What sounds should I avoid using OTT on?
Marketing Director & Bass Music Mentor
Avoid using OTT on sub bass, vocals, kick drums, and snare drums because OTT aggressively compresses and brings sounds forward in the mix, which will ruin the low-end weight of your sub bass and make drums sound overly processed. I especially warn against using my Max rack (which is three OTTs stacked) on anything with reverb or delay already in it, because the OTT will amplify those time-based effects and create a muddy, over-compressed mess. Once you understand these rules, you can break them creatively—I've made entire drops from violins with reverb by deliberately adding OTT to create interesting artifacts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use OTT on a full mix or master?
You can, but be careful. OTT on a full mix tends to pump and over-compress the dynamics in a way that works for some electronic genres but sounds unnatural in others. At very low depth settings (5 to 15%), it can add cohesion to a mix. At full depth, it typically makes a mix sound squashed and overly dense. If you want multiband compression on a master, a dedicated mastering compressor with more control is usually a better tool.
What should I use on sub bass instead of OTT?
For sub bass, a gentle single-band compressor with a slow attack and medium release preserves the weight and punch while controlling dynamics. Many producers use no compression on sub bass at all and instead rely on consistent MIDI velocities and careful gain staging. The key is keeping the sub tight and consistent without bringing it forward the way OTT would.
How do I know if I'm over-using OTT in my mix?
A clear sign is that everything sounds similarly forward and dense with no sense of depth or space. OTT brings sounds toward the listener: used on too many elements, you lose the contrast between close and distant sounds that gives a mix dimension. A/B your mix with the OTTs bypassed and if the bypass version feels more dynamic and spacious while still sounding intentional, you're likely over-using it.
Max Pote
Marketing Director & Bass Music Mentor
Max Pote is a professional bass music producer who performs and releases under the name Protohype. He has more than a decade of releases on major bass-music labels (Firepower Records, SMOG, Never Say Die, Rottun, Deadbeats), festival appearances at EDC Las Vegas and Lost Lands, and a feature credit on Tom Morello's 2021 album The Atlas Underground Fire. He was an early Icon Collective alumnus and later returned as an instructor before co-founding Futureproof Music School. He leads marketing at Futureproof and mentors students on sound design, songwriting, and finishing tracks.
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