Music Producers / Studio Thread

[ROYALEFATALE]

couple of questions I wouldn't mind hearing some opinions on.

1. What do you think about layering kicks?

2. What do you think about pitch tuning kicks/drum elements?

layering kicks can be good and bad, i wouldn't say they're as easy to layer as snares because the punch/sub/decay frequencies can overlap and mud up if you get too much going on at once, and pitching drums is an absolute must, i pitch everything from the kick to the hi hats, you'd be suprised at how much of a difference it makes, really helps to glue everything together, also your ears will notice how everything just sounds 'right' with the proper tuning

[FADEtoDARKNESS]

Hap,

My friend is tryin to make it big. I'll link one of his songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odQWUku8CWQ

What do you think?

[ROYALEFATALE]

^ the snare sounds painfully dry, like raw 808 no verb no enveloping dry, also the pitched snare roll at 1:00 sounds a bit fucked up/offbeat, nice vibes though and a nice concept, had me nodding my head

[eequalsmcbrill]

I have some tracks on my soundcloud. Beat shit yada yada feelin me.

www.soundcloud.com/chits

Also have an EP released. let me know if you guys would like a download link! any criticism would be greatly appreciated, and i'm down to talk general music theory with any of you cats. word em up

[FADEtoDARKNESS]

I like M0RE, so please provide download link

[eequalsmcbrill]

http://youllsoonknow.us/post/339980547/chits-junt

all kinds of sounds on the EP called Junt. let me know what you think.

[jake/]

layering kicks can be good and bad, i wouldn't say they're as easy to layer as snares because the punch/sub/decay frequencies can overlap and mud up if you get too much going on at once, and pitching drums is an absolute must, i pitch everything from the kick to the hi hats, you'd be suprised at how much of a difference it makes, really helps to glue everything together, also your ears will notice how everything just sounds 'right' with the proper tuning

so tuning to the key of song right?

[haploid]

so tuning to the key of song right?

Yes. Another trick I do is to have the sub-ness of the kick tuned to a power chord in a sense in accordance to the punch. Adds an interesting dynamic. I love a big fat ass kick so I basically spent a year doing nothing other than making kicks. One of these days I'm gonna wrap them up in a folder for you guys!

[ROYALEFATALE]

^^ that would be dope, i have too many kicks to count from different sample packs and whatnot, some of them good, most of them awful haha ADM's drum machine does a nice job at synthesizing 808/909/606 kicks which is usually where i start from

[aleopold]

would this be the right thread to ask where i can find instrumentals of songs? i'd like to dabble on some cover versions.

[ROYALEFATALE]

youtube or google is where i turn to for instrumentals, just type the song name + instrumental and voila

[jake/]

royalefatale you use mackie mr5's correct? I am looking into getting some and am wondering if you would recommend them.

[ROYALEFATALE]

yeah i do and i would personally recommend them, other people have said they're too bass heavy, but they have hi/low frequency boost on the back, they also sound amazing at lower levels and when cranked, no mudding or distortion and will definitely do the job for mixing, not the best monitor out there but for the price they're very hard to beat

[ROYALEFATALE]

pretty sure beats are like the Bose of headphones, EQ trickery and shit moreso than a quality/accurate sound

[jake/]

thanks, you guys are always really helpful.

[cyberPUNK]

anyone know where i can get an akai apc40 or something that would work similarly for around $200. i've got ableton live 8 and would like to at least play around with it a bit. total novice concept.

[destructodisk]

just kop apc20 for 1/2 the price of the 40, but still most of the capabilities (sans knobz) http://www.akaipro.com/apc20

or get a korg padkontrol -- also dope

[Phishphood]

Not entirely related to the question, but I think this warning should go out to everyone in the production thread: whatever you do, don't get KRK RokitPowered 5"s. I have them (still haven't been able to upgrade) and loathe them more and more every day. There is a bass boost that occurs from about 75-120 hz, making mixing kicks near impossible when exclusively using them. Couple this boost with the lack of acoustics treatment, and you have a muddy mess. I trust my cheapo $30 Sennheiser headphones more than I do my $300 monitors since the tracks that I've mixed mostly in the headphones have translated way better than the monitor mixes. I've had mixes with my monitors where the mud was so thick that I couldn't even hear that I was having major clipping in the attack of a percussive sound.

I'll probably end up investing in a good pair of headphones to work on for the most part since I'm going to be moving out soon and don't want to invest in room treatment, anyone have any suggestions?

PS. I listened to Beats By Dre the other day and wasn't impressed at all. Nothing remotely special. Was this the case for you guys or have they lived up to the hype?

HD-280s are good and only $100 but they can get uncomfortable after a while. I prefer my HD-25s but they're a little more expensive, I think I paid like $155 on ebay for them.

[FM_Synthesizer]

knobs are sick tho

just look at craigslist for one constantly. might take a while but eventually you'll see one for sale and you can call and lowball the shit out of the dude

[AL-9000]

the beats line is a partnership between interscope, monster, and hp supposedly started by dre but i'm not sure exactly how much he has to do with anything...but yea just look at how ridiculously priced monster cables are and you'll see it's the same kinda deal with these headphones.

[AL-9000]

the beats line is a partnership between interscope, monster, and hp supposedly started by dre but i'm not sure exactly how much he has to do with anything...but yea just look at how ridiculously priced monster cables are and you'll see it's the same kinda deal with these headphones.

[jake/]

http://soundcloud.com/sift/august-28

small part of a larger track i was working on, got really sick of doing so. Figured id post this though so all my time spent wasn't gone to complete waste.

used an un-layered 808 for the first time which I definitely liked in some ways.

Kinda lazy on mixing this one. hi-hats were definitely more of an afterthought and just detract from the rest.

[ROYALEFATALE]

just made this, spacey as ffff, need some feedback on the mix plz, i always have trouble getting sub bass at the right level for most systems

http://www.mediafire.com/?pz9sog8ob029h26

[haploid]

Ok I'm gonna write this as I listen:

First bass drop is certainly pretty heavy and got my attention

Build up flows pretty smoothly

Kick/snare sound too "stock" IMO. Very punchy, but doesn't sit quite right

Pads get a little bit old... Maybe add some automation of the filter?

That melody could use to be a bit more "forward" in the mix so it's more of a focal point instead of an accent

Melody's progression is a bit too predictable for my liking

The sweeping FX are very nice and subtly add anticipation which is very nice... Could be compressed a bit for a bit more impact.

Hope this is helpful.

[ROYALEFATALE]

definitely helped, i just started playing with stuff, mostly pads and came out with that, ps. the kick is yours it is super repetitive maybe part of something else, any recommendations on the snare? it's fairly natural with added tail/verb behind it

[haploid]

Maybe a pre-delay would work well with it? 35-70 ms should work and add a bit of separation between the snare and the tail adding more of a push/pul dynamic.

[ROYALEFATALE]

ps. ya i'm down to collab sometime

[destructodisk]

yo here's a new quick track from yesterday for ya'll to hear!

http://www.throwthisaway.org/9-6-10.mp3

lemme know what you thinks, album dropping oct. 17th

[ROYALEFATALE]

^^ sounds nice, first thing that came to mind instantly was like some kind of swizz beatz production, just that cowbell type sound reminds me of like an old eve track or something, i enjoyed it.

[mrjuby]

first thing i thought of was

gaoCsmFDLcY

i like it though.