end up with a quieter pad, a different hat or a change to the lead itself. You might add a plugin, or realise you don’t need that extra layer after all. Mix Lock gives you a way to work through the problem. There’s room to arrive at your own answer.