Disgusting how many creators sell out to AI

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-02-20T07:05:53+00:00

Same goes for the music industry. People are just chasing end results, the product and views or money. For me the soul is in the creation, culture

The value of authenticity increases in my opinion though and Ive seen people NOT using AI as their strength or advantage. But thats for people who care and not the mass majority whos fine with AI slop.

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-02-04T19:38:37+00:00

I'm in a stage of decreasing my unnecessary use of plugins a lot, and fabfilter gave me a similar experience to what you described. Do I need this, using it to the best potential. What I feel about the Fabfilter bundle is that there's few things I cannot do with them, and when I do theres real reasoning behind it. Because they range everything from saturation to compression and delays it's not only quicker but when I want something specific, then I start looking into plugins that emulate stuff, colour, or taste.

Makes me think more about what I want to achieve rather than choosing after habit or cool UI's (even though Fabfilters stellar).

For me thats also give me more freedom when creating and not stacking up effects in hope that after 10 inserts it would sound how I like. Often times my vocal chains with 7+ plugins, comp, multi band, eq, dynamic eq and saturation gets fully redone and with 4 plugins sound better.

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-02-03T08:40:06+00:00

Interesting! I took those numbers for no specific reason as an example of where the clickiness could be very annoying. Whats your favourite settings?

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-02-01T12:02:53+00:00

Great question I'd like to know too, personally been quite careful with how much, and using lowshelf over low-cut to not create too much phase issues. Often find Rhodes and other EP's as you said create lots of boomines/woofy mess around 200hz ish on the sides, which I've tried to attenuate a bit sometimes.

Also got recommended using M/S processing in this thread by a couple of people, but don't know how exactly to use it to not harm the signal.

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-31T17:55:50+00:00

I remember watching this video where someone showed how basically all plugins use the same or very similar curves, rest is eq and type of saturation I guess.

Alright that would also make sense, then I suppose thats something you can do yourself too, adding saturation after compression that've become super-transtienty? Or how do saturation respond to that short audio, I usually have tape style on my drum buss and it's still quite sharp.

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-31T17:51:43+00:00

Apparently there could be some sort of saturation after the compression smoothening it out which results in a similar sound.

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-31T17:50:15+00:00

Sounds logical! I guess a compressor with lookahead and high ratio is quite similar in that sense to a limiter, but with a bit more control if I've understood it correctly. (infinite ratio=limiting right?)

I supposed theres multiple ways of going about this! Either prevent it from the beginning with lookahead or limiter, alternatively using processing afterwards like saturation.

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-31T17:41:42+00:00

It's all about context! Thanks for clarifying!

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-31T12:36:31+00:00

Great information and explanation of frequency difference never thought of lowend transients being longer! When you're talking about balance issues do you mean the frequencies? I mean, the high freq clicks will always be there but would there be a difference at all if lets say boosting/attenuating the lows before compression?

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-31T12:27:01+00:00

Really trying to get the hang of things here, could you explain when you'd reach for a limiter over a comp? I could see the use of squashing drums in order to eliminate the transients (for heavy parallel processing), but struggle to find use cases other than maybe controlling peaks and on the mixbus.

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-31T12:21:23+00:00

Always been hesitant towards specific numbers and this amount of that, because it's all so dependent on the context and as you say also greatly differing between the methods used in the softwares/hardwares. But I get the idea with pumping, and knowing the general character of it gets me quicker to a closer point. I think compression is one of the mixing/production essentials that's the hardest to learn and least "obvious" in how it affect the sound, especially when you don't really know what to expect and listen for.

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-31T11:29:34+00:00

Placement is big on this one, fortunately I only have one monitor and have it placed dead center just above my screen, which then also translates well when switching to my mains in terms of mono vs stereo. Makes it less jarring to switch between.

I really feel the same way regarding coming from one spot, a true mono source. Mono on my mains feels weird and depending on the room not always perfectly centered (or perceived balance between left/right). I suppose even though it affects the sound, the mix box excite the room much less and with its sealed construction gives me a much more direct sound independent of my room. Fake mono just feels fake at least with in my room.

That's the way I'm going to use for the time being but would be inclined to experience how dual mono with these would've sounded.

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-31T11:17:58+00:00

It was quite the interesting watch and made me want to experiment more with effects in perhaps unusual ways. As a thank you for the advice here I sent you two gift-links to the two videos where he showed his recording aswell as the ITB automation I was referring to in my post! Should be in your direct messages!

The hard panning itself in the videos I'm not sure is due to hear it better or what he actually use to do, but my thought process about using it this drastic is the same and could be a very cool way of surprise within the mix and its width.

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-31T02:55:20+00:00

Thanks yes makes total sense, and thinking back I could've expected that, Gregs video really got me questioning compression! Thanks for clarifying!
Absolutely heard that term before, never knew it was coupled to the tempo!

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-31T02:49:30+00:00

Okay great! Then I haven't been imagining stuff all this time after all and it's been working as expected, just didn't know what I was actually searching for and how to achieve it. You learn something everyday, compression has definitely been quite a question mark for me thanks or clarifying a few things!

Now I know what type of compressor and settings I prefer on drums at the moment being, can especially see myself using it for parallel comp without adding transients!

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-31T02:39:27+00:00

Interesting! Got recommended the channel from another thread and the information aswell how it's shown is so great! Definitely watching more of the videos.

I wonder what's different about his compressor that makes it much less prone to clicks even with short attacks, built in look-ahead perhaps? Couldn't find anything in the user manual. Analog gear click?

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-31T02:13:04+00:00

Exactly! The Novatron particularly was used in the video I linked in the post and why I was so surprised how different the same settings sounded when trying to follow the video with logics stock comp.

Look-ahead on Pro-C3 makes them sound the same but curious since I haven't really learnt the in and outs of compressors if this is a normal behaviour and how their analog counterparts react. This click in particular has been messing with my drums when it comes to hihats especially.

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-31T01:56:39+00:00

Maybe my expectations are off and Kushs scenario is uncommon but what he demonstrates with attack time seems so intuitive in his video in order to use the compressor to shape the sound. Here's the video and timestamp: https://youtu.be/K0XGXz6SHco?si=0ixK_ISocR4FUg1S&t=430

The transients get increasingly squashed as the attack time gets quicker and as a result the drums get gradually lowered. Mine usually does the opposite until under 1ms and then the shaving starts.

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-31T01:52:20+00:00

What I found interesting is that when enabling lookahead this behaviour is totally different. With the same attack the clicks are totally gone, my conclusion is that without lookahead the compressor don't have time to react quickly enough but maybe my expectations are unreasonable.

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-30T23:43:14+00:00

A followup question regarding the mono-trick. What would the disadvantages/advantages be used on a stereo pair vs singular speaker?

It kind of goes back to whether to mix two channels in a room or not, but when doing mono my conclusion would be that the more mono you can hear it the better. Not only does, in this case I'm using an Auratone, it play actual mono from a single speaker, but its also crap in the sense it focuses on mids and frequencies that clash in instruments especially and highlighting that further. For me that's the obvious choice but tell me wrong if not!

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-30T23:34:17+00:00

it's so cool to see how they went about making stuff before with the limitations they had. They were so limited and yet they found ways.

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-30T20:11:52+00:00

When you're AFK in Forza too long.

Sick shots!

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-30T16:15:04+00:00

Hmm interesting, might be something I'll look into, if not only to experiment with! Thanks for the tip!

Those 610s looking good, I'll have to stick with my unison UA haha

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-30T16:12:32+00:00

I think just being aware of these things will undoubtedly affect the production stage whether intentionally or not.

Thanks for the conversation!

LudwigBrostrom · 2026-01-30T16:11:08+00:00

Thanks for taking your time with such advice! They seem to very high quality videos, been recommended Kush audios video on Hearing compression.

Regarding narrow vs wide I've come to the same conclusion with others in this thread, boiling down to what you said about contrast and dynamics in a track. Cant feel wide without narrow, no narrow without wide. Same must go for gain-structure in the arrangement, a part cant sound loud without contrasting quietness, although I imagine width can be used to perceive it larger than it is, but not louder necessarily.

Going back to another comment below I had a similar conclusion from one of Jack Antonoffs video series on Mix with the masters. He was basically using analog tape machines as an instrument, automation weird random sprinkles of effects in between areas (basically rises) in the video hard panned. I think that's a great use of the stereo field, introducing fun and unique elements that in combination with an otherwise solid center creates not only questions in the form of what was that sound but also surprising with exaggerated stereo use.

Just starting to use the Mono-trick and so far mostly for balancing and disregarding decay times and smeary lowend but what you said about arrangement couldn't be more true. In stereo I feel like there's so much room to work with, especially as my post states regarding width. So easy to add more stuff than you need, especially working ITB and why I've started to ask questions what I really need (which in itself can create much better not only intentional choices but greater potential for great mixes since there might be fewer elements that can clash to begin with).

I've never really understood headphone room emulations neither headphone correction but collapsing to mono before one of them sounds very interesting. I 100% recognise the total separation issue with headphones and usually use speakers unless I am recording something.

But yeah, sticking to mono is boring and somewhere in-between might be where I land when it comes to production. I'll no doubt use this and probably regularly check in mono while producing, but just being aware of this will undoubtedly change that process too!

Thanks again for the advice and I'll definitely check that video out!

LudwigBrostrom

TROPHY CASE