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#22
Posted 12 December 2008 - 12:29 PM
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Newbie
Here's a random brainfart of 4:
1. There is no 'un-artistic' reason to compress sampled kick drums.
2. Hi-Pass everything.
3. Listen to it again the next day with fresh ears before you excitedly send out a new banger to a label or other producers. If it's just friends and parents, go ahead as they can't usually tell a bad mix unless it's reaaaaaly bad.
4. Cut, don't boost unless you are using an analogue EQ. Instead of focusing on how to 'make the sound better' by boosting, try the yang of that yin and remove the range that doesn't sound good. If you are using more than a few bands of EQ, try a different sample, or modify the synth patch.
1. There is no 'un-artistic' reason to compress sampled kick drums.
2. Hi-Pass everything.
3. Listen to it again the next day with fresh ears before you excitedly send out a new banger to a label or other producers. If it's just friends and parents, go ahead as they can't usually tell a bad mix unless it's reaaaaaly bad.
4. Cut, don't boost unless you are using an analogue EQ. Instead of focusing on how to 'make the sound better' by boosting, try the yang of that yin and remove the range that doesn't sound good. If you are using more than a few bands of EQ, try a different sample, or modify the synth patch.
#23
Posted 10 January 2009 - 08:27 AM
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Newbie
great thread wise fox! there's a lot of good input on this so far...some of which, took me years to discover and/or truly comprehend.
my2bitz:
take breaks often [to quote jack black: "silence is goldy"...hehe] ...and before you go back to working on ur trak, listen to something else ...i like to alternate b/w different trax to keep it fresh and to minimize overworking the same thing ...ears fatigue fast and you really shouldn't be going for more that 20 min straight without a break [i know that isn't really practical, but taking regular breaks gives your ears more range and acuity, especially if your working on the "final" mix] ...and for most of the time keep at 80 dB or less, which is conversation level in a busy meeting hall and fairly decent [i know!!! you have to have it loud to feel it...and i crank till the cops come more often than not...hehe - but when it counts, i take breaks and keep the levels down - if you follow timothyallan'z great advice and listen to it the next day <<< or even a couple of days later >>>, crank it up for the initial listening and then drop it bak dwn for further tweaking] ...the louder it is, the shorter the duration b/w breaks
also: don't be afraid to throw something away when it isn't working ...whether it's a riff a whole trak or some sound ur designing - when sound designing, i try to limit myself to 10 min or less before i stop and look for something else ...real "majik" tendz to happen quickly and you know it when it strikes ...if a sound or part isn't jumping out at you, move on! --- you can always "save as" if you think it may be worth coming back to later.
hope that helps some of you tone monkiez out there:
cheers:
shAmii
>x]~
my2bitz:
take breaks often [to quote jack black: "silence is goldy"...hehe] ...and before you go back to working on ur trak, listen to something else ...i like to alternate b/w different trax to keep it fresh and to minimize overworking the same thing ...ears fatigue fast and you really shouldn't be going for more that 20 min straight without a break [i know that isn't really practical, but taking regular breaks gives your ears more range and acuity, especially if your working on the "final" mix] ...and for most of the time keep at 80 dB or less, which is conversation level in a busy meeting hall and fairly decent [i know!!! you have to have it loud to feel it...and i crank till the cops come more often than not...hehe - but when it counts, i take breaks and keep the levels down - if you follow timothyallan'z great advice and listen to it the next day <<< or even a couple of days later >>>, crank it up for the initial listening and then drop it bak dwn for further tweaking] ...the louder it is, the shorter the duration b/w breaks
also: don't be afraid to throw something away when it isn't working ...whether it's a riff a whole trak or some sound ur designing - when sound designing, i try to limit myself to 10 min or less before i stop and look for something else ...real "majik" tendz to happen quickly and you know it when it strikes ...if a sound or part isn't jumping out at you, move on! --- you can always "save as" if you think it may be worth coming back to later.
hope that helps some of you tone monkiez out there:
cheers:
shAmii
>x]~
#24
Posted 11 January 2009 - 01:16 PM
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SoundPunk Veteran
Here's a real gem....
Don't be an absolute fucktard. And if you do, be funny about it.
Don't be an absolute fucktard. And if you do, be funny about it.
#25
Posted 11 January 2009 - 01:41 PM
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Sound Cunt Extraordinaire
- LocationInside the Anus of a Flying Walrus
:- Your opinion is interesting and challenging. Where does one subscribe to your news letter?
#26
Posted 23 June 2010 - 06:21 AM
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A good one I found was parallel compression.... a mastering engineer told me about it when i mentioned to him I wanted to bring my sounds "forward," they sounded far away and/or muffled
compressor on a send track: thresh. -50ish... ratio. between 2-3 (i use higher in some cases)... attack/release. medium-ish depending on dynamics of song... knee and other controls at your own discretion
compressor on a send track: thresh. -50ish... ratio. between 2-3 (i use higher in some cases)... attack/release. medium-ish depending on dynamics of song... knee and other controls at your own discretion
#27
Posted 23 June 2010 - 05:08 PM
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Local
A couple that i use which most of you probably do.
Cut the freq's. If it does not need to be there ie bass freq's in a hi hat cut them i go to town on most of my stuff so it sounds clean without changing the sound.
Layering the sounds. I have found that layering sounds to make one "super rad" sound and then compressing them together can add real weight to your mixes. for example a bass synth and then another bass synth with just a sine wave to give the sound some weight.
Like i said these are things that 99% of you would already do but when your starting out it's really good to know.
Keep rocking
Cut the freq's. If it does not need to be there ie bass freq's in a hi hat cut them i go to town on most of my stuff so it sounds clean without changing the sound.
Layering the sounds. I have found that layering sounds to make one "super rad" sound and then compressing them together can add real weight to your mixes. for example a bass synth and then another bass synth with just a sine wave to give the sound some weight.
Like i said these are things that 99% of you would already do but when your starting out it's really good to know.
Keep rocking
#28
Posted 13 July 2010 - 05:43 AM
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Newbie
the two bass synths with a sine wave is one I use a lot... but it's usually a sine/square ran through a hi-res low-freq LP filter to get a resonant sub bass... w/ an LFO on the amp (womp womp womp)
another good sin wave laying trick is layering your kicks with a somewhat low volume sine at about 150hz (it isn't EXACTLY 150 because it depends on the kick)... I had a kick that had a bottom end at about 77Hz... so putting a 150hz sine sounded a little muddy and phasey, so i pushed it up to 154-155hz and it worked better... works good on house kicks to help add some mids to push it through the mix without sounding snappy... even putting a little bit of release on it w/ some LP white noise can make it sound like the sort of mid-low ringing sound that a real bass drum has after you hit it (but that wouldn't be for house lol)
it has to be about half the volume of the kick drum otherwise it sounds weird (also if you don't design your own drums then you might not even hear it, but it helps on a bigger system)
another good sin wave laying trick is layering your kicks with a somewhat low volume sine at about 150hz (it isn't EXACTLY 150 because it depends on the kick)... I had a kick that had a bottom end at about 77Hz... so putting a 150hz sine sounded a little muddy and phasey, so i pushed it up to 154-155hz and it worked better... works good on house kicks to help add some mids to push it through the mix without sounding snappy... even putting a little bit of release on it w/ some LP white noise can make it sound like the sort of mid-low ringing sound that a real bass drum has after you hit it (but that wouldn't be for house lol)
it has to be about half the volume of the kick drum otherwise it sounds weird (also if you don't design your own drums then you might not even hear it, but it helps on a bigger system)
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