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A few beginners tips
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dija
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
48
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483
Posted : Jan 26, 2009 17:51:18
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First off guys, this is a post that I made on another forum to help someone with some specific problems they were having and it ended up being quite long. So I copied and pasted it here to isra hoping it could help some of the newer producers out some.
If I provide any inaccurate information someone with more experience please point out my mistakes. So that I don't tell people ' no nos" and so that I don't commit no nos in my own music.
A note about using better samples: You dont need to buy ultra expensive sample packs. You don't need to buy ANYTHING. You can create perfectly fine snares with a synthesizer and a decent sound editing program. A microphone can help greatly too as you can sample yourself banging on objects then manipulate them to add additional sonic qualities to your snares.
What you are going for is a good MIX not a blasting snare drum and fat ass sub tones.
First you need good monitors and good room acoustics. You need to KNOW THE FAULTS in your monitors so that you can compensate. No monitor is 100% perfect and all rooms have slightly different acoustics. Experience is the answer you are looking for. I've produced nearly daily for 7 years various styles of music and I still have trouble getting my mixes down. They are never really what I want either.
Do not get confused with your mixing and mastering. Leave your master channel clean of all fx. NOTHING ON IT. I do put a compressor or something on it for net released music just to bring the volume up a bit and glue it together. However if you can get a nice mix a compressor on your master channel wont even be necessary.
Also use panning to open up space in your mix. With stereo you have 180 degrees to work with. If everything is dead center your going to max out your mix in a hurry and its not going to have the same level of quality of a song that uses panning well.
All of your sounds should be fixed AT THE SOURCE before using fx to fix them.
My suggestions:
- Rework your sound design (unless you are using all samples, which imo is a NO-NO for production, unless the samples were created by you)
DO NOT USE BOOST ON EQ UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY TO BRING OUT A TONAL QUALITY YOU WANT.
- Take everything off your master channel
- Pull all your mixer faders all the way down, then slowly push them up. Don't push them up too much maybe let your mix sit at around -6 db. All of your volumes should be about even except for leads, hooks, and vocals. Even is a round about term, because your bass will have to be slightly louder for it to be as audible as the higher frequencies. So you will turn your kick and bass up a little more than the rest of your instruments. Although they are turned up they should still perceivably sound about the same volume as everything else. The hi hats you can turn down slightly relative to the rest of your instruments, because high frequencies are more audible than low frequencies. So they require less power to be audible in your mix.
- Use a spectral analyzer to view professional tracks and how their mix is. Their bass will be slightly above the rest he mids will be flat and if theres a melody you will see it poking out through the top of glued together midranges. Often times the high end will be a little lower than the midrange.
- Manipulate your bands, use grouping to group channels together. For example: bus your entire percussion section to one bus and use the same compressor setting for them. This will give you that glue type feeling you are looking for in your high end assuming you have already done appropriate layering and such.
- On instruments like pads or instruments that occupy a wide range of frequency place very narrow frequency cuts on a parametric eq in key areas that other instruments need. You can accomplish this without thinning out the original sound hardly any at all, yet still bringing out your other instruments more.
ADDITIONALLY - Check for phasing problems with your low end instruments. Phasing sounds like shit.
CHECK THE MOTHER OF ALL THREADS ON THESE FORUMS. THEY CONTAIN VAST AMOUNTS OF INFORMATION ON PRODUCTION THAT WILL HELP YOU SUCCEED.
- eusid
  http://www.youtube.com/user/trawhi (tutorials)
http://www.myspace.com/eusidmusic |
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Kane
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
23
Posts :
1772
Posted : Jan 26, 2009 18:14
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My advice: Experiment on your own. Don't follow tutorials or take anything posted in this section too seriously. There are no rules or limits.
I've been trying for years to get back to making music like I used to, when I didn't know any of this and it was as simple as "do whatever sounds good".
I'm not saying that it isn't good to understand how and why certain ideas will sound better and be more effective than other methods, but when you're starting out I think it's more important to learn on your own than following advice from someone here that might not have any idea what they're talking about. (not directed at you, I've just seen too much blatantly false information here)
So don't read about compressors at first, just use them and listen to how they affect the sound. It isn't important to know exactly what a phaser does if you don't have a clue how or when to use one in a real situation. I know that to some extent the two kind of go hand in hand, I'm just saying that for beginners, practical experimentation is more important than technical knowledge.
You believe in the users?
Yeah, sure. If I don't have a user, then who wrote me? |
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Freeflow
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
60
Posts :
3709
Posted : Jan 26, 2009 22:47
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great advice from both dija and Kane 
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Upavas
Upavas
Started Topics :
150
Posts :
3315
Posted : Jan 26, 2009 23:14
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cr1st0
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
80
Posts :
208
Posted : Jan 27, 2009 00:55
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Read books about the tools the manual of your digital audio sequencer, your tools your plugins, synthesis, internal mixing/mastering, audio/sound, experiment a lot.
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dija
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
48
Posts :
483
Posted : Jan 27, 2009 04:13
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gutter
Inactive User
Started Topics :
54
Posts :
3018
Posted : Jan 27, 2009 10:56
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Another important thing to have in mind always is the balance. Balance is everywhere in life same goes for mixing sounds.
train your ear to distinct to weightiness of each sound in your song and the gravity of the hole mix.
A way to do that, which has helped me to understand the weightiness of sounds (and is my best training), is when you lower/gain the volume on a track, always pay attention to the other elements of the mix and how these sound. for example when you play with volume of kick pay attention to haw the bass changes or the percussion. the same goes for equalizing. listen to the other elements and how they change because its all about the balance between them and whenever you change a sound this affects the other sounds in your mix. this is a rule.
also make A/B tests between commercial (of your preference and tracks that you love the mixing aspect of the artist) and your track to see where your tracks lacks or is over boosted to compare the stereo image etc.
just tried to give some tips on how to approach a mix, think they are good even for beginners cause its about how to approach a mix and feel it, these are some general rules or ways to do that and after all its about the gravity and training you ears.
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Fragletrollet
Fragletrollet
Started Topics :
111
Posts :
1748
Posted : Jan 27, 2009 13:26
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dija
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
48
Posts :
483
Posted : Jan 27, 2009 13:27
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+1
Very good tip gutter. That is key to learning to get a good mix. You should listen to each instrument solo so you know about how it should sound in your mix. There will be some differences in your mix but it will help you determine what is getting in each others way. So solo tracks, or two or three tracks at a time to see how they interact and if they are overpowering each other.
+1 to frag as well
A midi controller or anything. Changing your work environment or work flow from time to time can give you new inspirations. For example I used to use reason sometimes when I felt a writers block in FL or I'd use cubase for a while.
http://www.youtube.com/user/trawhi (tutorials)
http://www.myspace.com/eusidmusic |
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jizy
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
90
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1493
Posted : Jan 27, 2009 18:27
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just enjoy the progression. fuk anyonelse
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Nectarios
Martian Arts
Started Topics :
187
Posts :
5292
Posted : Jan 27, 2009 19:37
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Find some good weed and make sure you never run out. Get a lot of nice chai as well, goes great with nice weed.
Essential for those long late night studio sessions.
http://soundcloud.com/martianarts |
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dija
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
48
Posts :
483
Posted : Jan 27, 2009 22:14
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gutter
Inactive User
Started Topics :
54
Posts :
3018
Posted : Jan 27, 2009 22:18
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eeeeed !!!get stoned and make tunes 
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Psynaesthesian
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
30
Posts :
557
Posted : Jan 28, 2009 08:14
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Primarily focus on the 'Music'!
Technicalities and techniques will change / improve - but good music is eternal!!
Cheers!!
"... b'om ..." |
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Nectarios
Martian Arts
Started Topics :
187
Posts :
5292
Posted : Jan 28, 2009 09:38
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