***ThE AUDIO TIPS & TRICKS THREAD***

also for beginning producers i recommend quantizing the drum tracks. Personally i think a beat can sound too quantized. Some producers will get good enough that quantizing isn't necessary. if your drum game isn't on par, you better quantize.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sense-A

i'll keep this simple: I use a cheap program to just see how i want a mix arranged. I play it on the fly. I uploaded the version i use. http://sharebee.com/9f97d6f1 I'll use this to maybe test how my beat sounds sped up or slowed down "time stretched" or just use it to get an idea how my levels should be adjusted. I usually record several different versions of my beat. For instance i might slide in 4 different versions i did of the same beat or 4 different sequences to a single song and use this low memory usage mixer to get an idea of what i want to then do in my audio mastering software. For that you can't be relying on windows sound recorder. There are plenty of free programs you can get that will do what you need them to do. put "free wave editor" in a search engine and download something. you fork up some doe you can get mastering software with functions such as noise reduction, low pass and high pass filters, normalizing, effects, phases, dynamic processing and envelope functions, auto loop finding, time stretching and whatever the audio engineers can conjure up. cut copy and paste the various sequences you recorded to make up one master song. Fix any sequencing glitches.....get comfortable normalizing everything , and often. everytime i sample the first thing i do is normalize. or truncate and then normalize. You'll get in routine habits like this. I'm also not afraid to refer to a manual. I get the pdf manuals and keep them saved and i use them. Some people won't even help you if you ask a simple question that is answered on page 10 of the software/hardware manual.

Clipping. The idea is not to have a recording ever clip in the first place. Monitor your levels! If you have two guys in a session and one raps louder than the other, know this ahead of time. have a different preset for each vocalist or for each instrument. If you are just a kid using fl studio demo, think about getting a cheap midi controller. usb, plugs right in lets you play the keys for the sounds on your computer. Or take the extra step and get a drum machine or synthesizer that is also a sampler and/or sound module as well as a midi controller. I know a lot of you make beats on your PC. i recommend having at least a good sound card, and at least one real peice of hardware or musical instrument beside a pc. but do what you want.

If you are only recording one set of balanced/unbalanced inputs, have each sound within the recording mastered/tweaked FIRST so that the kicks have punch and the snare isn't too loud whatever. You won't be able to change each element later. Other people will track out each instrument in the sequence on a separate line and record so that each instrument is on its own channel. that way you can tweak/master a particular element of the track such as later deciding to turn up the hi hat or the bass drum. But this takes up a lot of RAM memory, you better have a good pc, soundcard, large hd, and software setup to record 8+ channels at the same time.

midi basics. Midi doesn't transfer sound. when i talk about a midi controller, it just tells the computer when to play a certain note. the sound is still coming out of the audio application/computer. You can use different midi devices to control parameters of another midi device. It works out good when you want to use an mpc for the sequencer but a synthesizer/sampler for the sounds. or if you want to use hardware for your sounds but your computer for the sequencer.

My preferred method of transferring audio is sampling. I will sample a sound from one instrument to another instead of wasting time converting files and saving / loading etc. I guess you can get to a point when something sounds oversampled and much of the original audio information is lost. Just depends on what you are trying to do.

The best drumkits are the ones you make yourself. Just wait for a part of the song when only the drummer is playing. Record the whole part. The chop up the drum track so that you have each different drum hit truncated out and assigned to a different key/pad. Downloading drumkits off the internet is usually something only a rookie will even bother to do. I've tried it and rarely do i even find anything good enough to work with. I'd rather just turn my radio on to a soul station and sample the next song that comes on and get some kind of sound out of it. a piano key or a drum hit or guitar note.

Sound bounces around. Thats why people use softening materials like padding around the room or foam, blankets on the wall whatever. people even tried using egg cartons. Mic sounds better in the center of the room. make sure the mic has a good pre-amp going to it and that you've tested the levels. If you are going to record, there is a lot of prep work involved. pops and clicks need to be dealt with in the beginning. the prep work is easier than trying to fix a problem later. I've lost plenty of good beats and songs just because i had a bad recording that was beyond repair later on. Don't put yourself through it.

---

Good read.

Thanks for sharing.

A lot of people make the mistake of when EQing the bass kick always go right ahead and turn turn up the bass frequencies. If you don't have not too great of sounds, this with actually make it sound worse, and more musty. Using a compressor to a certain extent is much better.

I acutally have a question too, when mixing drums, which parts of the drums should have stereo seperation and which parts shouldn't? Should only the snares have mono seperation and the kicks have stereo, something I've noticed when listening to records is that certain instruments in the drums have different seperations.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mass Effekt

A lot of people make the mistake of when EQing the bass kick always go right ahead and turn turn up the bass frequencies. If you don't have not too great of sounds, this with actually make it sound worse, and more musty. Using a compressor to a certain extent is much better.

I acutally have a question too, when mixing drums, which parts of the drums should have stereo seperation and which parts shouldn't? Should only the snares have mono seperation and the kicks have stereo, something I've noticed when listening to records is that certain instruments in the drums have different seperations.

---

Not sure what you mean by "musty", some might call that dirty, gritty, raw, vintage...depending on what you are thinking of as musty. But you probably mean muffled and yeah that is not good. I think layering kicks and all drum sounds in general is huge, if you are just EQing a single copy of a kick drum track you can't do as much as if you EQ or filter a few diff ways then blend them, or layer another kick with it to create a diff character in the sound. layering creates thickness without necessarily having to dramatically turn up certain frequencies

as far as your 2nd part, really all sounds in a mix should be separated to some degree. if everything were center panned, it would be a muddled mess. think of a mix as a horizontal line from 100% left to 100% right, you want each sound to have its own place along that horizontal line, some sounds like kicks and snares stay closer to the center usually but youll notice the melody elements, hats, and backup vocals in most songs have significant panning, the lead vocal should go right in the center, so consider that when mixing, you need to leave room

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sinapse

as far as your 2nd part, really all sounds in a mix should be separated to some degree. if everything were center panned, it would be a muddled mess. think of a mix as a horizontal line from 100% left to 100% right, you want each sound to have its own place along that horizontal line, some sounds like kicks and snares stay closer to the center usually but youll notice the melody elements, hats, and backup vocals in most songs have significant panning, the lead vocal should go right in the center, so consider that when mixing, you need to leave room

---

word

another way I've heard it put is to mix in 3 dimensions. the 3 dimensions are basically height depth and width and you can apply that to music. height is low to high and can be looked at as EQ, depth as volume, reverb or the wetness of effects (the proximity of the sound) and width (left to right) as panning. the key is maintaining a balance in all 3 dimensions. when EQing, kicks aren't the only things that can muffle your sound. basically any two sounds that land on the same frequencies will distort each other. you can avoid this by controlling your height, or your EQ. apply that same philosophy to the other two 'dimensions' and your mix will start sounding a lot better.

an interesting way to visualize it is to think of the mix as a sphere. if all your sounds are using roughly the same frequencies, at the same volume, on the center channel, in other words, all stacked on top of each other at the same location on the sphere, it will muddy up your sound. you want to spread those sounds as much as you can to free them up, so that they're as clear and audible in the mix as you want them to be.

so when you pan sounds, don't just do it at random, there's always a reason behind it. separate sounds that will distort each other, like a kick and a bass or a hi-hat and a crash cymbal. there's all this room in the mix that ppl neglect to use and that's the main reason ppl's mix be soundin amateur.

peace

I need a audio converter because my files are stuck audacity files.
It keeps saying I need a lame library or something like that.
can anyone help me with this trouble shooting?

1. download.com

2. switch converter

Any MPC2000XL gods in here? or can anyone direct me to the nearest MPC czar? ol

if you haven't already - check the akai mpc forum (google it)
there's a shitload of info & tips there, probably much more than you'll find here

yea i been there id figure i could get sum quick real time answers on here though cuz im spending too much time researching shit and no time actually creating lol good lookin tho!

lol i run into that from time to time too
never worked with an mpc tho
peace

HELP!!!!!!!!!
Can anyone advise on the correct set up for MPC2000XL(i dont have the 8 outs), Turntable & Mackie 16 ch track mixer?

I wanna have track 1 for my keyboard sounds, Track 2 for the MPC Drums, Tarck 3 shold be for turntable sampling no?

im a little lost on the connection between Turntable, Mixer & MPC..

rite now i have my Turntable directly into my MPC and MPC to mixer and i dont feel thats totally rite.. shouldn't turntable be on a separate track?

Pls Help!

I put my turntable in the mixer but I dont have an mpc so....
my mixer goes into my sound card on my computer.I plug the turntable into the mixer and then use the extra mixer channel for my SP404.

everything into the mixer

mixer out into speakers or receiver or computer.you pick.

ummmmm thanks...... anyone else??

naw man aint nobody else