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Tips and Tricks

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Nathn
Posts: 2408 - Karma: 68
Post any little things you have (compression tips etc.)

One of my favorites

Low end theory: If you have a sample with nice bass, and strings or something, and you don't want to mess up the lead of it, make a copy track and put a low-pass filter on the second one and boost the low end with EQ so they play nicely.

This next one helps A LOT. It's a list I found on another website about sound design. It's for EQing in mixing/mastering

  • Kick Drum - Boost at 80 hz., cut around 350-400 hz., (removes "cardboard" sound) and beater smack is around 2-4 k.
  • Snare Drum - Fatness at 240 hz., crispness at 5 k.
  • Hats/Cymbals - Gong sound at 200 hz., shimmer/air between 8-12 k.
  • Toms - Boom between 60 and 200 hz., scoop out 100 hz. to 4 khz., attack at 5 k.
  • Bass Boost between 80 and 150 hz., to make a passive bass sound active, scoop around 350 hz., Boost 800 hz. for clarity or punch, and the slappin' poppin' thing is around 2.5 k.
  • Electric Guitar - Rolloff at 80 hz., cut at 800 hz. to remove "cheap" sound, and edge is around 2.5 k.
  • Acoustic Guitar - Bottom at 120 hz., body at 240 hz., clarity at 2.5 to 5 k.
  • Piano/Organ - Just like acoustic guitar except piano might need a little boost around 10 k.
  • Vocals - Scoop at 240 hz. if muddy, boost at 4 k for presence, and anywhere above 8 k to brighten (sibilance is between 8 and 10 k).
Aug 7 2010 7:00PM
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Kevski
Posts: 7056 - Karma: 2,790
Sidechaining

I would guess everyone knows about sidechain compression, but if not it might as well go in here because I use it a hell of a lot. Really useful for keeping kicks audible and not conflicting with the bass or just getting that pulsing electro sound.


Basically, you put a compressor on your bass synth, then depending on the compressor you have the option to turn sidechaining on. Tell it to sidechain the audio from something (usually the kick). Drop the threshold a little until you get it nice and quiet whenever the kick hits. Then play around with the attack and release to make it more or less dramatic.


Bass Wobble

Another really simple one that everyone probably knows already. Get a nice powerful, full synth sound however you want your bass to be. Usually saws/squares. Guess it's different on every synth, but you'll basically just want to play around with an LFO on a filter. Adjust the sync rate however you want.



Great idea for a thread. I'll keep updating as I think of things.
Aug 7 2010 8:12PM
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[tightpants]
Posts: 1529 - Karma: 17
where would you do this EQing in reason? On a compressor to whatever instrument you want to tweak? I don't know much about mastering sound
Aug 17 2010 2:00AM
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Nathn
Posts: 2408 - Karma: 68
It depends on what you're doing. If you have something but you don't necessarily like how it sounds right now you'd create an Mclass Equalizer right under the instrument itself. If you were trying to make everything fit together better together, you'd create an Mclass Equalizer right under the default mastering suite. I hope that makes sense, I'll reword it under so hopefully you can understand one of them for sure.

Say you have a snare that you like but it's pretty quiet or dull or something, you'd create an equalizer right under where the snare is. When you're finished with all that, create one under the default mastering suite to get everything totally right.
Aug 17 2010 3:37AM
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[tightpants]
Posts: 1529 - Karma: 17
thanks a lot man, I really appreciate the help. one more question though--how do you EQ specific channels in redrum? take the snare for example--if you attach the m class equalizer to redrum, won't you just be EQing all of the sounds that the drum machine makes? or am i missing something? thanks again (this is the part where I would give you +k but you're already 10/10).
Aug 18 2010 12:24AM
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Kevski
Posts: 7056 - Karma: 2,790
Found this on KVR. If you like electro house and want to have a good basis for experimentation, this is inspiring.


Having the appropriate limitations might help you find your way into it.

Think in terms of 16th note patterns played by monophonic parts. Try setting up your sequencer with 4 midi tracks with a different midi instrument or softsynth on each: one for drums, one for bass, one mid-frequency part, one high-frequency part. Set it to loop around one four beat bar. Now program some notes in using only your mouse and the midi-editor for each track, set to a 16ths division. You can only use one note at a time for any one instrument, no chords. Don't worry about making it good, start with a kick on each beat, then draw in random patterns for the other parts. It will sound wrong.

Leave it playing, stand up, turn away from the screen, your goal is to find the dance of this particular funky wrong robot. Listen with your body, and imagine your body clock is ticking in 16ths. Allocate the musical parts to your body parts if your body doesn't choose its own: let your hands dance the mid-part. Give them time to get into it then leave them to it. Now let your hips find the basspart. Add the high part - eyebrows? And then the kick. Close your eyes and thoughts and enjoy being this robot for a while. Does it have a name? Try saying your new name in a vocoder voice. Program another four patterns at random, and do the same again. When you can live and love these wrong robots you can start to build your own, new, right one.

If you don't find the funk in the grid, the sex in the syncopation, then making electro is not for you at this moment and not to worry.

Damn hope this didn't actually post all in white...
Oct 1 2010 12:58AM
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