xaqary's forum posts 444

Sure do. I also use the old endless cassettes. I've got several crappy little tape decks just so i can.

Amulets does a ton of tape concrete.

He puts together some really ambitious live shows too. You can find his stuff on YouTube, etc.

yup, welcome. Tell us about your current set up if ya like!

One of my old Soundcloud accounts is linked on my board. you can message me there. Might take me a minute to get back but I'll get back to ya soon.

Yeah, perspective is really important. You're not alone.

If you wanna shoot me a session file sometime im happy to give ya feedback soon as I've got time.

Gotta be a bot, right?

Wha?

Some good stuff in there.

Reverb.com is a great place to buy/sell.

Just got an OP-1 acfew weeks ago off there cuz it was sold out everywhere else (including Amazon & Ebay).

Would have clicked thru from here if that was an option.

"I started to be able to serve other people. I advertised in the only journal there was at the time, a little small size ad, which in effect said, “We’ll design and make anything for anyone.” It wasn’t good advertising, you need to be far more specific than that. But I did get a call from Phillips Records, who had set up in London, and I nearly missed the contact because I was out when they called. The lady we had looking after the kids, when we returned, said there was a call for you, she hadn’t got his number, but she thought it was a “Mr. Phillips.” I called every Mr. Phillips that I knew. I was thumbing through the local telephone directory when all of the sudden I thought I should cast my net wider. So I got a London directory and came across Phillips Records, I didn’t really think it could be them, but I tried.

I called the number in the telephone directory for Phillips Records and I said, “My name is Rupert Neve.” She said, “Oh, Mr. Godwin’s been trying to call you.” She gave it to me on the plate straight away. That was the beginning of the professional recording systems, the amplifiers, the mixers and so on. They asked for all kinds of things, which really gave me a challenge, and that was the start of the Neve business."

-R. Neve

True Mench.

https://youtu.be/ri_mOj0HSYo

Yeah that's kind of exactly what I was getting at. I don't consider that to be production either. It's just good advice.

Good advice that they are welcome to ignore, I won't take it personally.

I'll just note that it wasn't well received and withhold those comments until their solicited.

that and ridding the world of crappy engineers/producers...

"I also have run into problems with people who are amazingly proficient in their isntrument OUT OF CONTEXT and create problems by playing in registers thata re already full using 'their sound'"

This happens all the time & where I'll try & start making small suggestions even if I'm sitting in the engineering seat.

If the room will hear it. If not, I pack it in & do as they ask...

but this is incredibly common.

Be amazing if I could just quicky say:

"Hey we've got a lot going on 2-4k on tracks blank, blank, & blank & if we shift this part to blank we can avoid crowding the bandwidth so this thing can pop"

Anyway, for what it's worth learning that kinda stuff might help the democratic dialogue move forward.

Stumbled across this-

It's not dead on point but it's close-

Video should start at 10:35

https://youtu.be/-D4NDBzBZoY?t=636

While he's talking about a specific style but it does translates to any style.

It's a person, who is frustrated by his hard work on his instrument not coming thru in the recording.

Learning as much as you can about recording and "production" is every bit as important to delivering a song/sound/vibe to the end listener.

A bit to the left of your topic but I thought it worth mentioning.

Mainly becuase in my experience 90+% of guitarist, bassist, etc. who I track spend all their time uping their playing often don't invest anywhere near the same disciplined approach to recording or "producing".

If a person I was tracking can articulate clearly what they want in "engineering" terms I have to be honest I'd be more likely to know exactly what they're after...

That is to say:

"This sounds kinda muddy/cluttered/things are getting lost/ on "blank" instrument at "blank" part of the song."

vs

"I can hear some freq masking between the ryth guitar & 2nd guitar around 4k at the 1min 30sec mark"

I can intuit the 1st- happens all the time -

but the 2nd is descriptive in a way I'd be hard pressed not to pay a lot of attention to. It's also likely to help squlech any "I'm a pro, it's like that for a reason" type shit outta any bullshiters.

Unfortunately I don't have access to my studio right now, just my iPad so I can't listen yet-

tho...

I am glad to see you took some time working on everything & away from the boards or thoughts about gear.

That's a positive step for sure.

Soon I should have time to give it a listen-

Until then, don't shy away from the Pink Suit...

also this might be helpful-

http://edmprod.com/beatport-analysis/

this is more on arrangement, key, etc. these are also conciderations when mixing.

much easier to mix a well thought out track.

YES.

"Ask alk the Damn questions ya want, take all the Damn photos ya need."

Totally. They gotta go. This life raft isn't gonna save them, just drag things out longer.

The Dammed!

WOAH. My posts are getting seriously huge. Sorry bout that. This is just dead center of the world I live in.

With all the things I've mentioned I truely only aim to help or at least demistify-

but text lacks the nuance so if I sound dismissive or anyting that's not my intent.

"In another recording years later, in a reknowned studio, with a reknowned engineer, our rhythm guitarist's work is barely audible throughout. Unsure if this is a "levels" thing or if a shared frequency had the two sounding too similar, but the absence of the parts he played in the songs was evident."

There's a lot that could have gone wrong here but this comes back to getting "test mixes".

Anytime you're gonna work with someone, as akward as it might feel, every musican should have a real talk with the with the people they'll be working with.

It's often avoided-

rock and roll not being about bisness, fuck the man and all.

A lot of people profit of the back of those not willing to innitate these conversations. I partically have to shoehorn them in before sessions when I start talking about how I work & I get a "cool man, we really dig your stuff I'm sure this will go just fine."

No, it's not. Let's be clear what we expect from one another.

Gotta have a firm commitment to an argeed upon workflow and style where you build in the insurances that you'll get at least 3 revisions, etc. Not in passing language, in a very clear "let's sit down and talk about this".

There are tons of horror stories of people getting dicked over by the music industry and while tons of them are just insane-

There are always a few times where I wish the bands would take a bit of resposobility for what they failed to do that allowed them to get fucked over. If only because I think it'd help them and others in the recounting of those stories-

Not that they deserve it, but that's just the real world-people fuck people over given the chance. I lock my car, I lock my house, etc.

Reminds me of the Libertarians constant vetching about "Liberals" not taking on enough accountability for themselves. While I'm not strictly a Libertarian, I have been almost totally self employed for nearly a decade so I gotta really watch my shit so that message does resonate with me a bit.

"In 1992, a recording we released (WHICH WAS recorded to tape) as part of a compilation resulted in one of our songs, which had me using a Roland Jazz Chorus running into it clean (with a mild chorus in effect) made it to the final mix being so saturated with effects that the entire sound I recorded with, the sound I had chosen to represent that section of music, was lost."

Ok, I get ya. Unfortunately there's not much nuance to this. Sounds like the engieer was an idiot or just wasn't interested in serving the artist but that leads me to this...

The other band you mentioned:

"When I reported to the band running the project that this had been changed, I was told that the Engineer knew what he was doing. No Consultation."

I'm not 100% clear here- were you a session musican/"hired gun" on the session? If so then it really is up to the band to make the choice on what they want- daft as they maybe- as you said, they we're the band runing the session.

I've made turds for those who wanted 'em. Sucks, but I had to pay the bills.

That's not to say I think it's a good thing to stiffle anyone's opion arbitrarily. Far from it. I just see a lot of the day by day of how this plays out so I can only explain from my vantage point; to try and deconstruct it a bit.

In anycase that sucks you had the experience.

there is this tho:

As far as going forward if anyone is interested-

Noise Creators help find a good match for bands who are looking for an engineer or a producer. Great podcast as well.

http://noisecreators.com

Think you'd get a lot outta it. They talk about this and a lot of other similar things all the time.

"One of the best and most democratic experiences I had with recording was working with Jerimiah Whitehall on the Smokin' 66' EP in 2008-2009. Jerimiah would send out the mixes on a hidden forum just for our band and we would review them and make suggestions. I LOVE how that EP turned out. All of us were showcased on that recording perfectly, and in that band it was very important because we had a lot of great stuff going on from all the musicians involved. I recall my focus when we were mixing down was to make sure none of us were too high or too low, that guitar solos did not mask out the orchestration, or that the bass guitar did not overshadow everything else. It was always some really tiny tweak, never anything major. None of us in that band stepped on each other's toes, such a shame it did not last longer."

Now THAT is what I'm talkin' about.

ALWAYS REACH FOR THE EQ BEFORE LEVELS.

If I could pass on one thing to anyone who is recording it'd be that.

EQ is the most powerful tool and with all the weird plugin's out there I feel like the power of just good EQ work is being overlooked. Fuck yer "One Knob" and "Sausage Fattener" stuff.

I still do test tone recognition on the regular. Listen to different boosts and cuts and guess the freq. Always honing my ears. For me it's not something you complete, it's a regular excersize.

I use a bunch of different things but Quiztones is an app you can download for your phone, tablet, or computer if anyone is interested. Can't recommend this kinda of thing enough.

This is where you should be getting several different mixes.

I offer up several different approches when I'm mixing & let the client tell me what's working for them and what's not.

I then adjust accordingly until they've got something they love. This can't go on forever but I usually can get them there in 3 mixes tops.

When you record everything yourself you do have total control, however when you hire out someone to do your tracking- a professional, not a hack - you get something you can't get as well when recording yourself.

You get to focus on the music 100%. No distractions. This has been somewhat undervalued in my opnion. I've got all the kit I need to record a great album but I still have had other engineers track me because I want to be able to have that focus. It's a fantastic feeling.

You also get a more macro look at your music. Not being bogged down in the mechanics of being your own engineer it's much easier to see things as a whole. Can lead to some really amazing developments. Things can get done much faster as well if that's a concern.

...and that shouldn't mean you lose any measure of control over your sound. With a competent engineer they should be 100% trasparent unless asked otherwise. Plus, you get the bonus of using whatever great gear they've got on hand.

That said I absolutely LOVE recording myself & using the studio as an instrument. Just there are some point where I like handing off the controls to another person so I can focus on just the intruments I'm/we're playing and the music I'm/we're making.

OK a lot to unpack here.

As an engineer:

I try to remain as transparent as possible. I feel my job is only to capture what the band sounds like and try to have as little of a footprint as possible.

Jim covered a lot of how I do that. EQ is a huge friend. HUGE. I also try and direct their intentions in a way that fills up the frequencies nicely. Sometimes that's not always a consideration that many musicians think of but as an engineer I know how to get the same desiered result by offering up ideas on subtle shifts in the arrgement, notes, chord choice, intrument used, chord inversions, etc. That's only when I feel it's merrited.

If my ideas are not welcome, no problem. I'm only there to offer as much or as little guidance as requested.

As a matter fact learning how to take the temperature of the room is a huge part of being an engineer. Anyone who successful at this for a long time will have developed a very good ability to feel where the session is going and piviot as needed. This can be exausting at times but it's part of the job.

As far as mixing for all means of consumption there is absolutely no reason that should make the music sound in anyway less alive or dull. If someone's doing that they just don't know how to do their job properly. They're using that that some sort of cover or smokescreen for their lack of ability.

Amateurs will often try and hide their lack of ability by quoting some silly shtick like "I'm doing ______ so it'll sound good on all systems" or other such nonsence.

From your post it sounds like you've had the bad luck of working with some really shitty people. It happens. Kinda like cell phone cammeras made everyone think they we're a photographer, the availibility & afforability of DAW's have lot of people thinking of themselves as recording engineeres. Nope. They've just got an app.

As a Producer:

This is a really sticky area. Not just because the line can often be blurry. A lot of people just don't fundamentaily understand what a producers role is. Part of that is the fault that being a producer can just mean so many different things in different situations.

• Some see it as some sort of creative compromise- like their deferring to someone else for all their creative decisions. That couldn't be farther from the truth. Generally I try to help them execute their goals as well as I can.

• Some think that by hiring a producer they don't need to have their chops down, that it can be handled in "post" if you will. Nope. Can't polish a turd. Yes, Auto Tune can make even the worst singer sound in key but there is a trade off in doing so. Sometimes that works, sometimes not.

To make matters worse people often hire me as an engineer and what they actually want me to do is be an engineer and a producer. Those are different things that require wildly different things and a huge shift in workload. That's when you have "the conversation" about what role would you like me to play. Something I'm always working on improving.

As a producer it's possible to serve in so many different ways. It might be light duty like doing a bit of sound design or deploying more obvious FX. Like for instance Lana Del Rey has a very specific reverb for her vocals (as well as ripping off my former music festival's type font & asthetic). That might be something I'm asked to do- create a very signature vocal sound & design something on a syth part for something that was written on say a bass guitar.

On the heavier end I might get into the arrangement & spend a lot of time coaching a performance. Sometimes that means co-writing a song. I'll also make far more recomendations of instrumentation and performance. I might bring in outside players for symphonic sauce- like a cello, violin, brass, etc, etc.

Even in the heavier end the song will still be the same song, just lifted to a whole other level. Like going from "unplugged" to Pet Sounds. Sometime you want that. Sometimes you don't. It's up to the musicians to know their goals.

Lastly-

As a musician

As a musican I expect exactlly what you mentioned. Diplomacy. Diplomacy and professionalism. I also would look for someone who could clearly articulate what their services are & then it's up to me then to decide what I want from them.

https://www.facebook.com/AFROPUNK/videos/10154479589396623/

Welcome!

Loads of fun to be had here.

Kick those Bass stories!

I forgot to leave a link but a quick google search for "pink noise" should give you a host of options to download a file.

If not I'm happy to provide you a link to the one I used.

For grabbing stuffs online try Offliberty or Audio Hijack. There are more options out there of course but those are what I use on most quick sample grabs...

POW!

I swear the tutorials I'm working on are gonna be way more fun to watch!

This was very much off the cuff & as a result super dry.

I had some more fun I wanted to build in but I just didn't have time this go round.

This is also a good reference-

Interactive Freq Chart-

http://www.independentrecording.net/irn/resources/freqchart/main_display.htm

You might not be using traditional instrumentation but you at least know what they sound like and you can transfer those concepts to whatever you are playing.

There's no shortage of mixing videos out there but you asked how you could improve your mixes so I "unmixed" a song and then started over again & put this together for you-

Mixing with Pink Noise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NICds3eiAT0&feature=youtu.be

This is a way to get started learning balance- Not a way to mix every song going forward of course.

but as I mention in the video-

You got a song you really like?

Dump it into your DAW and and look at it with Ableton's Spectrum or the equivlent in any other DAW.

Try and make your mix conform to the same profile.

Experiment, ask questions, and have a blast makin' music.

Disclaimer:

This was done hastily while I was dealing with tech support so with a grain of salt, ya know?

The upcoming one will be way more fun/way less dry as well. This was just a quick one-off.

Awesome to read your interested in improving the way your music sounds however, the question you asked is about 1000 questions in 1. That's understandable but to really help I'd need a bit more information.

I'm working on a mixing 101 article/video series for Equipboard that should help- covering all of the basics over a series of installments. Everything from mixing a kick with baselines, compression, reverb, delay, et cetera.

but on helping you in a more direct way-

If you link here to the song you're having trouble with I'd be happy to talk about how I think you might get it sounding better just using your stock plug-ins that came with whatever DAW you're using & keeping it dead simple.

If you're uncomfortable sharing something that's a work in progress online we can talk about having you email it to me.

If you also link to another song you feel is similar- like from an artist that inpired the track/style you're working on. That kind of context would really help me understand the sound your after.

Oh yeah, I forgot the other reason I thought this might be helpful.

If you're not really into the recording end of things but still want your music to sound great and you've got 100 bucks to spare if you throw this on your master it will very quickly tell you if you're over compressing you songs.

If you are and you still like how it sounds, at least you know what's happening.

The whole "learn the rules before you break them" thing.

I slam drums to cassette tape when I wanna get nasty. Breaking the rules is one thing, knowing where & why your breaking them-breaking the rules with intent- as with all things music is where the good shit happens.

It's not the best way to learn about compression but in lou of nothing at all? Definitely a better option.

Nice I'd love to hear it ir about it. Dig the publishing end of the music biz. Keeps a lot of us in food & clothing.

Aw, I don't take it personal at all I get why people might not be interested.

Not many hardcore studio heads on the boards I know of & I thought this might draw them out.

For those who aren't studio heads I figured they might not even know about this kinda thing & it might be helpful to know if they self publish online like nearly everyone with an instrument does these days.

That said this is mainly a concern for mastering engineers.

The plug-in is only 100 bucks though so I use it when I know proper mastering isn't going to happen...added value for my services and all.

As for your recent experience-

I don't know what happened in the recording process or what they optimized it for. There's a ton of variables in there.

I do know that in the hands of someone who isn't capable the following things can trash a mix in no time:

• maximizers
• inflators
• fianalizers
• vitalizers
• enhancers
• limiters & any other limiter +bells & whistles (too many to cover)

All can make things sound super harsh & grainy. Buzz words are usually "FAT" or "adds excitment" or other some such garbage.

all used with reckless abandon in my experience...hurts my ears. Not figuratively, like they're actually painful not just offending my personal taste.

When time allows & if anyone was interested I thought it would be fun to have someone on here shoot me the stems for a song they recorded that isn't sounding how they want it to and mix it here & see if I can get them there. Maybe in August I'll have the time to give that a go if someone wants to give it a shot.

Fairly certain nobody on the boards is interested in this but there is news on this-

Spotiy has changed their Normaization Level

Here's the gist-

Spotify has lowered its normalization level from -11 LUFS to -14 LUFS, matching Tidal and bringing it closer to iTunes (-16 LUFS).

The new level provides increased headroom for dynamics, meaning that dynamic music will play back just as loud as more compressed music.

and if you care to read more the article is here:

http://meterplugs.com/blog/2017/07/19/spotify-lowers-normalization-level.html?utm_source=MeterPlugs+Newsletter&utm_campaign=d7415634f8-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_07_20&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_dfa3db1db5-d7415634f8-111886349&mc_cid=d7415634f8&mc_eid=5bf08f1400

Makes for a good read while you wait for the beach ball of death spiral on your session to JUST STOP...

Tis true...

However, if you can let us know what you would like to do I can definitely offer some very inexpensive options for you. Some are even free.

In either case what kind of computer you're using would be helpful.

Gotcha- but just for clarity-

You said you wanted to make music in the style of Kygo...

So does that mean you're interest is in making music (procudcer) & DJing?

Or just one or the other?

Sure. Experience playing is helpful tho not required- not from what I've seen.

Is this a gear question?

What kind of music do you wanna spin?