Anyone interested in music production?

Anyone here check out the new warframe free roam mode?

14-10-2017, 05:25 AM

fdigl Wrote: I might post some samples I made, but I won't be posting any projects I made. I'm not really hear to bias, influence, or even make learning/comparing oneself to others daunting to those who are going to be learning. I will create guides on how to improve, how to get creative as well as find creative inspirations (sound design, composition), andthe purpose of mixing and various ways to go about doing it.

As for my own production level, let's just say I've entered in a few contests such as KVR One Synth Challenge and /r/edmproduction Sample Contests under aliasesand placed on the higher end of things, but still have quitea ways to go before I'm able to consistently do that. A main reason for this is a lack of motivation and the anxiety of month-long creative blocks. This is a big reason why I want to start creative guides, as it would help me bolster creativity by seeing what others who are learning are capable of, create a motivation for me to keep pushing and learning how to get better, and create colleagues who are able to progress with me in my production improvement ventures.

Yeah, those reasons sound a little selfish, but at the same time it will be providing resources for the community, entertainment to those who find this kind of stuff interesting,and might even awaken a passion in people who are looking to express themselves somehow.

If I were learning from someone, I'd like to hear their stuff. That way I know they have the skill and experience to back up what they teach. A portfolio or sample of their work will be a nice end product to hear, to see what you could possiby achieve as well. But I guess it's understandable.

Off topic though, it will be quite interesting to see what you have to share in terms of mixing and going about your ways. Many people don't know that there are many ways to mix and many ways to master, there's not one way. There are certain general rules, but everything else is entirely by ear and what you feel sounds good. I have over 7 years of experience in audio production yet I still haven't perfected my mixing and mastering. I'm still trying to craft my own way/method by using methods other engineers use.

14-10-2017, 05:25 AM

fdigl Wrote: I might post some samples I made, but I won't be posting any projects I made. I'm not really hear to bias, influence, or even make learning/comparing oneself to others daunting to those who are going to be learning. I will create guides on how to improve, how to get creative as well as find creative inspirations (sound design, composition), andthe purpose of mixing and various ways to go about doing it.

As for my own production level, let's just say I've entered in a few contests such as KVR One Synth Challenge and /r/edmproduction Sample Contests under aliasesand placed on the higher end of things, but still have quitea ways to go before I'm able to consistently do that. A main reason for this is a lack of motivation and the anxiety of month-long creative blocks. This is a big reason why I want to start creative guides, as it would help me bolster creativity by seeing what others who are learning are capable of, create a motivation for me to keep pushing and learning how to get better, and create colleagues who are able to progress with me in my production improvement ventures.

Yeah, those reasons sound a little selfish, but at the same time it will be providing resources for the community, entertainment to those who find this kind of stuff interesting,and might even awaken a passion in people who are looking to express themselves somehow.

If I were learning from someone, I'd like to hear their stuff. That way I know they have the skill and experience to back up what they teach. A portfolio or sample of their work will be a nice end product to hear, to see what you could possiby achieve as well. But I guess it's understandable.

Off topic though, it will be quite interesting to see what you have to share in terms of mixing and going about your ways. Many people don't know that there are many ways to mix and many ways to master, there's not one way. There are certain general rules, but everything else is entirely by ear and what you feel sounds good. I have over 7 years of experience in audio production yet I still haven't perfected my mixing and mastering. I'm still trying to craft my own way/method by using methods other engineers use.

14-10-2017, 06:26 AM

Bubble Wrote: If I were learning from someone, I'd like to hear their stuff. That way I know they have the skill and experience to back up what they teach. A portfolio or sample of their work will be a nice end product to hear, to see what you could possiby achieve as well. But I guess it's understandable.

Off topic though, it will be quite interesting to see what you have to share in terms of mixing and going about your ways. Many people don't know that there are many ways to mix and many ways to master, there's not one way. There are certain general rules, but everything else is entirely by ear and what you feel sounds good. I have over 7 years of experience in audio production yet I still haven't perfected my mixing and mastering. I'm still trying to craft my own way/method by using methods other engineers use.

You bring a valid point, but I'm going to try an experiment. There are millions before me who have decided to do the same thing - spread their love for music and teach it in some way, shape, or form to others. However, most decided to teach off of success or the like. I find that strategy can be a bit of a hurdle to get over for some newcomers. They often get overwhelmed and higher level musicians tend to go too fast without remembering that the best way to teach is at a pace both the students' and teachers' abilities are capable of at the time of learning. I find music to be quite liberal as an art that allows basically every freedom possible. I want to extend that philosophy to the methods I will use to create these guides, allowing the student every freedom they can possibly have while keeping the experience comfortable, enjoyable, and hopefully effective.

An interesting thing to note about mixing methods - there isn't a right or wrong way to do things. This is something I will elaborate and expand uponin the guides. One way I usuallyapproach mixing is by using various linear/nonlinear phase equalizers and spectrum analyzers on every sound generator in a mixing channel. Sure, this may be intensive for lower-end production systems but it's a way I find to have the most control. This way, I have a good overview of what sounds conflict with other sounds, what sounds I should prioritize and/orbalance, and what sounds should be swapped or eliminated entirely. A big factor in what sounds are prioritized area few questions I often ask myself - "Is this exactly how I want this sound to sound like? Can it be altered slightly in any way to make room for the mix? Does this only sound best when isolated by itself in a track?" Once I have determined and mapped out my plan for mixing, I begin by adjusting volume levels first, compressing and equalizing sounds that need to cut through a mix, and finally balancing out which sounds should be padding the rest of the spectrum in the track. I also take into account a little bit of science and environmental factors into account while mixing. The human ear is sensitive to a certain few frequencies (especially at 300Hz), so I tend to make a tiny, high-Q notch there and reduce the abrasive sounds at that frequency by an amount that is at its lowest while keeping the audio sounding natural. I also have to take into account different settings a track might be played in (casual listening headphones, home audio systems, mobile device speakers, car speakers, stereo and mono mixes), and try my best to make the track sound as best as possible on all audio systems I and others (usually just friends)might listen to my tracks to.

14-10-2017, 06:50 AM

fdigl Wrote: You bring a valid point, but I'm going to try an experiment. There are millions before me who have decided to do the same thing - spread their love for music and teach it in some way, shape, or form to others. However, most decided to teach off of success or the like. I find that strategy can be a bit of a hurdle to get over for some newcomers. They often get overwhelmed and higher level musicians tend to go too fast without remembering that the best way to teach is at a pace both the students' and teachers' abilities are capable of at the time of learning. I find music to be quite liberal as an art that allows basically every freedom possible. I want to extend that philosophy to the methods I will use to create these guides, allowing the student every freedom they can possibly have while keeping the experience comfortable, enjoyable, and hopefully effective.

An interesting thing to note about mixing methods - there isn't a right or wrong way to do things. This is something I will elaborate and expand uponin the guides. One way I usuallyapproach mixing is by using various linear/nonlinear phase equalizers and spectrum analyzers on every sound generator in a mixing channel. Sure, this may be intensive for lower-end production systems but it's a way I find to have the most control. This way, I have a good overview of what sounds conflict with other sounds, what sounds I should prioritize and/orbalance, and what sounds should be swapped or eliminated entirely. A big factor in what sounds are prioritized area few questions I often ask myself - "Is this exactly how I want this sound to sound like? Can it be altered slightly in any way to make room for the mix? Does this only sound best when isolated by itself in a track?" Once I have determined and mapped out my plan for mixing, I begin by adjusting volume levels first, compressing and equalizing sounds that need to cut through a mix, and finally balancing out which sounds should be padding the rest of the spectrum in the track. I also take into account a little bit of science and environmental factors into account while mixing. The human ear is sensitive to a certain few frequencies (especially at 300Hz), so I tend to make a tiny, high-Q notch there and reduce the abrasive sounds at that frequency by an amount that is at its lowest while keeping the audio sounding natural. I also have to take into account different settings a track might be played in (casual listening headphones, home audio systems, mobile device speakers, car speakers, stereo and mono mixes), and try my best to make the track sound as best as possible on all audio systems I and others (usually just friends)might listen to my tracks to.

We do the same thing. I use spectrogram from iZotope insight which creates a 3d graph of the sound. I like using iZotope products because it gives awesome visuals and simplifies the way we hear and see sound. I EQ every channel to remove or add frequencies. Add compression where needed, reverb where needed, experiment with different effects etc. I like using emulated tube compression for that "warm" analog sound, however digital can obviously never reach the fidelity of analog. It's weird though, my mixing and mastering is, I guess you can say complex because I do so many small increments of changes with so many vsts to get the perfect sound I want. I have hundreds of gigs worth of samples, vst plugins, effects, etc. Yet I only use like 3 vsts, a couple instrument plugins and my goto drumkits. Occasionally I like messing around and making my own synths.

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You seem quite knowledgeable though, even without listening to anything you made, your technique and methods sounds spot on with the most important fundamentals.

14-10-2017, 06:50 AM

fdigl Wrote: You bring a valid point, but I'm going to try an experiment. There are millions before me who have decided to do the same thing - spread their love for music and teach it in some way, shape, or form to others. However, most decided to teach off of success or the like. I find that strategy can be a bit of a hurdle to get over for some newcomers. They often get overwhelmed and higher level musicians tend to go too fast without remembering that the best way to teach is at a pace both the students' and teachers' abilities are capable of at the time of learning. I find music to be quite liberal as an art that allows basically every freedom possible. I want to extend that philosophy to the methods I will use to create these guides, allowing the student every freedom they can possibly have while keeping the experience comfortable, enjoyable, and hopefully effective.

An interesting thing to note about mixing methods - there isn't a right or wrong way to do things. This is something I will elaborate and expand uponin the guides. One way I usuallyapproach mixing is by using various linear/nonlinear phase equalizers and spectrum analyzers on every sound generator in a mixing channel. Sure, this may be intensive for lower-end production systems but it's a way I find to have the most control. This way, I have a good overview of what sounds conflict with other sounds, what sounds I should prioritize and/orbalance, and what sounds should be swapped or eliminated entirely. A big factor in what sounds are prioritized area few questions I often ask myself - "Is this exactly how I want this sound to sound like? Can it be altered slightly in any way to make room for the mix? Does this only sound best when isolated by itself in a track?" Once I have determined and mapped out my plan for mixing, I begin by adjusting volume levels first, compressing and equalizing sounds that need to cut through a mix, and finally balancing out which sounds should be padding the rest of the spectrum in the track. I also take into account a little bit of science and environmental factors into account while mixing. The human ear is sensitive to a certain few frequencies (especially at 300Hz), so I tend to make a tiny, high-Q notch there and reduce the abrasive sounds at that frequency by an amount that is at its lowest while keeping the audio sounding natural. I also have to take into account different settings a track might be played in (casual listening headphones, home audio systems, mobile device speakers, car speakers, stereo and mono mixes), and try my best to make the track sound as best as possible on all audio systems I and others (usually just friends)might listen to my tracks to.

We do the same thing. I use spectrogram from iZotope insight which creates a 3d graph of the sound. I like using iZotope products because it gives awesome visuals and simplifies the way we hear and see sound. I EQ every channel to remove or add frequencies. Add compression where needed, reverb where needed, experiment with different effects etc. I like using emulated tube compression for that "warm" analog sound, however digital can obviously never reach the fidelity of analog. It's weird though, my mixing and mastering is, I guess you can say complex because I do so many small increments of changes with so many vsts to get the perfect sound I want. I have hundreds of gigs worth of samples, vst plugins, effects, etc. Yet I only use like 3 vsts, a couple instrument plugins and my goto drumkits. Occasionally I like messing around and making my own synths.

---

You seem quite knowledgeable though, even without listening to anything you made, your technique and methods sounds spot on with the most important fundamentals.

14-10-2017, 07:50 AM

Bubble Wrote: We do the same thing. I use spectrogram from iZotope insight which creates a 3d graph of the sound. I like using iZotope products because it gives awesome visuals and simplifies the way we hear and see sound. I EQ every channel to remove or add frequencies. Add compression where needed, reverb where needed, experiment with different effects etc. I like using emulated tube compression for that "warm" analog sound, however digital can obviously never reach the fidelity of analog. It's weird though, my mixing and mastering is, I guess you can say complex because I do so many small increments of changes with so many vsts to get the perfect sound I want. I have hundreds of gigs worth of samples, vst plugins, effects, etc. Yet I only use like 3 vsts, a couple instrument plugins and my goto drumkits. Occasionally I like messing around and making my own synths.

---

You seem quite knowledgeable though, even without listening to anything you made, your technique and methods sounds spot on with the most important fundamentals.

I love iZotope products. I just recently started renting to own Ozone 8 through Splice and have been enjoying it thoroughly (coming from 5, this stuff is immaculate).

Have you tried out the 112db's Redline Reverb? It sounds very good and has an extremely small CPU footprint, rivaling even Valhalla's CPU footprint. It simulates many different models of classic (but still popular in today's production setups) Lexicon reverb models.

Also, to add to your stance on analog vs. digital, analog will never reach the clarity of digital. I love the natural tone and character of analog gear, but I love the quality, freedom (polyphony and unison, waveshaping, etc),and precision of digital gear as well. I often use a healthy mixture of both (depending on the track I'm working on) in my production. Despite all this, I find myself using free plugins all the time. They usually consume low CPU power so I don't need to consolidate, are great for drafting, and if you know what you are doing - they can sound very comparable to commercial and professional plugins and gear. The amount of plugins I actually use varies, but I try to keep it on the low side. I too, have a large amount of sound libraries and samples. I have an 8TB external hard drive labeled "THE MOTHERLOAD", containing a large collection of samples, libraries, software, and other resources compiled by me and a few of my friends.

Thanks for giving my little run-down of mixing a read! I always appreciate anyone interested in what I have to say.

I really am interested in making MLG compilations or vids im tryna learn how with sony vegeas

i am interested! please post the tutorial! i will 100% watch xD

14-10-2017, 08:36 AM

fdigl Wrote: I love iZotope products. I just recently started renting to own Ozone 8 through Splice and have been enjoying it thoroughly (coming from 5, this stuff is immaculate).

Have you tried out the 112db's Redline Reverb? It sounds very good and has an extremely small CPU footprint, rivaling even Valhalla's CPU footprint. It simulates many different models of classic (but still popular in today's production setups) Lexicon reverb models.

Also, to add to your stance on analog vs. digital, analog will never reach the clarity of digital. I love the natural tone and character of analog gear, but I love the quality, freedom (polyphony and unison, waveshaping, etc),and precision of digital gear as well. I often use a healthy mixture of both (depending on the track I'm working on) in my production. Despite all this, I find myself using free plugins all the time. They usually consume low CPU power so I don't need to consolidate, are great for drafting, and if you know what you are doing - they can sound very comparable to commercial and professional plugins and gear. The amount of plugins I actually use varies, but I try to keep it on the low side. I too, have a large amount of sound libraries and samples. I have an 8TB external hard drive labeled "THE MOTHERLOAD", containing a large collection of samples, libraries, software, and other resources compiled by me and a few of my friends.

Thanks for giving my little run-down of mixing a read! I always appreciate anyone interested in what I have to say.

Something I've ALWAYS wanted to do was big band jazz. For years I've been itching to do it. I've finally found the perfect Kontakt instrument bundle for it and I can't wait to dive in. I don't think I'll go back to EDM from there. Maybe I will be able to experiment with jazz and other genres.

14-10-2017, 08:36 AM

fdigl Wrote: I love iZotope products. I just recently started renting to own Ozone 8 through Splice and have been enjoying it thoroughly (coming from 5, this stuff is immaculate).

Have you tried out the 112db's Redline Reverb? It sounds very good and has an extremely small CPU footprint, rivaling even Valhalla's CPU footprint. It simulates many different models of classic (but still popular in today's production setups) Lexicon reverb models.

Also, to add to your stance on analog vs. digital, analog will never reach the clarity of digital. I love the natural tone and character of analog gear, but I love the quality, freedom (polyphony and unison, waveshaping, etc),and precision of digital gear as well. I often use a healthy mixture of both (depending on the track I'm working on) in my production. Despite all this, I find myself using free plugins all the time. They usually consume low CPU power so I don't need to consolidate, are great for drafting, and if you know what you are doing - they can sound very comparable to commercial and professional plugins and gear. The amount of plugins I actually use varies, but I try to keep it on the low side. I too, have a large amount of sound libraries and samples. I have an 8TB external hard drive labeled "THE MOTHERLOAD", containing a large collection of samples, libraries, software, and other resources compiled by me and a few of my friends.

Thanks for giving my little run-down of mixing a read! I always appreciate anyone interested in what I have to say.

Something I've ALWAYS wanted to do was big band jazz. For years I've been itching to do it. I've finally found the perfect Kontakt instrument bundle for it and I can't wait to dive in. I don't think I'll go back to EDM from there. Maybe I will be able to experiment with jazz and other genres.

14-10-2017, 10:05 PM

Bubble Wrote: Something I've ALWAYS wanted to do was big band jazz. For years I've been itching to do it. I've finally found the perfect Kontakt instrument bundle for it and I can't wait to dive in. I don't think I'll go back to EDM from there. Maybe I will be able to experiment with jazz and other genres.

Which Kontakt instrument? Now I'm kind of curious

14-10-2017, 10:11 PM

fdigl Wrote: Which Kontakt instrument? Now I'm kind of curious

I'm deciding on Broadway Big Band, or The ProjectSam Swing Bundle. I'll most likely go with ProjectSam, BBB is waaaay to expensive and outdated but damn, over 90 gigs worth of samples...

14-10-2017, 10:11 PM

fdigl Wrote: Which Kontakt instrument? Now I'm kind of curious

I'm deciding on Broadway Big Band, or The ProjectSam Swing Bundle. I'll most likely go with ProjectSam, BBB is waaaay to expensive and outdated but damn, over 90 gigs worth of samples...