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Sound Design: >SeamlessR (in-depth music production and sound design tutorials, based on FL Studio) youtube.com/user/SeamlessR
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So I'm recording drums and I can't get a decent sound with 4 mics. (sm57, akg d112, 2 samson condensers). The surprising thing is the condensers are actually okay, but the SM57 on the snare sounds like shit and I'm not sure why.
Any ideas on what to do? I've tried different positioning and tunings but the snare keeps sounding like shit when it's recorded.
Landon Smith
mmmmm i don't actually know but i suspect raw acoustic drums just have tha much more processing that we're used to..? It's pretty obvious where you need to make some deep eq cuts
Maybe try recording in a different room too lol
Luke Bennett
Just finished up this track! Fast high energy video game music! DJ shadow/Sonic the hedgehog inspired. soundcloud.com/xaxattax/heedege
I'm not good enough to hear any mixing issues, but i enjoyed listening to it, if that counts
Juan Long
heh, you'll probably have to coach us mate, this is impeccable. i have a few questions: what's your approach to spacing out and widening your instruments? and it sounds like you're mostly recording and sample based, do you use any synth instruments? and finally, do you think you could give your thoughts on my shitty mix instead?
Connor Bell
>I don't know what I could do with the pianos I would harmonise the chords differently here and there, you could add higher notes on top of the chords and make it kind of melodic. >Is the pad sound good enough to be like that I like it! could be a bit wider, more spacious >Is it overdrummed Not sure, it sounds pretty good but some of the variations sound a bit purposeless. I would try to strip some of the rhythmic layers away or make the different lines interact more with each other. I think the breaks are going in the right direction but they still sound a bit random.
>I'm not good enough to hear any mixing issues, but i enjoyed listening to it, if that counts Thanks.
Thanks man, have been working on this for ages. Does it sound finished to you?
>what's your approach to spacing out and widening your instruments? I use a lot of stereo delay to widen sounds, if you do it right it sounds very solid. Of course reverb. And also a bit of chorus. There are also certain stereo widening plugins but I don't use those myself.
> it sounds like you're mostly recording and sample based, do you use any synth instruments I use synths occasionally at the moment, but especially process audio in all kinds of ways. Total sample nutter at the moment, go through loads of music.
>do you think you could give your thoughts on my shitty mix instead? Sure, post it!
Landon Morales
hey thanks for sticking around and answering. and yeah i'm not really good enough to spot any issues but i would totally buy this as part of a released EP or album.
i'm gonna bounce this track and i'll get back to you in 5 minutes
Bentley Ortiz
listening back to it now i realise the composition is just overly sweet and without much nuance. it's some normieshit trap beat i made for a friend so i can't experiment much but what do you think of the mix?
I like the general vibe. Bit generic but pleasant chords and sounds. The mix is pretty solid. I think the bass can be a bit fatter and wider. Experiment with saturation, warming up the sound. The melody that comes in later sounds a little under-processed, I would play more with reverb on it, maybe even a delay, and I would bring out the high end a bit more.
the ironic thing is that if I were to commit suicide people might want to listen to my music. no-one gives a shit right now.
should I spend the rest of my student loan on getting vinyl pressings for each of my tracks, and then shoot myself in the head /prod/?
Tyler Baker
couldn't hurt
Dominic Martin
Yeah it almost sounds like the room your recording is too echoey. Id suggest either moving to a room without echo or getting some sheets and racks so control the sound around the mics
Hudson Murphy
stop talking bullshit. go into nature, eat a lot of fruits and vegetables daily, drink pure water and do meditation. (don't try to fix everything in one day, but keep growing slow like a snail, slow progress brings stable, lasting change)
Kevin Kelly
it's perfect. i listened to the whole track. i don't think that it needs any changes.
Carter Lewis
that's dumb
Carson Wilson
it's been years and i still can't into kicks
are there ANY resources on how to eq a kick and make it sound good? for techno btw.
this is cool if you want to get a really specific kick but a little obtuse if you don't mind using any random isolated kick sample
Joshua James
i just use sonic academy's kick 2 and splice up parts of other kicks (mainly the transients and knocks) and load them in as clicks into the VST
Michael Taylor
How did he instantly zoom into the clip?
Ian Parker
is it the nature of good music that you can't make tutorials about it, because it takes way too much time and effort to actually make good music? i still feel like i'm searching for that "secret" ingredient or piece of information, which just doesn't seem to exist.
if you think about hollywood movies. you obviously couldn't make a tutorial about how to make a blockbuster, because even to make the movie takes years. how long would it even take to make tutorials about it.
i haven't yet found a real framework which enables you to make unlimited amounts of good music (that you actually like, not just random music)
Jayden Hall
uhhh...by zooming in with the magnifying glass
Charles Anderson
I worked it out and that's not it fatso
Mason Robinson
>is it the nature of good music that you can't make tutorials about it
no, though i will concede the "feel" of a song can't usefully be described or taught
>"secret" ingredient doesn't exist, get good at everything
the hollywood thing is a poor analogy lol it's repition, harmony, and arrangement in pop obviously
i have no idea what you mean by framework but that sounds like you're probably approaching this the wrong way
literally any.. they'll all sound like shit lol
Samuel Collins
Snare sounds pretty boxy. Try taking out some 700hz, and adding a high shelf around 10k and see how it sounds. If you have the Scheps 1073 or another Neve 1073 emulation, try that. It's my go to EQ for snares; sucking out 700hz with that often sounds great.
Also if you have the space, try setting up your drums in different parts of the room. One thing you could do is just move your snare around your room and try recording it; once you find a spot that sounds good, set up the rest of the drums there around the snare and see how it all sounds.
Ethan Foster
Any MPC users here? Which JJOS version are you using?
you're right, in a sense. you can reach those new, and 'good', sonic avenues within music, but you have to step into the unknown to truly innovate those new sonic avenues.
you can't just work it out, because new musical ideas that you work out are based on what you already know, which makes them more derivative than innovative.
if you want to consistently innovate, you need to consistently venture into the unknown. tutorials can't do that for you.
the strumming in general needs more top end and clarity, and the downward scale in the riff (0:46) needs more body also you need to project your voice more, it sounds weak and half-assed
Blake Gray
how can i make this piano sound more interesting? i want it to remain fairly clean (i.e. not super distorted or anything) but it's too boring now clyp.it/m3qrindx
Aaron Hall
make it brighter with a hi-shelf and a 3~4k boost and add reverb and compression and analog tape/console
really? the acoustic strumming is kinda bright already, you mean the electrics? can see it about the scale riff, will add another guitar doing it an octave lower i'm trying to improve the vocals as i record new songs, i believe this one is more projected clyp.it/wv1eoi5p
Christian Roberts
yeah i meant the electric guitar. it needs more "shimmeriness" for lack of a better word. try sending it to an aux channel, adding some detailed fuzz/artefacts and cutting out the low end from that channel
Levi Walker
thanks i'll put up a link to the edited version as soon as i'm done
yo desu electric guitars are one of the hardest things to get right
but also your shit is out of tune and your tone is bad lol
>i have ideas on how to make it more interesting
uh you should do that first as is there isn't enough to keep my interest honestly
make the pad less dynamic it gets to loud on the end of the swell
Eli Miller
What DI box should I purchase?
Tyler Green
Have to do this stupid MIDI Effect Rack mapping shit to be able to see Addictive Drums sound names in the piano roll. Question: Is it possible to drag up where my cursor is? By the time I'm done with this I'm gonna have like 50 chains in there, it'll make my life way easier if the Effect Rack could take up more space.
Cameron Wood
fuzz/artefacts? wont it sound dirty and noisy? i thought of a treble exciter
Landon Thompson
I think you can go in preferences and increase the gui zoom and it will make the devices bigger
Jonathan Thompson
Where can I pirate Abelton, boys?
Jaxon Ross
Yes
Sebastian Harris
>Have to do this stupid MIDI Effect Rack mapping shit to be able to see Addictive Drums sound names in the piano roll. Not sure about Addictive Drums but if it works on the native instrument rack you can change the name of the notes
Jace Taylor
Lol wtf
Can you not just make a preset in addictive drums with a rearrangement of midi assignments that you would remember?
William Bailey
If I want to use the VST to its fullest capabilities, I'd have to remember where a gazillion different sounds are located. Did my research, this is the only solution that seems to work with my Ableton because I don't have the GM Drum Map tool for some reason. eh, I do this once, save the midi effect rack preset and i'm good forever.
Side note: anyone know what these sounds are?
Lincoln Bell
They all work similarly no, adding upper harmonics by way of distortion? Or am I misunderstanding how exciters work?
Jonathan Ward
idk it sounds like saturating and the frequency gets louder but it doesnt sound like distortion/noise
Easton Brooks
What's the weirdest thing you have ever sampled to make a song? I once farted into a cheap microphone and retuned it into a bassline. I laughed. My wife did, but she also told me I'm retarded.
I also like to sample old commercials. I am aware of my own faggotry.
Jeremiah Bennett
its hard 2 make good musik
Elijah Williams
>What's the weirdest thing you have ever sampled to make a song? Probably an audiobook on bullshit by a philosophy professor. >I am aware of my own faggotry. It's kinda faggy to cover for yourself like that.
Zachary Nelson
I sampled an awful recording of a fat girl singing and distorted it so much to the point that it sounded identical to a flute. it is literally indistinguishable from a flute sound and is literally only recognisable by melody. pretty sweet.
how the flying fuck do you mix pianos in songs. fucking hell. and every piano vst sounds like shit.
Jackson Rodriguez
>Rolling coins around through it into Iris 2 made the main melody of an entire track >Airplane doppler effect >Snapping sticks shit from a forest etc >lots of foley metal and glass
honestly nothing that hasn't been done before, I think it's kind of silly to be sampling for novelty's sake- it doesn't make the music any better
mmmm i usually end up making a deepish cut in the low mids and either another at that distorting 2-4k or a low shelf for most of the ni kontakt libraries.
and you know, the right reverb is essential lol
For what though
Brandon Thomas
How do you get a good mix in a live setting? I bought a mixer with 3-band EQs but I can never seem to get it clear sounding and balanced
It's easy when i'm recording because I can just add EQ, compression, etc in the DAW on each track. I really don't want to have to bring a laptop when i play a show. How did people get good mixes before computers? Just buy a big rack with like 10 compressors and parametric EQs for each instrument then run them into the mixer?
Jason Butler
that's not what irony is
Connor Jenkins
The mix starts at the song, and then what is likely the problem- the sounds
you should be aiming to have 90% of your sound before you hit the mixer/mic/whatever (arbitrary number just as much as you can but around that much)
use filters when you can before your eq, make sure somethings not too bright that clashes, turn down release or decay times when you need things tighter so on so on
lol
Justin Richardson
A trashy whore that aproached me and a group of friends for a beer and started telling us sad storys. One of my friends recorded it and gave material for a whole track. Also sampled myself pissing and flushing, but who didn't?
The irony seems to be in the fact that if user kills himself he can't make music anymore altogether. Killing yourself to get attention is one of the most counter-productive things to do :^).
Blake Nelson
no no, irony is like when you're stuck in traffic and you're already late for something user
Lincoln Anderson
no no, irony is like when you're stuck in traffic while you specifically took your car to get there faster.
Holy shit you're hot user, and your music is okay too i guess
Anthony Turner
no, the irony is that he thinks people will listen to his music after he's dead
Brody Jackson
no, the irony is that you don't think people will listen to his music after he's death
Jack Thompson
damn... you got me
Jaxon Thomas
I sold all my hardware synths and studio equipment:
Korg emx-1 Bass station 2 Roland system 1m Tascam 414 Tascam 16x08 Monkey banana gibbon 5 Mpc 1000 +random stompboxes
In exchange i got myself:
Rob Papen's nexus 4 bundle (nfr license) Apollo twin mk2 Push 2 Focal shape 65 (in a few days) Ableton 10 (in a few days)
I spent so much money in entry level gear i feel stupid now
Gabriel Ortiz
damn user, this is fucking nice. I love how all the sounds and instruments flow together like wind and shit. It has a jazzy and very personal and romantic feel to it, it's like i'm being send through a laid back soundscape of night and the moon. fucking radical
Isaiah Torres
Stopped reading at >"secret" ingredient It's called secret weapon. Get it right user.
Jaxon Bailey
I fucking hate you guys
Aiden Long
*love
Sorry made a typo.
My bad.
Stay awesome gangstas!
John Ward
that's fucking ace man. very glad you seem to have genuinely enjoyed it, i've pretty much given it everything i've got!
A good start however would be playing an instrument, learning theory, learning different styles. Quincy Jones said this in one of his latest interviews: >From a strictly musical perspective, what have you done that you’re most proud of? That anything I can feel, I can notate musically. Not many people can do that. I can make a band play like a singer sings. That’s what arranging is, and it’s a great gift. I wouldn’t trade it for shit.
Apart from looking for some kind of supernatural inspiration or delving deep into your feelings etc. it can never hurt to learn new shit. There's so much to know and it will help you to understand and translate things better, and even inspire you probably. Guys like Bach wouldn't have been able to do any of the shit they did without having an impeccable grasp on complex music theory. Then, if you're having fun and love what you do the rest could come spontaneously.
Ryder Ross
u2 - vertigo
Charles Perez
First thing you should do is buy a 32-band graphic EQ for your master fader and tune your room to pink noise. There are tutorials online if you don't know how to do that. Poorly tuned room = poor sounding mix. You can't do a whole lot with 3 band EQs, especially if they're fixed frequencies, so tuning the room will help a lot.
Connor Jones
thanks
Elijah Edwards
my piano teacher told me to listen to as much music as i can (of all different styles). is this good advice for a music producer or will you just end up being a consumer instead of producer?
