Post your production tips

[Left]

Originally Posted by Stefan Anion

any good condenser mic will do, like an SM-58

you mean SM-81 perhaps?
hehe.

[hippyk]

Originally Posted by JOLLYGREENJIANT

2. Run compression on kicks and snares
11. And for the love of GOD master your tracks. Dont just render and think its gonna sound good.

1. Running compression on kicks and snares creates great products, but sometimes the compression is not needed, in what cases to you use compression on these and please elberate on the type of sound you start with before compression and the type of sound you are trying to achieve.

2. If you could please elberate on the type of mastering you are speaking of: just using a maximixer, or multiband compression and eq as well. What type of plugin chains or mastering vst's do you use. My mastering chain usualy goes the waves c4 ( not sure if that is the correct name of it) multiband compressor, the waves renasonce 8 band eq, then the waves L2, I have used ozone 3 but don't like the user inferface of the vst.

Just thought some people gaining knowledge from this tips thread might want a little more insight on these things.

[DJ Finle]

I can't believe it's been like three years since this thread. I copied a lot of this stuff and stored it on someones computer and it got lost. I just thought of it the other day and wished I had it. Since all the production talk going on I thought it my be relevant. So yeah ugh BUMP AGAIN

[DJ Finle]

God I love this thread, it's like being back in Audio School.

[Tymeless]

wow, I should have joined in earlier on this thread. lots of great advice and The EQ chart Kelle posted is permanently on my live mixer. Its a great starting point to setting up my live concerts.

As for what was said on clipping, Digital setups clip at 0, there is no tape saturation in digital. What you are doing is overloading you AD Chips and the audio is being dropped.

For capturing samples around you in nature, M-Audio has a great high quality hand held digital recorder with built in microphones that is great for field sampling. Carry it with you everywhere, you never know when you will hear something that will intrigue you to play with it

a 303 through Guitar Rig 2 sounds insane! Try stuff you wouldn't normally think would work, Its always Undo able in your DAW

Other than that, most of my experience is live tracking, and live sound. Great info here tho.

[Oscuro]

This should be a Sticky.

[DJ Finle]

Originally Posted by Nick Miranda

This should be a Sticky.

I concur. Sticky it

[Yoko Phono]

Here's another one. Use the Ozone 3.

*Swoons*

[Tyler J]

sweet thread.. going to take a while to read it.

[further]

Kick Drum
When you want to EQ a kick drum's:
thump: try 100Hz
skin snap: try 5000Hz

Snare Drum
When you want to EQ a snare drum's:
bang: try 400Hz
crack: try 2000Hz
crispness: try 5600Hz

Other drum kit sounds
When you want to EQ:
a drumstick tip hitting the hihat: try 4000Hz
a hihat's sizzle: try 10kHz
a cymbal's sizzle: try 10kHz
a drumstick tip on a cymbal's bell: try 1000Hz
a tom's warmth: try 300Hz
a tom's skin: try 6300 Hz

Vocals
When you want to EQ a singer's:
warmth: try 180Hz
notes: try 1000Hz
breathiness: try 10kHz

Bass
When you want to EQ a bass's:
warmth: try 160Hz
notes: try 500Hz
bas overtones, or "air": try 5000Hz

Other
When you want to EQ:
an acoustic guitar's sparkle: try 10kHz
an electric piano's tines, or "sparkle": try 6300Hz
a synth's overtone, or "air": try 8000Hz
-----------------------------------------------
Something that I learned to boost your drums a little and make them really push without clipping.
make a chain in your main inserts for the drum(s) channel:
EQ
COMPRESSER
LIMITER
(IN THAT ORDER)
----------------------------------------------
Try not to use too many effects in each channel, limit yourself to no more than three per channel.
----------------------------------------------
All the samples or sounds from synths need to be EQ'ed properly. Get rid of all lower frequencies that are not the bass to get rid of any muddiness that will come out of the tune that you are working on.
----------------------------------------------
I think that personally you can just use software to get a really good creative edge on things. But for those that think that everyone can afford hardware and thinks that makes their music better needs to listent to more music. There are plenty of internationally known musicians and acts that use nothing but software with the exception of some tools for getting a better mixdown i.e. mixing board.
----------------------------------------------
Native-Instruments.com
Albino 3
Ozone
T-racks
Cubase
these are alll links
---------------------------------------------
4 DNB PRODUCERS: CHECK THIS SITE
WWW.DNBWIKI.COM
---------------------------------------------
I hope that some of this is useful. It helps me a lot.
Peace

Me@Myspace
SEVENSIXDESIGN.COM IN THE WORKS
PeerPressureRecordings
My Brother Darrell 'Delite' Allamby
My Brother Devone 'Trackstar' Allamly

[further]

DRUMS

1. No matter what program you are using try running all the drum sounds seperate kind of like mic-ing a real drum set. It will make a really big difference. And yes you should layer drums to get a stronger drums.

2. When using a loop try to run a high pass filter on it and layer it with original drums to give your original drums a little more flavor. I am mainly focusing on dnb here in case some people are wondering.

3. Try to get the best high quality sound samps that are out there for you drums.

4. Best tool for drums in software to me is Battery. You can set all the different sections to seperate audio channels to have more control over the spacing of the drums.

5. Follow the EQ chart that I posted to mess around to get desired effects.


"I am still learning more everyday."

[further]

DO NOT PRODUCE AT HIGH VOLUMES. I MAKE THE MISTAKE ALL THE TIME BUT REALLY IT IS BETTER TO EQ AT LOWER VOLUMES TO GET BEST RESULTS.

[further]

SUB-BASS
SINE WAVE GENERATOR AND SET TO APPROPIATE Hz AND dB.

AND KEEP ALL OTHER SOUNDS OUT OF THAT FREQUENCY RANGE TO RID YOURSELF OF ALL MUDDINESS. THIS WILL THEN SET BELOW ALL MID FREQUENCIES TO GIVE YOUR SONG THAT BUMP.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++
Try making a really fast 8 measure loop of sounds and cut the bottom end. Add the same 8 measure loop with just sub and boost the bottom end to see what I am talking about.

"I am still learning more everyday."

[I AM EL-NINO]

Originally Posted by Kelle Marie

I keep this by the computer:

20 Hz and below - impossible to detect, remove as it only adds unnecessary energy to the total sound, thereby most probably holding down the overall volume of the track
60 Hz and below - sub bass (feel only)
80(-100) Hz - feel AND hear bass
100-120 Hz - the "club sound system punch" resides here
200 Hz and below - bottom
250 Hz - notch filter here can add thump to a kick drum
150-400 Hz - boxiness
200 Hz-1.5 KHz - punch, fatness, impact
800 Hz-4 KHz - edge, clarity, harshness, defines timbre
4500 Hz - exteremly tiring to the ears, add a slight notch here
5-7 KHz - de-essing is done here
4-9 KHz - brightness, presence, definition, sibilance, high frequency distortion
6-15 KHz - air and presence
9-15 KHz - adding will give sparkle, shimmer, bring out details - cutting will smooth out harshness and darken the mix
60Hz with a Q of 1.4 -- Add fullness to kicks.
100Hz with a Q of 1.0 -- Add fullness to snare
200Hz - 250Hz with a Q of 1.4 -- Adds wood to snares
3Khz with a Q of 1.4 -- Adds atack to snare.
5Khz with a Q of 2.8 -- Adds attack to Kicks
7Khz with a Q of 2.8 -- Adds Sharpness to snares and percussion
10Khz with a Q of 1.0 -- Adds brightness to hats and cymbals

FREQUENCY:
USES:

50Hz
1. Increase to add more fullness to lowest frequency instruments like foot, toms, and the bass.
2. Reduce to decrease the "boom" of the bass and will increase overtones and the recognition of bass line in the mix. This is most often used on loud bass lines like rock.

100Hz
1. Increase to add a harder bass sound to lowest frequency instruments.
2. Increase to add fullness to guitars, snare.
3. Increase to add warmth to piano and horns.
4. Reduce to remove boom on guitars & increase clarity.

200Hz
1. Increase to add fullness to vocals.
2. Increase to add fullness to snare and guitar ( harder sound ).
3. Reduce to decrease muddiness of vocals or mid-range instruments.
4. Reduce to decrease gong sound of cymbals.

400Hz
1. Increase to add clarity to bass lines especially when speakers are at low volume.
2. Reduce to decrease "cardboard" sound of lower drums (foot and toms).
3. Reduce to decrease ambiance on cymbals.

800Hz
1. Increase for clarity and "punch" of bass.
2. Reduce to remove "cheap" sound of guitars.

1.5KHz
1. Increase for "clarity" and "pluck" of bass.
2. Reduce to remove dullness of guitars.

3KHz
1. Increase for more "pluck" of bass.
2. Increase for more attack of electric / acoustic guitar.
3. Increase for more attack on low piano parts.
4. Increase for more clarity / hardness on voice.
5. Reduce to increase breathy, soft sound on background vocals.
6. Reduce to disguise out-of-tune vocals / guitars.

5KHz
1. Increase for vocal presence.
2. Increase low frequency drum attack ( foot / toms).
3. Increase for more "finger sound" on bass.
4. Increase attack of piano, acoustic guitar and brightness on guitars (especially rock guitars).
5. Reduce to make background parts more distant.
6. Reduce to soften "thin" guitar.

7KHz
1. Increase to add attack on low frequency drums ( more metallic sound ).
2. Increase to add attack to percussion instruments.
3. Increase on dull singer.
4. Increase for more "finger sound" on acoustic bass.
5. Reduce to decrease "s" sound on singers.
6. Increase to add sharpness to synthesizers, rock guitars, acoustic guitar and piano.

10KHz
1. Increase to brighten vocals.
2. Increase for "light brightness" in acoustic guitar and piano.
3. Increase for hardness on cymbals.
4. Reduce to decrease "s" sound on singers.

15KHz
1. Increase to brighten vocals (breath sound).
2. Increase to brighten cymbals, string instruments and flutes.
3. Increase to make sampled synthesizer sound more real.

There are more great production tips on the studio forum at undergroundhouse.net

A+ Very nice. Ill print this out for myself. thanks

[justbenjamin]

Originally Posted by Left

mmm, imo, don't always normalize to 100% (or unity) when layering a sounds after full normalization it's much easier to clip....QUICKLY.

I'm with you on this one, Left. Normalizin' is over used by the lazy. The master output doesn't have to slam the ceiling to sound strong. I know this is general, but it's often overlooked... Use high quality cables and be mindful of your signal flow. The shortest distance often results in less noise and a cleaner signal. Judicious use of the frequency spectrum, in the end, produces fine results.

It's important to explore. Nobody thought The White Stripes would be anything without a bass player!