Quote:
Originally Posted by Judders
It all comes down to arrangement and frequency balance.
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^^^
Check your low end - quite possible that you have way more lows there than the reference track, but your speakers can't reproduce them. Otherwise, it is also possible that your lows are more smeared in time, while in the reference they are shorter. Make sure no sub-bass comes from parallel FX (reverbs, delays). Basses take a lot of energy and achieving the right balance is tricky. A useful technique is to EQ the hell out of the base drum's lows to focus it in certain frequency (usually corresponding to the song's key). It's like tuning and dampening the drum. Of course actually tuning and dampening a real drum (or choosing a more appropriate sample) will sound better, but you will still want to further EQ the low end when loudness is of major concern.
There are also psychoacoustics at play. Generally the more energy you move into the high-mids, the louder it will sound, but that may also make it sound harsher. Achieving the right frequency balance is a very nuanced thing and there is way more to cover.