Steve DB`s Q&A production workshop

[dirty_bass]

Ok, so, rather than writing up an extensive production guide, I thought I would answer questions on production that anyone might have, to the full of my knowledge.

At the end of each month I`ll write up the most popular questions and repost them as a document, which will then go on to build a production guide.

so.


any questions?

[xfive]

I can't seem to find the "make good music" button in my sequencer... do I need a special plugin to enable it ?

[dirty_bass]

I can't seem to find the "make good music" button in my sequencer... do I need a special plugin to enable it ?

hahahaha

Yes, the plugin comes as an extra with the Make me a musician bundle.
Obviously you need to apply the other plugs in the chain first, ie, Time Spent, Experience through experimentation, knowledge from research, natural talent, trained ears, decent monitors, commitment beyond reason, and diverse musical understanding.

Some can be sidechained to others.

[theledge]

hahahaha

Yes, the plugin comes as an extra with the Make me a musician bundle.
Obviously you need to apply the other plugs in the chain first, ie, Time Spent, Experience through experimentation, knowledge from research, natural talent, trained ears, decent monitors, commitment beyond reason, and diverse musical understanding.

Some can be sidechained to others.

nicely

[MARK ANXIOUS]

what is all this talk of compression? is it a new form of capital punishment?

:briggin:

[stjohn]

what technique is better to use with Techno?
compression or EQ??
\

im sure ill have a few questions...ill have a think

[Buttman]

How to get (frequency wise) well balanced tracks?
I mean not too much highs or lows or whatever but all very nice and levelled.

I myself often compare my track to something someone else made that I think sounds good. And then take it from that.

[koda]

How to get (frequency wise) well balanced tracks?
I mean not too much highs or lows or whatever but all very nice and levelled.

I myself often compare my track to something someone else made that I think sounds good. And then take it from that.

i think thats a pretty important one, a good way to start is to reference your whole mix starting with bass and kick, with the amount of air they move i find it easier to work around those elements.
another thing which could be included is how to attract label attention, im in the proces of putting a 3 track demo together and i guess ill just send it out to a&r's? dunno...

[Siege]

Obviously,mastering should be left to the pros,but if your gonna try yourself, is it possible to get better results mastering your track before its rendered down to a single stereo file?

[koda]

Obviously,mastering should be left to the pros,but if your gonna try yourself, is it possible to get better results mastering your track before its rendered down to a single stereo file?

ideally your mix down should be as close to mastered as possible, ive seen people who throw dynamic effects over the master bus to squeeze it together because they cant get that tight feel to it, my technique is eq and compression (amoungst other things) ONLY where its needed.
but otherwise i think i would get carried away mastering my own stuff, best left to someone else i think

[stjohn]

How to get (frequency wise) well balanced tracks?
I mean not too much highs or lows or whatever but all very nice and levelled.

I myself often compare my track to something someone else made that I think sounds good. And then take it from that.

after mixdown...harmonic balancing

[Buttman]

Ah yes I do that with PAZ Freq Analyzer sometimes.. But I dunno if it really helps me.

[loopdon]

make use of reference tracks u like and

a) are similar in style
b) work nicely in the environment you intend them to be played (club i guess)

2.
try and get a different (better) analyzer than paz. i suggest voxengo glisseq. make a snapshot of the part of the track or track itself you want to reference too and overlay it over the spectrum of your track. that should enable you to see where your spectrum is lacking/exxagerating frequencies compared to the reference.

try and fix the errors on a track basis, don't try to eq everything or anything on the master channel, meaning: if the bass region doesn't look right --> eq the track channels that carry the bass region, i.e. bass+kick, don't boost or cut the bass on the master!

or even better: use volume control and instrumentation to fill/cut the regions that differ between your spectrum and the reference one. if you'd need to use a to radical eq otherwise to assimilate them.
you want to make the similar, not 1:1 copies of each other.
use a *.wav file to reference to. possibly from a (bought) cd. not an mp3, no vinyl-rip, no mp3s burnt as wavs onto a cd. a pink-noise file as a reference can hint you at a generally pleasing way to eq. your sound. i won't go into detail here and advise you to read up on this in the free izotope mastering guide on their homepage. it's the part with the -6db rule.

inform yourself about

- har-bal
- aams (advanced auto-mastering system)
- voxengo curveeq
- izotope ozone

try to put them to good use if you see they help you.

hope this helps, back to steve :)

[Siege]

I concentrate on getting the mixdown sounding the best i can before even thinking about mastering.
Therefore when it does come to the mastering stage, im not relying on this to get the sound i want...i have it sounding how i want before master. Like i said il leave mastering to the pros but do have a dabble myself for pre-masters,trks i post up in here and that. Usually warm it up a little...eq cut...multiband comp...maximise..
What i want to know though is,ive heard you can get better,louder results if you master the mix before you render the whole thing down and then master.Is this true???

[loopdon]

i think the terminology 'mastering' is often misused. what a lot of people mean is pre-mastering...

[stjohn]

Ah yes I do that with PAZ Freq Analyzer sometimes.. But I dunno if it really helps me.

but PAZ is just an analyzer innit?
check out www.har-bal.com

its a deadly little program. it can help you spectrally balance your track so that you optimise the chances of a balanced response on different soundsystems.