Hello. I'm an idle anonymous producer with professional expertise in:
- Orchestration
- Arrangement
- Production
- Recording
- Editing
- Mixing
Also a professional keyboard and piano player and currently working with audio post production for TV and internet. Not really a mastering engineer.
Have a few free hours, so
>>63898243
What kind of qualifications do you need to get into music producing anyway ?
Bet you can whip up a fire beat in that two hours
>>63898256
You need to understand every single aspect of music and be willing to work on other's music.
Can you produce your own music? Yes, sure. But most musicians nowadays can, since bedroom production is accessible to anyone with a laptop and a pirated copy of some softwares.
But I believe that the difference between a composer who produces their own stuff and a producer who work with others is hours and hours of study and dedication.
A producer needs to understand (but not necessarily master) all of the process of music making, recording and releasing.
>>63898243
Where do you get the latest sounds? The OJ simpson show has a good soundtrack, where would I find those type of sounds, particularly that boom bass extended kick thing
>>63898272
I just finished some jobs so I'm exporting about 5 hours of material in real time. Can't produce while exporting
>>63898243
Do you have tinnitus, get ear fatigue? What do you do to alleviate this?
>>63898243
>can do all that
>can't master
sure, you faggot
>>63898293
I'm not sure what you're talking about exactly, but I use a mix of Play (east west) audio libraries and both free and private sounds that I've recorded or downloaded over the past few years.
>>63898243
Do you bus compress, or leave it all for the masterer? Any compression tips?
>>63898323
Thanks
>>63898243
So am I, who cares?
>>63898321
"Real" mastering requires equipment that I don't have. I mean, sure, I can drop a few Slate plugins on my mix buss and call it a "mastering", but I don't sell myself as a mastering engineer. I have someone that does that for me and my clients as long as they pay for it.
>>63898305
I don't. I was taught to mix (and listen to music) in "low" volume. It's, literally, the best mixing move you can make. Turn down your volume and you get the "wow" factor (from the speakers blasting) out of your way.
>>63898328
I'm currently freelancing at a producer company that works with ProTools 10HD, if only they updated it to 11. But you know these people. Audio is always underrated, so why spend a few bucks so the audio engineer can go home earlier...? :/
>>63898243
When composing for film/tv do you ever think, that melody is too catchy and make it more dissonant? Do you try and make your music kind of subliminal?
>>63898360
Read the title and you'll understand my purpose here, feel free to join the discussion.
>>63898332
ALWAYS buss compress in any genre (unless you're lucky enough to record orchestral [non score] music). HOW much compression will depend on the genre.
Usually setting up a compressor in the mix buss is the first thing I do in a mix. Gives you a faster picture of what it will sound like further on. I'm a fan of "big moves" in mixing. Easier to fix and faster results, but it requires you to really know your gear or software.
Getting into compression itself would require paragraphs and paragraphs of settings, options, parameters and so on. I COULD do that, but I'd like more specific questions too :P
>>63898409
Both. I worked once on a short film featuring a regular girl climbing mount everest. Although the director instructed music to be simplistic, minimalistic and atmospheric, I created a few small simple music motivs for the girl, the everest and her family. After mentioning it to him he loved the idea and it's still in.
Making the melodies catchy or dissonant are always a matter of what the director wants (or not).
To be honest the number of scores that I co-produced together with the composer were way larger than the number of stuff that I actually composed music to. One of the reasons why I became a producer in the first place was that I could never compose anything.
In the last few years I experimented with some projects (like the one stated above), but I prefer to produce rather than compose.
>>63898466
So as a producer do you lie back with your sunglasses on and order round assistants or are you hands on?
>>63898410
I would like to read paragraphs about compression because I always feel I'm guessing when I'm using one and its often difficult to hear whats happening
Are there any mixing resources you turn to in times of trouble; books, sites?
>>63898532
I am hands on but I do like my pair of sunglasses. I work big on TV but smaller on music production. Since TV is more stable. So I'm usually working with smaller bands or singers. Last year I worked with a singer from a few hundreds of miles away from me, it was all done via Skype and email with just 3 people involved. The singer, me and my cousin (hired) who is a guitar/bass master.
>>63898606
I'm in quite a few Facebook groups so when I find myself troubled with anything, I usually turn to people I know or have talked with in the past, or people from those groups. I spent more time reading [crappy star wars novels] orchestral books than mixing ones. Since I went to production college, my theory comes from my teachers.
>>63898243
Do you like the sound of a dramatic orchestra hit?
What poduction trends do you hate the most?
>>63898243
Get over yourself faggot
Any 14 year old with a few hours a day to spare can learn how to 'produce' to a professional level nowadays
Do you have any favourite effects combination or wizardry you've created, favourite plug in?
i want to make my track sound like it was ripping apart for the last few seconds.
how should i go about it?
Whats an album(s) you really like
>>63898551
Well, I'd suggest a few "How to use compressors" Youtube videos because, really, you can learn a lot by seeing people work.
But yeah, what I'd have to say is:
Chose ONE compressor in your software of choice - the one with the most parameters, like the image posted below, and start using just that one compressor. Hear how it changes the sound and try out different presets.
Vocals, percussion and acoustic guitar are the best instruments to learn how to compress. On vocals a mid attack and release and 5:1 compression does wonders on making every word sound decent in the mix, on percussion you can either add impact with a mid attack of snapping with a faster one, dial it too fast and you'll kill your (acoustic) sound and get a plastic one. With guitars, specially with long chords, a fast attack and slow release can make the chord sound longer in a mix, since the volume will be consistent.
The options are, really, limitless, with a compressor.
>>63898718
They can learn, but true expertise and the best decisions comes from years and years of actually working in shit. The difference between an experienced someone and a "professional level 14 year old" is that, when confronted with a specific situation to be dealt with, the 14 year old will think "I can't remember seeing this in my books/class/youtube tutorials/etc". Also, music production itself requires A LOT of study of every single form of music, from baroque to dubstep. No 14 year old has that, sorry. Also, calling me a "faggot" and expecting it to offend me or something is kinda pointless.
>>63898705
I prefer the dramatic orchestra itself, not just the hit. I can't stand the current trend of over-saturating vocals. I always like 'em clean even in metal.
>>63898784
Man, lately I've been using ProTools stock plugins, slate digital ones and JUST H-Delay from Waves, which is hands down one of the best delay plugins you'll find. I can't decide between Slate's VRM (a few plugins IN a plugin) and H-Delay itself. If you open a mix session of mine you'll see those everywhere hahahah
I'm a huge fan of sending the lead vocals to 5 different busses with 5 different delay and reverb settings to automate and mix in during the mix.
On the project that I stated above, I borrowed a nice trick. Copying the lead vocals, pitch correcting it like britney spears and mixing it in with a small chorus and ping-pong delay in the mix. Man, did that create a huge vocal wall when put together with the leads and 2 backing vocal lines.
>>63898851
That's the kind of compression stuff I'd like to know, thanks. I have this one and I'm a little scared to use it
>>63898816
For the simple pleasure of listening to music I tend to stay with metal and symphonic metal (lately been unable of staying more than a few days away from Epica's new album) and classical music. I'm a HU-UGE fan of Tchaikovsky and Liszt.
>>63898941
Are you Steven Wilson?
>>63898938
That compressor is REALLY good too. Klanghelm makes master plugins. I forgot to list them above too. DC8C and SDDR are AMAZING. Although I've been using these more lately.
>>63898941
I only like Liszt's piano sonata from what I heard. You may like John Psathas if you haven't heard him
>>63898967
See now wouldn't that drive knob just totally mangle your nice other settings? Maybe its better to use one without all the fancy shit, (or not turn up that knob maybe)
>>63898967
Yeah I'll youtube it, I like when there's some pictorial representation of the wave or something to look at and see what's going on
>>63898997
The drive knob is one of those settings in a plugin that you can't really change HOW it affects your sound, it just does. If I notice a change for the better, I turn it up, if not, I don't. For analog modelled softwares it usually add some saturation, so it can be interesting. My default setting is always zero, though. If I want saturation, harmonic exciting/enhancing, I have a specific plugin (Klanghelm SDRR) for that.
>>63898983
I'll check him out
>>63899029
I know it's extra hard nowadays because we can see the waveforms (and I'm in my 20s, so I'm also from this generation), but you have to do your best not to rely on visual information on your screen. When I FIRST started mixing I was using external hardware without much visual information, so I learned to rely on my ears.
In the end it all comes down to practice, practice and more practice.
And coffee.
>>63899063
Sometimes I'll mix bounce and just look at what's peaking/ sticking out and turn it down, I enjoy doing that, but then if I used compressors I wouldn't have to I guess
I want to get into production, but all my experience consists of is using Logic Pro X at school for a few minor projects I made with myself, but I have mainly a recording question. Do you record drums or guitars/melodic instruments first in the studio? Working on a Deftones cover with my friend and we're going to use his school's studio to record, should I record drums or guitar/bass first?
Well can you tell us something you've done that you're proud of?
>>63898243
>Hello. I'm an idle anonymous producer with professional expertise in...
How is your knowledge on music any more valid than anyone else's?
How is there a "right" way to manipulate sound?
Do you ever feel like the small changes you do to songs are just for other producers to notice, since the average person probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference?
>anwsers all questions
>but mine
O-okay...
>>63898376
>>63898916
>Slate plugins
LOL le trashman
>>63899122
If you have competent musicians and structure for it, record everything at once. It's faster and, usually, sounds more organic since the band is interacting. This gives you the possibility of not recording which a click track, which could be interesting depending on the song.
Anyway, drums """should""" go first, naturally. You can ask the guitar and bass players to play along but not necessarily record them. OR you can record just a reference gtr/bass track, quantize it and play back to the drummer while recording.
Once the drums are recorded, I usually prefer to record guitars and then bass unless it's a slower paced song. Why? On faster (rock and metal) songs the bass usually follows the guitar and on slower (rock/ballads/pop) songs it usually follows the kick drum beat.
>>63899144
The short movie I stated above and a pop rock band from my city. They're not huge projects but I'm just particularly fond of them.
>>63899204
Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. However, this project is just me recording all of the instrumentals and backing vocals, and my friend recording vocals, so I'll just have to record drums first and see how it goes
>>63899147
I never said it was more or less valid, I'm just here to help whoever would like to ask something. :D
There's not right or wrong way to manipulate sound because, as long as it SOUNDS right no one will give a shit about your method.
And yes, I do. When it comes to music (and audio) post production, no one notices it unless there's something wrong. You won't see someone saying "wow, that's a pretty mix" like they say "wow, that's a pretty song" or "wow, that's a pretty painting/video/drawing/poem", BUT when something doesn't sound right, most people will notice. So working with audio is like that every time. You work passes by unnoticed unless you did something wrong with it. So yes, I do include some artistic mixing moves (effects, subtle effect changes, etc) in order to make MY "art" also speak by itself WHILE supporting the musician's art which is the music itself. The pop rock band I mentioned allowed me to do this at free will, so we ended up with interesting acoustic results.
>>63899179
Slate plugins are very good, you know. But in the end it's a matter of preference. People do magic with stock Reaper plugins and I've seen mixes ruined by badly used Waves/Slate/izotope stuff
>>63899153
Which one?
I asked a lot of questions, and I'm out now, thanks for your help, you're a good egg
i wanted to be one of those 14 yr olds who could produce shit but i never learned. how did you get started? tips for how to get good?
>>63899323
>Which one?
>>63898810
this. i was thinking some kind of granulization, distortion and limitier to crush the waves.
or is there maybe some kind of plugin to make the ripping effect?
>>63899411
Well, I started by going to music production college and, from there, I started producing people for free to get started and gain experience. I had the college studio to use for free and a laptop, so~
But, nowadays, you can become one of those 14yo with a regular computer and not a too huge investment.
The only way to get good is by actually working on stuff. What helps you get good is Youtube, books, etc.
>>63899495
To be honest that's an effect that I never really attempted, I mean, not with that idea, of making it sound like it was being ripped apart.
Saturation and distortion could bring the effect you want, possibly.
>>63899495
Not OP, but I'm a sound designer for a smallish company.
Depends what you mean by 'ripping apart'. Do you want that burnt tape effect? Use speed based time stretching and layer up some vegetable crunches and breaks with a distortion plug. More digital noise? Use a bitcrusher and hard clip everything, also download Michael Norris's free plugs and use the grain streamer.
>>63899572
yeah i did fuck alittle with distortion, and it kinda did the effect but i had to volume the part up to crush the waves for the exact feel, but obviously that on its own won't fly
>>63899654
thaks anon, will try it! much appreciated
>>63899654
Nice idea
Got any tips/techniques/advice/tricks that you always use when producing? Seriously, give a real answer to this. Some real good shit.
>>63899733
Apply a filter to EVERYTHING.
Before you do anything to your recently imported audio tracks check one per one and cut out low and high frequencies accordingly. The amount of headroom you open up is ridiculous.
OF COURSE you'll be cutting lows from instruments and/or tracks that will normally have just noise or humming down there and highs on tracks that will probably have un-needed information on the top end.
Some examples:
Vocals, guitars, keyboards and shit on rock could have everything below 100hz removed completely. Some vocals and keyboard tracks could get up to 150hz, depending on the instrument, you'll find yourself cutting more or less. I usually use a high pass filter to know what I'm removing and, then, switch it to a low cut. Normally I even cut out on 50hz on basses, and, on bass drums, 30hz. With the high end, it depends on the existence of hissing or noise from the microphones or amplifiers. Basses are mostly just pick or slap noises on anything higher than 5kHz, bass drum and toms will have cymbal leaks, and so on.
>>63898243
i'm the best producer on /mu/ tho
Ask me anything
How do you get yourseld in the "creative mood"? Any tips?
>>63900243
whats better trumpet or trombone?
theres only one correct anwser btw
how simple melody should be if you´re going for bass music and what´s your take on stacking in layers of effects to a simple melody, worth or overrated BS??
regards i´ve been trying out drums and electronic music for about a year now
any further tips how to get into this industry? Like where to start, which jobs you had first,etc. ?
How exactly did you teach yourself how to produce?
any book-recommendations?
>>63900444
Trips is the correct answer
>>63898243
get back to work richard
>>63898243
most successful song/artist you've produced for?
>>63900687
Sunrise
Favourite genre to listen ?
Least favourite ?
Favourite genre to produce ?
Least favourite ?
Do you get bored of your job ? I mean it's the question that goes with every job where you practice your passion for a living ?
>>63901014
Last question mark was actually a period.
Do you have some example of popular song with bad producing that are kind of a joke between producers. (I mean bad in the sense that they tried to do something good but failed, not bad "on purpose" like lo-fi)
>>63898243
How much weed do you smoke? How do you think the weed smoking habit affects professional musicians?
>>63901116
Anything to do with Rick Rubin in the last ten years
>>63898243
Why do some 1970s albums have tape hiss, whereas some others don't? If they had the technology to eliminate tape hiss at the time, why didn't they always use it? Or am I just listening to modern remasters with the hiss cleaned up?
>>63900401
Work. Sometimes you can't afford to get yourself in a mood. You have a deadline and the client doesn't really care if you need to get yourself in a creative mood. Sounds harsh, but it's true.
>>63900478
The easiest way by far is getting a job in a studio and climbing your way up to the mixing console.
>>63900543
I went to production college and read a few books in spanish and portuguese. I read more about orchestration than production/mixing.
>>63900687
The pop rock band I mentioned is "touring" in my country. The rest are small bands and artists. Since music production ended up being a "hobby profession" after I got into post for TV, I ended up only getting smaller clients.
>>63900731
Is not me :)
>>63901014
Late romantic music
Hip hop
"Alternative" rock and symphonic metal
Regular guitar/bass/drums/vocal rock
I never ever get bored since I'm always working on different stuff on TV and by myself.
>>63901254
None, I'm addicted to caffeine instead. And I didn't have enough experience with musicians that smoked weed on a daily basis or something, so I'm simply not sure. I had more trouble with clients under the effect of alcohol than anything else. Specially when I was doing live sound.
>>63898851
>Also, music production itself requires A LOT of study of every single form of music, from baroque to dubstep
yeah but that all comes from just listening to music. If you enjoy the craft, you can self teach and gain experience to be a professional in any technical craft.
Do you prefer headphones or speakers for work?
Do you prefer headphones or speakers for pleasure?
>>63901911
Not just listening, no. Unless you have a very strong foundation of music theory. Music production is not a technical craft, by the way.
>>63901918
Both for work but headphones for pleasure.
>>63898916
>Copying the lead vocals, pitch correcting it like britney spears and mixing it in with a small chorus and ping-pong delay in the mix. Man, did that create a huge vocal wall when put together with the leads and 2 backing vocal lines
Any cooler and more obscure tricks btw? Cant think of any questions to ask... Oh, what effects do you personally put in a series chain other than compression and EQ, and what do you mean by buss compression in >>63898410? I assume the mix buss is the 'master fader track' that sends to a second master fader, in Pro Tools that is, and Buss compression is simply compressing the audio sent through a second channel. What are the instrument configurations you usually use? I know you would usually send the percussion through a comp buss and maybe the guitars, but what about vocals? Would you then send the instrument busses through consolidated busses, such as mixing the lead with the backing instruments in one and the drums and bass in another, and then combining them into another track like they used to do with tape?
>>63900444
Neither.
>>63900444
The horn
>>63901938
>Unless you have a very strong foundation of music theory
But I assume everyone is obsessed with theory
>technical craft
meant like the 'tecnical' side of music, as apposed to promoters, licensing, managing and law. You need school for that shit, but not for the 'musicy' part. sry. im a lazy poster
>>63902059
Man, I don't know what kind of obscure tricks I can share hahah
Normally I stick with just that (EQ and comp) for individual tracks. That's the bread and butter of mixing. Effects come last, when everything already sounds good. Reverb, delay, distortion, saturation, whatever else.
And yes, by buss compression I mean compressing the "master" fader.
Well, I'm obsessed with subgroups, so my sessions look something like this:
vox track
backing track
bus vox fx track
bus vox fx track 2
~bus vox mix~
gtr track l
gtr track r
bus gtr rverb/dly
~bus gtr mix~
orch track
orch track
orch track
orch track
~orch track mix~
~final mix~
~master~
and so on
Even if there is a single track such as a bass, I may duplicate it for parallel compression and them both go though a bass sub-mix.
I always work this way and I love it. Takes a bit to set it all up but with some color coding you can make your mix fairly organised, visually, and easier to edit.
In relation to different genres, are there any particular tracks that you listen to as a reference to the type of mix that you like?
Thanks for all the advice in the thread so far.
>>63902320
ah, so you mix your effect bus into the instrument bus and then the mix bus? interesting! thanks
>>63902320
oh and an interesting trick I read somewhere was to dup. the bass tracks and LPF @ 280 hz or so, and the other HPF @ 300 or something and compress the high passed bass and mix it in with the low end. It gives you more dynamic control over the bass overall. Ive only used it for electronic stuff though
how do i produce instrumentals like Death Grips
>>63902320
To supplement this make use of your sends.
Create a global reverb track and send everything to it for a bit more glue. Also set up FX busses and send your section busses to them so you can mix the dry buss and the wet one.
>>63902249
You sound like the typical "i could totally do it if i wanted to" asshole.
There are a lot more failed mix engineers that successful ones.
>>63898243
any special tips for recording a drum kit?
>>63904702
I usually just make sub channels, effects first, then compressing and after that double EQ and some LP/HP/BP. Then I link them to another channel, put filter and maybe phaser or something there, add another effect like tube or bitcrush. After that I compress it and fix the attack and release with another compressor without touching the gain. Then just link it to send, add reverb, compressor (just to glue attack and release of all instruments). After that I use limiter to make it to about -6db or -3db. Drums to own send channel, creating downmix to stereo (from 7-8 different tracks). Then dynamic compressor to master, after that a limiter to limit it to about -0.1db (sometimes lower). Maybe I should try to add effects after compressing?
>>63905214
Never go above -0.3 dBfs on peak amplitude. You can still get digital clipping on the bounce with some DAWs going to absolute zero.
Also most DAWs are 32bit float and it doesn't matter if your track meters bump the red a bit. You have headroom above 0, just don't do it on the master as you will get clip when you bounce down.
>>63905313
I have seen that clipping effect, without it goes to above. Usually trying to lower the gain, if I hear random 1-10ms pauses in the track.
>>63898243
What's the key to mixing something in an interesting way? Sometimes it just comes out sounding sonically.....boring.
>>63905902
Not OP, but...
Stereo width, harmonic exciters and TASTEFUL use of multiband compression can make a track pop.
Best way to learn piano? Want to eventually start making dream pop music but I have no musical background. Got a midi and ableton live, bout it
>>63898243
So pretty much to be a successful producer you need to know the ins and outs of recording, mixing, writing, theory, and all that fun stuff?
what can you recommend for a beginner?
I'm getting into production and I'd like to know about mastering and compression and all this
>>63906526
also how do you get better all that? I've just been using a 4 track tascam since I started so I don't know any of the technical stuff, just simple things that can make something sound good.
