Mixing and mastering a synthwave tune

Crushing compression

Many synthwave producers go for a very upfront, compressed sound. While we’d never normally suggest driving your master channel hard with heavy-handed compression, in this instance it can create a certain sound that’s part of the genre’s aesthetic. Try pushing a compressor or a limiter a little harder than usual to squash things together.

Lush widening

Stereo widening can work wonders for synth-heavy music. With a stereo widener (like our own Panagement CM) on the master channel, you can create that extra bit of width. It’s good practice to mono bass frequencies using a plugin like Sonalksis StereoTools ( sonalksis.com) or A1 Audio’s free A1StereoControl ( a1audio.de).

Perfect pumping

Sidechain compression is often used liberally in synthwave – try sidechaining your bass, pads and arpeggios using your kick drum as the trigger, to make your music suck in and out along with the track’s rhythm. You can even try the classic Daft Punk trick of placing a sidechain compressor on the master bus, with the track’s kick routed into its key input.