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How to get a good sound?
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adri
Started Topics :
5
Posts :
8
Posted : Mar 17, 2008 12:29:38
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Hello,
i've been trying to make some music for a few years now, but i'm still not happy about my sound...
i work with Cubase SX3, have a M-Audio Firewire soundcard, a decent VAIO-computer
my monitoring is Fostex PM5 , or Sennheiser headphones... when i make my music, it sounds wicked on those monitoring, but when i bounce it (wav, 24bit, 44.1Hz) and play it on a good party soundsystem (d&b or Mackie) it always sounds crappy, a really "thin" sound with too much bass
the diffrent sounds don't come to their right...
when i import an audio-file in cubase, i normalize the sample
i do some EQ'ing on each track, mostly use a lowcut-filter
when the song is "finished" i use some waves-plugins on the entire track like L2, C4 and Q10
sometimes i'm able to do the mixing on Genelecs, but still i'm not happy with the sound...
maybe it's already written here? then you can lead me to that thread?
or maybe it's something really simple i do wrong? with bouncing maybe?
thanx already for reading this far, i hope my problem will be fixed soon ;-)
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master bud
Started Topics :
6
Posts :
144
Posted : Mar 17, 2008 12:46
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Hey adri,
the key is to learn properly what these tools are actually doing with your sound...I mean EQ is not just 'something which cuts/boost some freqs' and limiters are not 'volume blockers'  Read some basic digital signal processing stuff (should be without too much math) and also make some experiments with your own DAW on some basic waveform filtering, compressing, limiting or whatever. Learn about time and frequency domains, learn how changes in one domain affect the other domain as well.
BTW good monitoring is not neccessarily leads to pro sound. You need to get used to your monitoring system first which needs hours and hours of careful listening.
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Elad
Tsabeat/Sattel Battle
Started Topics :
158
Posts :
5306
Posted : Mar 17, 2008 13:36
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try to add acoustics
it helped me to upgrade my sound alot!
if you have too much bass then sure it will help since it will lower the high and mid specialy so they wont reverb from your wall , and you can hear that it needs to be bigger / with more reverbs etc.
 www.sattelbattle.com
http://yoavweinberg.weebly.com/ |
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Hampi
Started Topics :
4
Posts :
17
Posted : Mar 17, 2008 23:05
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Try listening to your music on a variety of different speaker setups before you call a track 100% finished. Studio Monitors are not supposed to make music sound good, but are used as a tool to help isolate small errors within the track (i've found that playing normal music through my monitors sounds completely different).
So burn your track on a cd and play it in your car, or on your iPod, on the computer speakers at your moms house, or anything you can find that plays music.
Theres no way to make the tune sound 100% perfect on all of these. The key is to try and find a middle point where it will sound "acceptable" for all forms of listening.
"DMT is like loading the universe into a gun and firing it into your brain" - Alan Watts |
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Alex Roudos
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
33
Posts :
411
Posted : Mar 18, 2008 02:55
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Quote:
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a really "thin" sound with too much bass
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It seems that you over boosting your low frequencies in order to compensate for the inability of your PM5(or PM0.5?) to reproduce efficiently and accurately frequencies below 60hz, maybe even higher than that. Even if the specs say 50hz, it's impossible to get a flat, accurate and clear low frequency reproduction from a 5" ported monitor.
I would say that you need a sub and some very basic acoustic treatment at least, in order to hear everything as it is, as much as possible(quality of the speakers of course is very important).
Mixing and mastering(or kind of) for yourself requires also further skills but without quality speakers/treatment they are pretty much useless even if you have them.
A friend told me once that the biggest mistake we make is that we believe we live, when in reality we are sleeping in the waiting room of life. |
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Upavas
Upavas
Started Topics :
150
Posts :
3315
Posted : Mar 18, 2008 07:12
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The bass has proven to be most difficult element for me in Psytrance and I have experimented for years, (still learning... ) ! The bass thread "THE MOTHER OF ALL BASSLINES" on this website (a hell of a lot of reading since it is huge) and some advice from one of my teachers at filmschool have helped a lot.
Headphones will pretty much never give you an accurate bass response. Since trance gets played a lot with subwoofers nowadays I would also suggest you get yourself one of those. Make sure the bass response is accurate to as low a hz as possible.
To me it is also a lot as to what eq's compressors, limiters etc. do to play all sounds so they can be heard equally nice in a mix and together with other sounds, without overlapping. Try to normalize your mix manually with the mixer instead of applying limiters and compressors, keep your mix so low that you don't need to attenuate your master fader, use the volume faders first. Once you see sounds overlapping each other apply an eq and try to balance these frequencies out.
I have found it very helpful to do this first only with the kick and bass, until you get the 2 right together...
I found it very helpful to have learned how to mix and record sounds from a rock band in a studio. Once I understood how to make a recorded bass signal sound nice with the rest, psy bass semmed a lot easier as well.
Last, do not give up hope, keep doing it...
I just love all these cool smileys on here...
Upavas - Here And Now (Sangoma Rec.) new EP out Oct.29th, get it here:
http://timecode.bandcamp.com
http://upavas.com
http://soundcloud.com/upavas-1/ |
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makus
Overdream
Started Topics :
82
Posts :
3087
Posted : Mar 18, 2008 12:29
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Kitnam
Mantik
Started Topics :
110
Posts :
1151
Posted : Mar 19, 2008 00:44
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give us an example and i think we could help then.
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adri
Started Topics :
5
Posts :
8
Posted : Mar 20, 2008 13:21
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thanx for the help guys, i was hoping it was a bit more simple than that...
i'm gonna try to do those things said here
the problem is i'm making music for 90% with headphones, but when i have the time and oppurtunity i do the mixing in the audioroom of a tvstudio, wich has good acoustics and 2 types of Genelecs
here's a link to a track i've made:
[url]http://www.evilshare.com/4b5d6734-4780-102b-a5a4-000b6aa2a5f8[/url] |
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psypox
Psypox / Bufo
Started Topics :
53
Posts :
768
Posted : Mar 20, 2008 16:55
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adri
Started Topics :
5
Posts :
8
Posted : Mar 20, 2008 18:18
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Quote:
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On 2008-03-20 16:55, psypox wrote:
Practice bro!
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that's what i've been doing for 4 years now... i'm starting to get happy about my tracks... it's just the soundquality :-( |
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Elad
Tsabeat/Sattel Battle
Started Topics :
158
Posts :
5306
Posted : Mar 21, 2008 14:01
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shamantrixx
Started Topics :
7
Posts :
549
Posted : Mar 21, 2008 16:48
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I'll try to point out few (IMO) important things that you may be missing (from my own experience):
1) listen other peoples music and listen it a lot. Each time you're listening your own track put also one really kick ass track to play after your track and play it on the same volume.
Having a clear reference will help you know how far from the good sound you actually are. We all tend to lose criteria when we listen only the stuff we're making.
2) Fix it in the mix. When you think your track sounds good insert some maximizer on master ch. and compare your track with some really good sounding track from similar genre of music. Don't bother with volume... rather pay attention to clarity of individual elements. Does your bass line decreases in volume when the bass drum kicks in? Is any element "masking" other elements in the mix? How well do you use spatial positioning of your elements? Do you need to automate volumes of kick and bass line when other parts join in? You can learn a lot from listening any analyzing the tracks from other producers. It's better to fix problems in the mix than using aggressive loudness maximizers and aggressive cut offs on the entire mixdown.
3) Layer as much as possible especially the prominent components of the mix (kick and bass line). Try to separate them in such a way that you can control the "punch" and "body" independently. When kick and bass line run alone add more "body". When the synths and pads join in you can lower the "body" without losing their "punch". If you simply manipulate the overall level you WILL lose punch and that will eventually lead you to have too much bass frequencies or not enough.
4) pay attention to octaves when you EQ sounds. Of course... there are no rules but at the same time there are some rules when it comes to tonal balance of the sound. If your kick drum is for example an F note and you need to high or low pass it... do it in such a way that you cut where the note C would be in order to preserve the tonal balance since the tone C is more or less half way between two F tones. That way you can cut down the volume but often it will appear to be louder than it was before.
5) it's nice to dedicate your time and to work hard to gain the results. It's good to always compare your work with the best music out there... but at least do have some sense of humor about what you're doing!!! Never allow your self to expect the results!
You should have a lot of fun making music. Expectations will lead you to frustration and that takes the fun away. Making music is a modern way of making offerings to the "spirits"... a way to let your right brain hemisphere express it self. Don't ruin that by making left brain rational expectations... The magic is in the process of making... not in the results.
Of course... take this as just another opinion... if you don't like it... ignore it. It's just my point of view and maybe it will not work for anyone else.
"It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the result of musical perception"
Albert Einstein, speaking about his theory of relativity |
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Boobytrip
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
39
Posts :
988
Posted : Mar 22, 2008 15:06
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Use the 'good sound algorithm':
1) open your sequencer
2) work long and hard
3) export the audiomixdown
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Mesq
Reality Pixie
Started Topics :
34
Posts :
671
Posted : Mar 23, 2008 11:53
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really good post shamantrixx |
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