The Prodcution tips and hints thread

[Tomy]

so much info..................

these are just some personal tips from Me.

1. Mac or Pc?

- Who the fuck cares. Limitation brings on creativity who cares if you dont have the best gear in the word. First track from Slop rock that got signed was made on a massive piece of junk PC.

2. Pay for your samples

- It will come back to bite you on the arse if you dont.

3. take the time to listen.

- deconstruct shit in you head. also if you cant work it out have a break from what your working on then come back later and have a listen again.

4. It takes time.

- seriously. lots and lots of time. wont happen over night.

will post up some technical things i dont shortly.

[Tomy]

Ok I’ll start with a few simple things I guess that a lot of people newer to production may not know about.

The Fletcher-Munson Curve

Basically it’s saying if you had your highs and lows at the same volume your ears will die a horrible death at the hand of some hit hats.

Instrument frequency table

Pretty much explains its self, where stuff generally sits in the mix

This one is golden.

Bracketing your elements

This is something I do to absolutely everything

Using high- and low-pass filters (top), you can 'bracket' the frequency band you want to let through, cutting out unwanted frequencies on either side — a helpful way of making space for other elements in a mix. High and low shelf filters level out ('shelve'), so are a better option when you want to apply a gentle boost to the top or bottom end.

That’s all for now. 

[JonnyB]

damn it,, that massive sound chart i was about to post, was so happy with that find hahaha

[CBG]

Yeah Tomy I do the same thing in your 2nd tip, except i do it with an EQ8, manually

[Tomy]

the sound bracketing?

i've saved a few different eq brackets off so i can just grab them am drop them in. i'm currently using sonalksis eq's

[DavePulse]

Hi Guys.

One thing that Stupid Fresh touched on that i think needs further explaination......ille try explain it as best i can so bear with me

When he said to unplug a one monitor and listen in Mono:

This is because alot of big systems (clubs etc) these days still only run in Mono. You may ask why this is relevant????

OK!

If you either use a Stereo Expender or extreme panning (over 50%) etc on elements of ur mix (lead or percussion etc), while it sounds fat and wide in ur headphones and through ur monitors, they are running stereo.

When you go to play it live (through a mono system) you will be scratching ur head wondering wtf is going on when u end up only getting a kick and bassline with a muffled and non-existent lead/percussion sound coming out the club speakers.

Brenton

[CBG]

yeah that sux, panning is the bomb.

[Tomy]

i thought this also for a while - that the whole system is in mono-

but i'm begging to think that the whole mono thing is just the subs (every sub is mono i'm pretty sure)

other wise why would there be pannign effects on dj mixers.

I always use mono eq's on my

-Kick drums

-any bass lines

- sometimes snares depends on where its sitting in the mix.

- anything else with low end (depending)

I do however always check my mix in mono before rendering down etc.

[JonnyB]

Side chain compression/Ducking in Logic Pro

Ok bit of a Tutorial on how to use sidechain compression. the way i do it anyway. Im going to assume the reader is close to a complete beginer but knows a few basics..

Firstly your going to need to make your drums in ultrbeat. Ultrabeat is a drum machine(once it is open you will see a bunch of keys down the left hand side with a drum name coming off it. each key has its own drum hit)

Making the drum beat

To do this make a new intrument track, choose the ultrbeat (make sure you choose the multioutput version). then up the top there will be a little bar saying default, click on that for a drop down menu. at the bottom of this menu there will be 3 more options with arrorws for extra options, choose the top of the three, from memory it is called drum kits.

from this new menu find and choose "drag and drop samples' this will reset ultrabeat. you will now see that the keys down the left hand side are all empty with no samples loaded, each key from the bottom up should be named as 'sample 1, sample 2 sample 3 sample 4 etc. double click on this text to rename.

Now go to your library and find the drum samples of your chooseing, and drag and drop them onto their own key each (there should be a little sample box in the bottom left to drop your sample into, if done right the waveform should appear. you can assign a new drum sound fro every key.

For me i ussualy use a kick drum for sample 1, a snare forsample 2, a second snare or rimshot for the 3rd sample, hats in the 4th 5th and 6, and 7th and 8th i use percs.

Ok now next to each key name down the left hand side you should see 'Main' ok what were going to do know is assign each drum their own mixer channel(keep in mind you can only do this for 8 drums as there is only 8 single mixer tracks[from 17 to 24]).

For sample 1, click on the text 'main' and a drop down menu shuold appear, choose the number 17. For sample 2 click on main and choose 18. and so on untill the first 8 samples have been assigned to a number 17 through to 24.

Now go to the 'mixer' icon, find the ultrabeat channel, and down the bottom of the channel there should be a little + icon. click this and more channels will start appearing, keep clicking untill no more appear.

you will see the first few channels named '1-3, 4-5, 6-8 and so on. the channels you want are the ones named '17, 18, ...24' now each drum track has their own channel.

you can no go to the piano roll and enter paste in your beat.

the piano keys you could see in Ultrabeat corespond with those in the piano roll, Sample 1 being C1 in the piano roll, then going upward from there.

You know how your drum beat

SIDECHAIN COMPRESSION

Ok now we are ready to do some sidechain compression...Assuming you already have a bass synth loaded with a melody.

Firstly go to your mixer, find channel 17(as this is the channel for your kick providing you did what i do and put a kick drum in for sample 1)

go the 'sends' area of the channel, click on it for a new menu, choose 'bus' click on 'bus1'

Ok a new channel should of appeard at the end of your mixer called bus1. click and hold on the 'input' over where it says 'bus1' untill a menu appears. and choose No Input.

Ok now on the channel for your synth, your going to add a compressor to it. with this compressor, turn the ratio to about 5:1:1 or upwards. turn the attack and release down. and somewhere along the bottom there should be 2 box's 1 named 'peak'. make sure the peak box is ticked. Now in the top right hand corner of the compressor you will see the words 'sidechain' with a drop down menu, click on that and choose 'bus1'

Lastely go back to your kicks channel in the mixer, Next to where it says 'bus1' there should be a small circle that would of appeards when you first added the bus. click on it and drag upward, you will see the circle start to fill up with colour, e.g acting as if you were turning the knob up.

now when ever the kick is played over the synth there should be a sidechain effect. go back to the compressor and play around with the release/ratio/gain and threshold for the disired effect.

hope this works for you guys, cause it took a fuck load to write up haha

P.S ill re check it when i get home for mistakes, i wrote it all from memory at work.

[CBG]

for those, that don't think sidechaining is important. IT IS. It's in almost every dance tune, in one way or another

[ChevChelios]

as long as your not using it to cut corners in terms of mixing its good, yeah definately a must have sound for most EDM

[eggssell]

nice fred. all a bit jibberish now but im sure in time i will start to see the light.

[eggssell]

still very nice....

can anyone find the fred where tomy and/ or chris and/ or maybe chev recommended a basic production book. i remember always saying i have to buy that one day; but now i cant even find it

[BeatLeSS]

Epic revival. Trawling this on the weekend.

[eggssell]

yeh this was a good read.

i might actually start my own total noob production thread as i have been looking up a lot of shit lately and found some good stuff

[wrxfiend]

yeh this was a good read.

i might actually start my own total noob production thread as i have been looking up a lot of shit lately and found some good stuff

Do it Whale! lol

[tymeworkbeats]

Don't work on any mixing or effects adding until after that tracking is done. For me it just slows down the creative process

[wrxfiend]

THE MASTERING CHAIN

when doing a final master on your track, this is the order ive been told

EQ - COMPRESSION - STEREO ENHANCER/EXCITER - LIMITER

works for me

[yizzle]

pro tip

[wrxfiend]

For any hip hop heads (oe other genres) an awesome trick ive learned to phatten up your drums is to copy and paste them to another track, compress the shit out them and add some echo then drop them to just below half gain, then adjust your orig drum track to suit.

Dat fullness!

[wrxfiend]

For any hip hop heads (or other genres) an awesome trick ive learned to phatten up your drums is to copy and paste them to another track, compress the shit out them and add some echo then drop them to just below half gain, then adjust your orig drum track to suit.

Dat fullness!

[Mitch]