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On October 15 2011 08:22 FREEloss_ca wrote:Show nested quote +On October 15 2011 08:06 ChineseWife wrote:
cool guide! as an audio engineer and electronic music producer, i approve! I also like the fabfilter stuff, really quality. If I send you some of my ableton files can you master them for me pretty please?  Nice guide! My biggest issue with Massive (and synths for that matter) is Voicing. I don't really understand what's going on there, or what the difference is between monorotate, monophone, etc.
No clue what monorotate does...Sounds the same as Mono to me in all my experiments.
Poly vs monophonic is just how many notes/tones the synth will play at the same time, if you wanna play chords then you will have to use poly, if you want to glide between stacked notes you want mono. Also pretty much all bass should be made while set to monophonic with only one voice, otherwise you can get destructive interference when you have filters going...I've had it happen before I knew what was up, makes all your bass disappear occasionally and is really F-in annoying.
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On October 15 2011 08:22 FREEloss_ca wrote:Show nested quote +On October 15 2011 08:06 ChineseWife wrote:
cool guide! as an audio engineer and electronic music producer, i approve! I also like the fabfilter stuff, really quality. If I send you some of my ableton files can you master them for me pretty please? Nice guide! My biggest issue with Massive (and synths for that matter) is Voicing. I don't really understand what's going on there, or what the difference is between monorotate, monophone, etc.
lol i do mixing & mastering, but i usually get paaaaaaaid yo
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On October 15 2011 08:52 ChineseWife wrote:Show nested quote +On October 15 2011 08:22 FREEloss_ca wrote:On October 15 2011 08:06 ChineseWife wrote:
cool guide! as an audio engineer and electronic music producer, i approve! I also like the fabfilter stuff, really quality. If I send you some of my ableton files can you master them for me pretty please? Nice guide! My biggest issue with Massive (and synths for that matter) is Voicing. I don't really understand what's going on there, or what the difference is between monorotate, monophone, etc. lol i do mixing & mastering, but i usually get paaaaaaaid yo
Where did you learn how to master?
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lots of practice! went to school for music production & worked at a few studios. wouldnt call myself a mastering engineer, bc i dont have the cash to invest in a proper mastering setup, but my monitoring and d/a chain is mastering quality.
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I think that it's always best to record a normal bass, and then add effects later(or analogue effects before recording). This gives the bass sound a lot more feeling etc. I will, however, try this out, since a change is nice once in a while!
Thanks for the guide :D
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Sick to see this kind of thread on TL! I've been making electronic music for a couple of years now, Am a regular over at Dubstep-forum.
Nice guide on basic synthesis!
If you really want to get into the nitty gritty be sure to check out this. While you do that, download this book. Additive synthesis will blow your mind! lol Infact I find sound design and the general sonic world both fascinating and infinitely mysterious.
Fun times!
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On October 15 2011 08:59 ChineseWife wrote:
lots of practice! went to school for music production & worked at a few studios. wouldnt call myself a mastering engineer, bc i dont have the cash to invest in a proper mastering setup, but my monitoring and d/a chain is mastering quality.
I'm a starving artist and can't afford to have anyone master my tracks.  I can do basic EQing but I just can't get that high production quality that say, a Skrillex or Deadmau5 track would have.
How much do you charge normally? And do you have any samples of your work?
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On October 15 2011 06:04 AutomatonOmega wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Here's how I make Sick Bass. Edit: Useful tutorial, I'll definitely reference it if I ever get into making Electronic music.
Came into the thread expecting this.
Was not disappointed. Excellent job sir!
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On October 15 2011 08:59 ChineseWife wrote:
lots of practice! went to school for music production & worked at a few studios. wouldnt call myself a mastering engineer, bc i dont have the cash to invest in a proper mastering setup, but my monitoring and d/a chain is mastering quality.
Do you know if pretty much every reasonably sized electronic producer sends out their tracks for third party mastering or do many of them do it on their own?
I mean I just listen to a huge amount of electronic and many of the best producers just have this crystal clear mastering that blows my mind. Its such a black art to me and I have no idea how to get my tracks to sound that clean. I can get professional results with tracks without too much shit going on, but when I try to fit big basses and kicks into a really big track its generally a disaster.....Is it actually that difficult that everyone sends their stems to a pro or am I just a noob? I mean I often notice unsigned artist with very nice tracks and amateur/poor mastering releasing their first signed EP and it just sounding 1000% better. Is this the work of a professional studio or are they just being told how its done?
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On October 15 2011 09:07 FREEloss_ca wrote:Show nested quote +On October 15 2011 08:59 ChineseWife wrote:
lots of practice! went to school for music production & worked at a few studios. wouldnt call myself a mastering engineer, bc i dont have the cash to invest in a proper mastering setup, but my monitoring and d/a chain is mastering quality. I'm a starving artist and can't afford to have anyone master my tracks. I can do basic EQing but I just can't get that high production quality that say, a Skrillex or Deadmau5 track would have. How much do you charge normally? And do you have any samples of your work?
Its down to a shit ton of practice man and unless you are intending on trying to get some form of monetary gain from your works i wouldn't fork out for an M.E. just yet. I feel I learn a whole lot more about sound (and mixdowns!) when i master tracks as best I can off my own back. [ btw, bad choice on skril/mau5 ] Check out some NitGrit/16 bit or if you like more chilled shit try some Geiom maybe?
I tend not to like the main stream 'bro-step' type of hyped up, dumbed down gimmicky dubstep, sort of a total exploit of what the genre began as and where it came from culturally. meh, call me an elitist lol
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On October 15 2011 09:12 sob3k wrote:Show nested quote +On October 15 2011 08:59 ChineseWife wrote:
lots of practice! went to school for music production & worked at a few studios. wouldnt call myself a mastering engineer, bc i dont have the cash to invest in a proper mastering setup, but my monitoring and d/a chain is mastering quality. Do you know if pretty much every reasonably sized electronic producer sends out their tracks for third party mastering or do many of them do it on their own? I mean I just listen to a huge amount of electronic and many of the best producers just have this crystal clear mastering that blows my mind. Its such a black art to me and I have no idea how to get my tracks to sound that clean. I can get professional results with tracks without too much shit going on, but when I try to fit big basses and kicks into a really big track its generally a disaster.....Is it actually that difficult that everyone sends their stems to a pro or am I just a noob? I mean I often notice unsigned artist with very nice tracks and amateur/poor mastering releasing their first signed EP and it just sounding 1000% better. Is this the work of a professional studio or are they just being told how its done?
EQ out all of the freqs you don't need in all of your sound elements in a track, shit 'will' be clashing with very 'wide' patches, synths/basses for example. You need to carve out space for everything. I could go into it in a lot more detail, but there's been hundreds of thousands of words written on the subject over at dubstep forum/Dogs on acid.
Look into fletcher munson curves/frequency masking and the finite limitations of dealing with digital audio (clipping threshold e.t.c.). Learn about making room for your sounds in a track and learn to pay attention to the frequency content of sounds in regard to keeping the intended timbre but allowing similar elements to breath along side prominent elements.... Its a matter of frequency manipulation, stereo placements and of course the mix (amplitude). Think of those as your 3 axes (plural of axis). Its basically down to research and a lot of practice/dedication.
EDIT: Freeloss, You may also find this video series infinitely informative
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My rates usually depend on the amount of work/time it would take me, budget of client, and scope of the project. I was getting paid minimum wage to work at a very high end studio (mostly top 40 artists), but realized it was not at all worth it, so I'm trying to freelance. $25/hour is a pretty typical rate for small studios and freelancers like me, but if its a whole project I will usually work out a flat rate for X number of tracks.
@sob3k: I would say 90% of top electronic artists have their own mixing engineers and mastering engineers that they either hire full time or send tracks to. Well I've known a few artists to hire full time engineers... If you look at the insert or the album credits you can usually find out who these people are. If you downloaded the album you can usually find the credits at a site like http://www.discogs.com/
Here's a link so some of my stuff, but it's all pretty rough/unfinished work (i get lazy with my own music xD):
http://soundcloud.com/fortiesforeigners
@freeloss_ca: Mastering completely depends on the quality of the mix, and if you have to opportunity to EQ something before mastering, you are always better off doing that. Same thing applies to compression and levels. You never want to fix a mix in the mastering stage unless you have access to the stems of the track
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I thought this thread on how to make fish at first. epic fail on me
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On October 15 2011 09:23 BMF-Showtime wrote:
I thought this thread on how to make fish at first. epic fail on me
me too
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ive always wondered how they make the sounds they make, enlightening. Thanks.
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On October 15 2011 09:22 ChineseWife wrote:
@freeloss_ca mastering completely depends on the quality of the mix, and if you have to opportunity to EQ something before mastering, you are always better off doing that. Same thing applies to compression and levels. You never want to fix a mix in the mastering stage unless you have access to the stems of the track
Yip, Freeloss, mastering is more about getting the tune up to peak amplitude without clipping distortion and shaping things to get that serious sheen on things. Mixing is much more about creating the vibe by using compression/adding auxilleries/adjusting levels, anything the track needs really beyond the basic melodic content and actual musical content of the track (tracking in a studio/composition in a DAW). Mixing is the next step, giving it the embellishment it needs to reach fruitition. Finally mastering is the stage you add the real sheen and refine it into a truly finished product. Mastering is the hardest in it own ways but also the most technical/non 'musical' in a lot of respects. Mixing, at least afaict, is where that 'crispness and sheen/fullness is created (on top of the actual track its self of course, but these things are becoming much more entwined anyway).
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That's one of the reasons I have so much respect for Deadmau5 as a producer; he's one of few artists who does all the work on their own tracks; the only person that ever touches a mau5 track is the mau5 himself.
I guess I just need to get better at EQing and mixing everything down. I'm using ableton so I'm primarily using Ableton's EQEight and Compressor. I understand EQing but have no clue how to properly utilize the compressor.
Is it good to put a waveform on the master channel and look at what's too high and too low and try to get it all leveled?
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Deadmau5 is not a mastering engineer, however. His tracks sound like garbage, but are very loud lol, so I guess he is successful in that regard.
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On October 15 2011 09:22 ChineseWife wrote:My rates usually depend on the amount of work/time it would take me, budget of client, and scope of the project. I was getting paid minimum wage to work at a very high end studio (mostly top 40 artists), but realized it was not at all worth it, so I'm trying to freelance. $25/hour is a pretty typical rate for small studios and freelancers like me, but if its a whole project I will usually work out a flat rate for X number of tracks. @sob3k: I would say 90% of top electronic artists have their own mixing engineers and mastering engineers that they either hire full time or send tracks to. Well I've known a few artists to hire full time engineers... If you look at the insert or the album credits you can usually find out who these people are. If you downloaded the album you can usually find the credits at a site like http://www.discogs.com/Here's a link so some of my stuff, but it's all pretty rough/unfinished work (i get lazy with my own music xD): http://soundcloud.com/fortiesforeigners@freeloss_ca: Mastering completely depends on the quality of the mix, and if you have to opportunity to EQ something before mastering, you are always better off doing that. Same thing applies to compression and levels. You never want to fix a mix in the mastering stage unless you have access to the stems of the track
Damn, that sounds so clean, that's what I'm talking about. I REALLLY want to learn how to do that.
People always say to EQ everything but I have never had any success with EQ, whenever I get a nice clean full sound and try to cut out some frequancies to make room for kicks or whatnot It sounds like exactly that...I'm cutting out a bunch of frequencies. I get left with all these instruments that sound like they are coming out of a cardboard box, no matter how slight the EQ. I just resort to handmaking each synth and testing it constantly to get one that just happens to fit in the mix ok. Anyone have any tips? Like I'll make these really awesome basses with nice snap and be completely unable to fit a lead or melody over them because of the high freq in the bass....If I reduce them the bass just sounds flat and fake...
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This thread is awesome! I wish I had something like this back in High School Media Tech and had free access to Reason 2-3 hours a day.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o150/Infares/Largemouth600x530.jpg)
