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 Now online (3)big recycle belb ...and 425 guests Last 5 registered Oplandisks nothingstar N_loop yipe foxtrotromeo Browse members... |
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try ozone 2.0 |
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i think the EQ is the most "useful" effect if there is ever one... As for over-using compressors it is typicaly something of our times, instead of having punchy drums because your samples are good or your drummer and/or recording session was exellent, people will just think, oh no problem i can always compress the fuck out of them after... It is a gain of time, but is it worth it? Now for "dance" music its something else, you don't really care for the overall audio quality that much, if the beat is pumping hard, sound quality might not be an issue, but that's also why it's VERY boring to listen to dance music most of the time, check your meters and all, overall volume doesn't move at all until their is a break... (the contrast can be very interesting, but you'll have problems when muting sounds in an overcompressed mix : everything will go sudenly louder because of the space left by the sound(s) you muted) That's why when i try to do or mix some "braindance" i try to have a good balance between the beats which can be extremly compressed but then not much compression on the whole so the rest of the sounds can have their maximum dynamic range, and just totaly mix with the beats when they (the rest of the sounds) are loud enough |
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Some of the tracks I've released have had no compression at all and still sounded decent, but I went back and remastered them using some compression and it helped quite a bit. Also, using different compression on different parts makes it more interesting, but of course is quite a bit more work. Compression isn't a fix all technique, like people have been saying. It requires a lot of subtlelty and using your ear to make it sound right. Overcompression is very easy to do and is difficult to repair. Have someone else master it when you're mastering, another ear is a huge advantage to curbing your instincts before you get the feeling of what sounds good Mastering tips 2 will be on EQ, soon... soon |
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Whoops... was over at a friend's house and used his login So yeah, Mastering tips 2 on EQ will be soon, I'll post a topic when I have enough time to think it through, that's a complex subject |
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"As for over-using compressors it is typicaly something of our times, instead of having punchy drums because your samples are good or your drummer and/or recording session was exellent, people will just think, oh no problem i can always compress the fuck out of them after... It is a gain of time, but is it worth it?" Spot on... it's exactly the same as the mentality people have when taking digital photos, "oh, I can always photoshop that our/correct the contrast/whatever on my computer". |
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I agree about EQ. i'd say learning to EQ really effectively needs to be learned before learning to compress. |
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Do not EQ with headphones. |
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What is this "reversed compresion" you mentioned ? |
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"Spot on... it's exactly the same as the mentality people have when taking digital photos, "oh, I can always photoshop that our/correct the contrast/whatever on my computer". " Actually, sometimes it's better to take a photo / scan with default settings and fix it in photoshop instead of with the poor color and gamma correction such devices usually have... there's usually enough contrast even in a dark image to make it look great in photoshop with the curves adjustments. |
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Sidechain compression is cool. |
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fav+ that shiiit.... |
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why oh why if you know them well? explain... |
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'cause headphones aren't stereo. eq'ing and panning will sound CRAP in real stereo if done with headphones. |
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what a useful thread |
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fuck compression... distortion ROX! |
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In reference to the headphones thing, although I am adamantly against using them to do a final mix, they are necessary in the mastering process. I did not realize this until recently, this will be a future thread here... but... onto the stuff I was fooling with yesterday... |
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you can definately eq in headphones if it's not you be-all, especially higher frequencies, i mean if you don't have good monitoring loudspeakers, it's maybe better to do it with the headphones AND with the speakers... IMO it's all depending on the quality of your monitors. |
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Reverse compression: So I was fooling with this with the Linear Multiband compressor from the Waves package. I use the multiband from the cubase package more just because it's easier on my processor (I need to get more memory... *le sigh*). But the waves version has some interesting presets, the one that caught my eye was reverse compression. It does pretty much what you expect it to do, amplifies peaks instead of drop them. This becomes interesting when you specify the bands in which it does these things and with some very VERY fine tuning of the decibel and threshold levels can bring out strange effects in otherwise normal lines. I had a lot of fun throwing it over a bass line in frequencies other than the subs that I wanted continuous, getting some weird mid and high effects, then throwing them into separate channels and effecting them. You can get minute details out of lines. The big problem was it took some huge differences in numbers to make any difference in the sound (at least in my semi-decent monitor speakers) which frustrated me to no end, especially when I was trying to get a specific sound. Summary so far... weird I will investigate further and post more specific comments, I recommend somebody download the waves linear multiband and fooling with it... and just maybe posting a reply. |
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Yes, headphones and monitor speakers... and whatever other setups you can get. Car stereo, computer speakers, PA/DJ setup, whatever... and compare the difference in sound with another song you know to be professionally mastered well... see what your sound is missing and buffer the areas that are shown to be weak by comparison to a well mastered track. My songs always come out fine on speakers, PA, and in my car now that I found out how to make some decent bass, but lately listening in my headphones I've heard some atrocious panning and other things... didn't realize I wasn't picking up on that on the monitor speakers. I will cover this in more detail on one of the next threads |
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amen brutha |
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still waiting for #2!!!!!!!! |
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Also check on a mono setup- stuff that sounds very clear with similar frequency elements hard panned away from each other can be v. murky when they're both in the middle. Worth bearing in mind if the track will be played in smaller nightclubs. |
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What do you think about Waves' LinMB with 4 bands? Do you use factory presets or your own? |
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what do you think of ? it has knobs, and it's cheap... do you think it'll do the job? |
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I do not know nothing about audio ciruit quality of this stuff, and its only 18bit... |
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Useful thread :D I always use my headphones for stuff... coule be a problem there! |
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Thanks for bumping this! I forgot to fav+ |
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:) |
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Excellent thread, i've learned a lot. I've found Waves' MultiDynamics 5 to be incredibly useful. Definitely worth testing. |
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I stick it in set at the defaults just to catch live transient peaks in whatever host I'm using. Less than 1ms latency. It's not too bad for a basic mastering limiter either but I'd leave that to the pros. |
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"Compression... I've heard it is the only effect you can never have too much of if you do it right." That's a silly statement |
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a part of "doing it right" is not "having too much of it" |
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Exactly |
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I rarely use compression for increases in volume, just limits and such. Some synths just make too much noise when a certain combination of notes are played and they need a compressor for those times. If you've got a song with a lot of tracks on it, and it's fairly loud, it's often a good idea to run the entire thing through a compressor--BUT--set the threshold to the max allowed, which I believe is typically the volume at which the sound will clip. Make sure the attack and release are pretty low, especially the release. Setting up a compressor in this way will prevent clipping but leave everything else alone, avoiding the watered down effect compressors can have. In general, I find that EQ's are much more effective in limiting/amplifying the sound of different instruments. If your song feels "crowded" or loud, it may be the case that you have too many sounds operating in the same bands. Rather than using a compressor, use EQ's to narrow the sound range of each instrument. For instance, you might wish to bring down the high end of a bass, and the low end of a violin or what have you. When you reduce the overlap of bands by different instruments, the song tends to sound fuller, and each instrument is much more distinct. |
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Oh, and also, really try to avoid applying EQ effects post production to the entire song. The longer you wait in applying EQ, the more difficult it is to pull off successfully. Apply EQ on an instrument by instrument basis. Putting EQ on an entire song isn't always disastrous, but I find it difficult to think of a situation where instrument EQ during production wouldn't do a better job. |
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Great thread! Thats's sound advice, sirmailbox - thankyou. |
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The only thing I'm able to use compression for is as an effect, altering the sound. I can't do anything mastering-like with it. |
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This is exactly the type of info/tutorials that I want to be featured on Xltronic. Give us more! |
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yep, this thread has been in my favs since its conception. It's a shame Sanguine didn't start any other ones.. Or if he did I missed them somehow. |
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In mastering it's used much more subtly. Multiband compression is what mastering is all about. It's not everyone's forte, though - not everyone has the ear for mastering. I fucking don't! |
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In mastering it's used much more subtly. Multiband compression is what mastering is all about. It's not everyone's forte, though - not everyone has the ear for mastering. I fucking don't! |
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