electrogen Average Member
United Kingdom
206 posts Joined: Feb, 2012
Posted - 2013/09/13 : 11:43:10
I never said they were rules. Just some stuff i found out along the way. Many people myself included track and mix together and then master. I used to master my way was to multiband compress and eq the whole mix. But now i know mastering is different. And thats fine im having my track mastered as i type. But if yu ue hig. Quality full rich sounds from the start and this includes keeping as much eq as possible they you dont need to mster ut s much as i originally was led to believe. Basically you can produce a song on thursday and use it in a set on thursday night. There are a few tricks i know to get loud mixes without mastering. Also good mastering relies on excellent mixdowns. But then you can get too excellent an your back to mixing.
I posted on here about that i never knew hiw i got a mix so good without knowing how. The answer was using only filter eq and better understanding of eq and dynamics plugins and reverb etc. also gainstaging but thus is another thing altogether.
No one has to use the tips but if your starting out or if like me been producing for years and still have not good mixes, it cant hurt to try. Also opposite eq helps me.
cruelcore1 Advanced Member
Croatia (Hrvatska)
1,485 posts Joined: May, 2010
Posted - 2013/09/13 : 12:25:28
I remember when my tracks relied on mastering. And when I started trying to make them sound good without mastering, well, the mastering became a problem in some cases. Some sounds are supposed to keep their spikes, yet mastering can soften those spikes.
electrogen Average Member
United Kingdom
206 posts Joined: Feb, 2012
Posted - 2013/09/13 : 17:08:40
the spikes or peaks need to be limited as the peaks are what contribute to gain and removing them can make tracks louder. if you have a kick and snare and ride playing together at same time all with peaks you get a bigger peak so by having just the kick with a peak makes smaller peak thus louder potential mix. if you have all three together you dont need all of them to have peaks as it contributes to clicking kicks. removing them contributes to thumping kicks.
electrogen Average Member
United Kingdom
206 posts Joined: Feb, 2012
Posted - 2013/09/13 : 17:14:13
at the end of the day making good music cant really be taught. principles can but good producers also sacrifice years and many hours every day learning and striving to learn more.
were a bit like cooks too. as someone said there are no hard and fast rules to making music. anything works infact this is how we find new tricks. but the eq side of things, if your having muddy tracks chances are its because you havent rolled something off.
i layer everything, kicks hats snares bass everything. and buss them and process the busses with rolloffs and the channels with creative eq.
google "soundonsound EQ"
and read their articles also anything else you dont understand.
and listen to classical music they dont have EQ
cruelcore1 Advanced Member
Croatia (Hrvatska)
1,485 posts Joined: May, 2010
Posted - 2013/09/13 : 17:29:20
I had spikey decay on my lead which was really important to the track, and I remember I had to watch out with comp and limiter during mastering because they smoothened my spikes. That's what I was talking about.
By the way, is it just me or do spikey leads sound less spikey on high volumes than on low volumes to human hearing? Or is it my audio driver limiting the track in its own bad way? I make sure my sound never crosses +0dB marker, so that shouldn't be the problem.
DJ_FunDaBounce Advanced Member
Colombia
2,008 posts Joined: Nov, 2001
Posted - 2013/09/13 : 19:50:47
quote:Originally posted by electrogen:
at the end of the day making good music cant really be taught....
So true.
I also agree on the 'being like cooks' part. one thing, though. coming from a musician (i.e. playing guitar, keyboards, drums, bass) background, I feel your posts suggest music making on the computer a bit of a freeform art. Don't get me wrong, I myself see it as that to a degree but seriously, if you're lacking in the 'traditional' aspects of learning an instrument there are so many things you'll miss out on in terms of musical progress. So much has already been done in other styles of music that, if not applied to what you're currently trying to make, you're going to burn out trying to re-invent the wheel. Never do we hear about ear training or knowing your intervals. It's almost always talk about unlimitied options in your DAW's and synths; about 'plug-ins that add character'. About "sounds you've never heard before".
I sometimes feel we're forced to bite off more than we can chew in this industry. So while I agree some things, like taste, CAN'T be taught I would suggest guiding by example and not so much talk.
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"Fun with a capital F-D-B!"
Mortis Advanced Member
United Kingdom
7,493 posts Joined: May, 2004
341 hardcore releases
Posted - 2013/09/18 : 09:21:11
Here's a great video on EQ's:
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"Maybe in a day and age in which even our rappers can't get to the end of a verse without having an existential crisis, we should find a place for happy hardcore"
cruelcore1 Advanced Member
Croatia (Hrvatska)
1,485 posts Joined: May, 2010
Posted - 2013/09/18 : 11:54:28
quote:Originally posted by Mortis:
Here's a great video on EQ's:
I always try to make my sounding cleaner by removing rubbish frequencies and increasing necessary frequencies. it can be pretty hard with large number of instruments
Alert moderatorEdited by - cruelcore1 on 2013/09/18 11:58:37
Serenity Average Member
United States
173 posts Joined: Jul, 2005
Posted - 2013/09/19 : 00:44:14
quote:Originally posted by electrogen:
Mastering;
Mastering is overrated. Mastering is a process of getting a track ready for cd or vinyl. making sure that everything has its own place in the mix and stereo field.
mastering isnt essential these days but it does help either way.
tracks from iTunes etc can sound that good before mastering and tracks have never been mastered.
basically you can get a mastered sounding mix without mastering, straight from your daw.
if anyone has any other tips, feel free to share :)
Mastering is somewhat essential to a release quality track. If you put an unmastered well mixed track next to a mastered well mixed track, guess which one will sound weak even if they are comparably mixed? Mastering cannot polish a turd, and a good mastering engineer will have you fix the problems in your track before mastering it.
I know I am biased because I learned how to produce from a mastering engineer - but it was a great way to learn because you see how something as small as a teeny crackle or pop from a sample/processing in a track can throw it off - and how to fix that. And how they take care of problems like what happens when a track is summed in mono (most club systems are mono) and half the elements cancel each other out. I don't remember the *how* of everything because it was years ago and I'm just starting to write on my own again - but being aware of the principles is half the battle. Never under estimate the power of a good engineer in general to tell you what is wrong and how to fix it!
Elipton Advanced Member
United Kingdom
1,268 posts Joined: Apr, 2013
Posted - 2013/11/29 : 21:05:00
Don't make Lorenzo's mistake of spending hundreds of pounds on audio Hardware before you know how to produce. Having flashy gear won't make your music sound any better before you know how to write something decent, structure it nicely, mix it down and get it somewhere near finished and ready for mastering.
AceofSpades_Lorenzo Average Member
United States
241 posts Joined: Aug, 2013
Posted - 2013/11/29 : 21:08:12
by "as soon as you can" I mean once you're ready(do everything necessary to get it an alright track done) & have the funds.
I'm not saying to buy genelecs & a RME interface from the get go!
Alert moderatorEdited by - AceofSpades_Lorenzo on 2013/11/29 21:19:53
Elipton Advanced Member
United Kingdom
1,268 posts Joined: Apr, 2013
Posted - 2013/11/29 : 21:21:49
Yes, and I disagree. As a matter of common sense, don't start buying equipment before you're ready. With a half-decent pair of headphones you can produce a track, send it off to a label and if they like it enough, they'll master if for you. That'd be a decent gauge of when you're ready.
Monitors and top-of-the-range sound cards might make the music you hear sound better and clearer, but that won't magically improve your production ability. Personally, I think a ?20 pair of Sennheiser HD201's are sufficient true-sound quality for any rookie to gain experience learning what sounds right, why and how.
Edit: Love your edit. I was responding to "by "as soon as you can" I mean once you have the funds."
electrogen Average Member
United Kingdom
206 posts Joined: Feb, 2012
Posted - 2013/12/19 : 12:25:25
I use sennheiser 201's bottom end is incredible on them. you know if high end is too much with them too as ur eyes water. well mine do
Printer friendly
Posted - 2013/09/13 : 11:43:10
