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Tutorials, Tips & Tricks


Baroness.

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Thought this would be a good idea, a topic where we can share tutorials/tips.

Achieving the Dubstep 'Wobble' bass with NI MassiveDubstep 'wobble' bass with Toxic IIIDubstep 'wobble' bass on Reason

Please feel free to add some more, whether they be from another source or your own

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Guest djbmc

Use reverb as aux sends and not direct insert effects, that way u save cpu and ur mixdowns will sound better, use the same reverb on all ur drums the same on ur instruments and the same on ur vocals - it sounds more realistic.Use a tiny bit of distortion to glue ur drum sounds together.Cut ALL sounds at at least 60HZ, including bass, u can't really hear anything at this level, however these unwanted frequencies will muddy ur mix and take up headroom. Obviously the higher-pitched the instrument the more bottom end u want to cut. And don't eq things too much when they're solo'ed u want to hear how it sounds with everything else in ur track.If u spend more than about 20 mins trying to get sound to sit right in ur track give up and scrap it because it probably weren't the right sound in the first place. Set a time limit on how long u spend on ur mixdowns, otherwise u spend hours tinkering with sh*t and wasting time.If u aint got a decent acoustic environment or monitors, listen to ur track on as many different systems as u can, and compare it to similar professional tracks u admire. U can also use a spectral analyser to see where there are peaks u don't need and again u can compare a professional track by loading it into ur sequencer, running a spectral analyser on it, doing the same with ur mixdown and comparing the two.Change the pitch of ur drums to match the key of ur track.Create a template for ur songs. If u use reason load up a few instruments that are already roughly eqd and saved in a combinator.I'll add more when i think of them.

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People say that when getting ur drums to sound good their pitch needs to be in the same key as the rest of ur track, but if ur like me (sh*t at telling when a note is in key let alone a kick drum) you'll find this useful:http://www.gvst.co.uk/gtune.htmUse this as an insert effect on an audio track and it'll tell you what pitch ur sample is in.
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  • 2 weeks later...
Cut ALL sounds at at least 60HZ, including bass, u can't really hear anything at this level, however these unwanted frequencies will muddy ur mix and take up headroom. Obviously the higher-pitched the instrument the more bottom end u want to cut. And don't eq things too much when they're solo'ed u want to hear how it sounds with everything else in ur track.If u spend more than about 20 mins trying to get sound to sit right in ur track give up and scrap it because it probably weren't the right sound in the first place. Set a time limit on how long u spend on ur mixdowns, otherwise u spend hours tinkering with sh*t and wasting time.
Some good advice but I don't agree with these 3.Cutting at 60 will kill of your sub if its deep.Cut at 40 instead.Also cut the highest high's as they are inaudible.Don't scrap sounds after 20 mins. Even if u don't get it sitting right after 5 hours you will still have practiced and learned a couple tricks.Spend as long as you need to on your mixdowns. Get it perfect.
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Cut ALL sounds at at least 60HZ, including bass, u can't really hear anything at this level, however these unwanted frequencies will muddy ur mix and take up headroom. Obviously the higher-pitched the instrument the more bottom end u want to cut. And don't eq things too much when they're solo'ed u want to hear how it sounds with everything else in ur track.If u spend more than about 20 mins trying to get sound to sit right in ur track give up and scrap it because it probably weren't the right sound in the first place. Set a time limit on how long u spend on ur mixdowns, otherwise u spend hours tinkering with sh*t and wasting time.
Some good advice but I don't agree with these 3.Cutting at 60 will kill of your sub if its deep.Cut at 40 instead.Also cut the highest high's as they are inaudible.Don't scrap sounds after 20 mins. Even if u don't get it sitting right after 5 hours you will still have practiced and learned a couple tricks.Spend as long as you need to on your mixdowns. Get it perfect.
couple good points, but if u can't get a sound to sit right after 5 hours worth of eqing wot will u have learnt? EQ, more often than not should be used subtly there's easier ways of learning how to EQ than trying to get a particular sound to sit right in ur track when it shouldn't have been there in the first place. And i dunno about u but i've never got a mixdown perfect, there's always something u could work on and evetually it ends up sounding worse that it would have if you'd set urself a time limit. Also lowest i'd go is 50hz, but we could argue forever no one is 100% right.
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^^^ Dont even understand that question.Back on beat making. I have a preset mixer state file which includes some compression and eq which I use on my projects, but its not good enough and generally the more layers I use the more problems I have making the sounds gel. The mix is either peaking all over the place or too quiet.So a couple of questions:1. EQing is what I need to work on? (perhaps compression settings too)2. Any recommended tutorials on EQ + Comp ? I use Reason rewired into FL Studio.

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Dunno if Fruity has one but a good spectrum analyser is helpful. In terms of EQ look at your track, anything in the mid range won't want a lot of low end in it, and even less in the high end sounds, cutting the lows of these leaves more room for your bass sounds and gives you more 'headroom' there will be less sound causing you song to clip but the perceived volume won't have changed. Also pay attention to your bass and your kick drum, if you have a really subby bass chances are you'll want to cut some low end from the kick to let the bassline breathe a bit. You should also look at sidechaining, that's when you put a compressor on the sub of your bass but you tell the compressor to act from the signal sent from the kick. It has the same effect as when a radio presenter starts to talk over a tune on the radio and the tune automatically dips in volume.For compression you need to know what each dial does what before you can truly understand how to use it properly. First of all a compressor's threshold is the point at which a compressor will become active on a sound, the lower the threshold the more compression is applied. The Ratio setting determines how strictly the compressor works, a ratio of 4:1 means that for every 4dB over the threshold a sound goes it will only increase in volume by 1dB because the compressor is squashing it. The attack and release settings determine how quickly a compressor begins to work on a sound and how quickly it stops compressing it, for instance if you have a drum sound that is really quiet at the start but has a big body, using a low attack means the compressor will begin to slowly compress the sound and not effect the start too much.I don't know if that's any help, maybe you should upload something you're not happy with and we can give you tips?

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Very interesting stuffI everything makes sense, esp into sidechaining, the amount of times that would have come in handy Generally I get irritated when something doesnt work and scrap it haha but yeah I'll try some of what you've mentioned and post up the results :D

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Dubby wot software you using? i've got a new plug in, a filter called Philta CM, from the pic (i haven't tried it yet) it's got a low pass and a hi pass, plus a spectrum analyser so i can upload it if you guys want? it's made by vengeance as well, them guys are known for their drum samples. Yeh Skola if you got any questions let me know, i'm not an expert by any means but you never i might be able to help.

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do You man clip Your kick and snare at the exact same level, or do it by ear, with the snare sufficiently lower than the kick?
Skola said he didn't understand....when You do Your drum levels, do You make Your snare and kick clip at the exact same level?or do You decide on the levels by ear individually and use them?
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