catandbeats

Jose Feedback

30 minutes of information here so have fun and take notes :)

Anatol's Feedback

In all honesty this track sounds pretty damn good as is. Just a few tweaks and start releasing and using this song as a reference for your new material as well. 

Which headphones to upgrade to?

Having a set of closed and open headphones would be my go to. Keep the m50 to produce in and mix/master on open back headphones like the hd650. The HD650's are very neutral so it is as close to a "flat" curve you can get. Regardless you will need to reference (not with your eyes but with your ears. I would personally also reverse engineer in the bad room just so you get to know it inside out. Then you will have 3 playback systems that are reliable to you. 

Jan's quest for a specific Kick sound

It sounds like the masterbus is also clipped so it might be that he used a "warmer" there too throwing us off a bit. 

Anatol's track

great vibe, just turn down that bleepy thing and the rest of the list ;)

Vocal processing and working with a vocalist or acapella

For the 1st question it's all about de tuning and recording right. So, get close the mic, use a pop filter and say what ever in a deeper voice. Detune, eq, de ess, compress (compress hard), vocoder to taste and wide af with ozone imager. You can go further via a frequency shifter or little alter boy. Reverb at the end. 

For the second question learn how to reharmonize and make your song on a piano first. Even if it's hardcore techno, get it to sit right and work from there. If that...

show me the numbers how loud?

No, check this yourself haha. You need to go as loud as your reference. Keep in mind that the way you measure has an effect on the "balance". So, make sure you reference with a good song and not an obscure dude. Next balance your song the same way ish. Keep in mind that referencing with mp3's will show 1db extra so back off 1 db.  Last check your master on loudness penalty and see what the correction is and how it sounds. 

How to get loud masters

Lookahead times, release times and over sampling are where you can go to adjust your loudness.. Also, multiple stages of limiters will help a lot. 

Talking synth sounds and non boring hi hats

Formant filters are used for talking synths and for non boring hi hats play hi hats :D. you can mimic that in a couple of ways which are shown in the video.

Quick mix fixes on a commercial

Relay is a brilliant little pluggin when you need the vocals to pop forward. It's a smart sidechain. If it's too much you can also just side chain very subtly and if that is too obvious sidechain to frequency via a multiband setup (not ableton's)

Prolonging your sample with sampler

1. Find the root note
2. Set your sustain with a crossfade
3. Set your release if needed
4. Go to the filter section and adjust ADSR to your needs
5. Adjust the amount of voices
6. Portamento if you need or FM synthesis etc etc etc 

Ableton has 20% off if you upgrade early

Just a heads up, you can save a bit if cash if you upgrade early ;)

CLA Epic and reverb talk

CLA Epic is a easy and nice way for reverbs/delays but.... In this video I show you how and when to use reverbs. So, buy it if you like and make sure you know why you are using reverbs. In short reverb on track to push back a sound and Send reverbs to give 3d depth. 

goodluck 

Speaker placement

REW is free and most likely you have a measurement mic laying around. If not give that a google and buy the one that works with REW. For the rest it's just tinkering and implementing mini dsp or sonarworks. And the secret tip to remedy a floor bounce is a subwoofer with dsp like svs 2000pro and after EQing the lowest resonance away in your room. All at the spl that you listen to music and boom you have a pro setup. 

Free type a plugin

Well, I am not really a fan of slate because of the marketing hype but it's a free dolby a trick plugin to tie into the video on exiters vs eq

The problems with tuning a kick drum

Please move with caution when tuning a kick drum. I highly suggest working with quality sample packs instead and just popping in an eq. 

Black Friday recommendations

For the people without cash the free plugins are the absolute shit and a half. 

Power conditioners worth to get?

Kinda, if you have rack gear it is nice to take your cable management to the next level. It does not help with ground loops though so watch the video for that. 

Kii mixing vs in ear

Bit of top end needed for the kii's and then you are good to go. The fun part for me is that you ran the kii's for a couple of days vs years of in ears. Imaging when you get used to your kii's. Overall though.. Use reference tracks so you can adjust the overall balance :)

Madeon OK Lead remake

Nice and difficult. I think a synth with a redux was used plus an ability to do FM. I have no clue which synth would be able to do that. But have  a little google. This version can also work if the rest is closer. 

Exiter vs EQ

Exciters are multiband compressors :)

Gliding Squares Those were the Days BEFORE

Hey Everyone,

New project file for you to mix along to. Once the release is out the final project will be here too. 

Have fun! 

What helped me progress faster

However hard this sound it is what helped me the most. Failing as hard as I could via giving myself an unreasonable goal and not letting it go. I am talking about reverse engineering. I suggest you try to reverse engineer the one song that inspired you the most to start producing. This will train your ears more than any book will ever do. Even in a "bad room" it's completely possible. It has too many benefits. After you have done that try mixing the project files and again failure is key. Thi...

Mixing for translation on Phones and Laptops

De-ess the top end so it smooths out a bit and focus on mid bass. also, always test if your mix works in the mids and for triple points in mono. 

David's feedback

Honestly, it's already good. A few things would be a little mid range work, maybe an added clap. And de click the vocals plus width on the background vocals

Replacing kick drums the right way

The music in the mids is spot on. The only problem is most likely the overthinking about the kick drum .I would suggest simply replacing the kick. Replace the kick with a few kicks and eq them in. Then simply switch between them. The new contender without silly processing will immediately come forward. No need for overthinking tuning, layered compression just do what I put in bold :).

Anatol's mix critque

The main easy fixes are the following. 

Bass
1. Add in a sub bass (literally a sine wave)
2. Saturate your current bass and make sure it does not pan or use an imager
3. Process them together via another amp if you like

Melodic group options
1. Overall go louder and splash around with reverb
2. Easier solution is the overall reverb and parallel compression (go louder)

Drums
Kick needs a good once over (Pultec EQ)

Matt's brilliant studio build

In this video I cover a few basics although Matt did an absolute brilliant job. Moving the screen back will make a tremendous difference :). 

You don't need to send songs at -6db (rant)

Went a little nuts in the video at the end but it's such a silly topic. The rule is, do not send a limited song and send at 32bit. Also, don't work with idiot mastering engineers. You can easily judge from a picture. No matter how big the label there might be a "special" friend that will pull out all types of stupid conclusions. 

rant over

My thoughts on neutron 3

Emotional intent is absolutely critical to music and the AI in Neutron 3 just can't work to that level. so, in short use it, abuse it but please listen to your music and break rules and think in time