Or any of you guys actually.....What do you do when youre mastering electronic music? We were listening to some stuff in the car and some bass parts were "clipping" the subwoofers that wernt clipping when I was mixing it. blahh

I mix with a compressor on my master bus, with the limiter engaged and set to -2.0db, and fast attack/fast release compression. Bussing is my friend.

I generally mix on stuff that's bass-light. My belovéd Sennheiser 'phones are probably the best example- if I can get bottom-end power and clarity though those with everything else going, I know through a set of good-ass speakers the low end in my mix will throw down. Also, I have the kinda unfortunate problem of listening back through speakers that are otherwise awesome but have some low-mid murk going on (Polk Audio; at The 'Drome and at my house. Two different sets.) so I'm used to compensating for that for clarity, with or without a sub.

Basically: watch your levels, mix into your mastering chain (or equivalent if you don't do your own mastering), double, triple and quadruple-check your mixes. If on systems that emphasize your fuckedupspots, even better.

And even if I start with a preset I made, I probably won't follow it exactly; I'll use it as a starting point. Gain staging is very very important unless you want distorted fuckupédness, at which point it's honestly probably more important!

The short answer to this is to start with a fast attack/fast release compressor at 2:1 and work from there until it either delivers the goods or sounds like distorted asshole. Dance-y stuff is difficult because you need that constant punch.

Now, should I do this in both fruity loops and reaper? I use both of those at the same time. FL for beats and reaper for the misc. stuff

K well that compressor didnt work out too well in FL. Ill try it out with the reaper mix.

Ya, I cant master worth shit.