sound gets over compressed instead of the volume just increasing

please explain a little bit more? are you using a compressor? are their other sounds in the same frequence playing at the same time?

im using a number fx, and yes compression. but when im trying to alter the levels on the mixer, i loose dynamics when say i turn a snare down, and it gets to muddied and compressed when i turn it up...i think it may because im using mastering suite before my mixer, instead of using them for each idividual unit

yes the mastering suite should be the last thing on your mixing chain. you should eq before you should compress?

1. easiest change the samples if there not going together or they might not be high quality samples

2. if your going to keep the samples to get rid of muddiness is usually around the 200hz to 400hz do a high pass or eq no more than 4dbs

3. this might help depending on style of music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkjOJ...eature=related

anything else let me know kool