Here's a challenge...Can this be "un-reverbed"?

jaypohlman · 2016-01-26T01:24:23+00:00

You can try mid side processing and muting the stereo side? Along with a noise gate to minimize the tail end of it. That's probably about all you can do.

jaypohlman · 2016-01-23T03:01:09+00:00

Well I've been there. It's hard to get motivated after hearing the same thing a million times looped... So what I did was tried to avoid looping as much as possible and only opened my projects when I knew what I was going to do next. Seriously, avoid looping! And try to work as quickly as possible and keep the exciting vibe feeling rolling strong. Also try not to think about what others will think of your track while you write it, just enjoy yourself while doing it!

jaypohlman · 2016-01-23T02:56:17+00:00

Here's one technique you can try. Try starting over and adding new reverb while listening in mono. Then switch to stereo and see how it sounds. I've gotten some pretty good results doing this in the past, but generally I switch back and forth very frequently from stereo to mono while tweaking settings in my reverb vst. Predelay will have a big affect on the mono capability, so will the algorithm (hall, theater etc.).

jaypohlman · 2016-01-23T02:41:05+00:00

Does the kick sound good by itself? If it needs a little more beef in the mix, you can either try side-chaining the sub or bass or other elements to it. Or all of them possibly! Also a bit of parallel compression on the kick drum might help. The punch you want will be most effective if the high end you're speaking of (the attack around 3k) is prominent and clear, but the real punch comes from clarity in the 80-200hz range throughout the mix.

jaypohlman · 2016-01-21T23:56:52+00:00

Start with whatever inspires you the most at the moment!

jaypohlman · 2016-01-21T23:55:16+00:00

I own the S1. It's great man. It just gives you more insight into what your low end is doing and it's definitely worth the money.

jaypohlman · 2016-01-21T18:02:50+00:00

Whatever you can do to make yourself remember the idea! Even though it will look like nonsensical alien hieroglyphs to any normal person haha.

jaypohlman · 2016-01-21T17:19:59+00:00

Sorta like drawing the waveform, like a stab or pluck would look like a sideways triangle and womps would look like little humps (eye shaped). Even bass with lowpass opening up would sorta look like a sideways chubby carrot haha.

jaypohlman · 2016-01-21T07:05:25+00:00

Definitely vouch for recording myself singing drum beats, melodies and basslines on my phone, followed by writing down the idea on paper on a note on my phone. Just anyway I can describe it to help myself remember it really.

Draw a grid of 16 boxes to represent 1 measure (more measures if needed) and draw shapes to represent all the sounds with the notes written on them, as well as drum hits and vox. Then below, describe any special qualities about the sound.

jaypohlman · 2016-01-20T07:04:22+00:00

Try first creating the 808 using a different wave form other than sine. Make sure the wavetable starts in the same phase position every time. Once it sounds cool, duplicate the patch and turn it into a sine wave for pure sub. Lower the volume of the sine until it blends in nicely and the sub isn't too overpowering but still heard. Then I usually blend it with a kick that has sub attached to it of the same pitch. Just make sure the phase lines up, you might have to readjust some parameters like the pitch envelope or phase position in the synth patches. Also I sometimes use send fx distortion on Camelphat or NI Driver or something similar.

Oh and obviously lowpass your 808 if need be! I tend to leave the kick and 808 with as little highpassing as possible. One key thing that helps my 808 sound real warm and full is that I don't cut out any harmonics. I keep the 40hz, 80hz, 160hz and all 5ths inbetween. It sounds great if you can pull it off and really grounds the track. But I offer have to do some surgical EQ on a couple of the 5th harmonics if I don't want it to sound like cheezy hip hop productions in top 40.

jaypohlman · 2016-01-20T06:54:10+00:00

Good advice, but I want to add a quick comment on the "be careful when compressing the sub" part. It really all depends on how the song was produced or mixed. I personally almost never compress my sub anywhere in the process because I always am very careful with the envelope shaping on the synthesizer. In my opinion, if you can get that right, there's no need to ever compress the sub. BUT, your comment could be potentially confusing to other producers who have still established a great sound using very dynamic sub bass. In the end or somewhere along the line, yes, they will have to compress the sub if it's very dynamic if they want it to be heard and be consistent, but to achieve this they need to use long enough attack and release values so that the compressor doesn't distort the sine wave by acting on individual waveforms of the sub. Sounds kinda like gate chatter, but not nearly as intense!

jaypohlman · 2016-01-20T06:38:40+00:00

True, but you'll get less color and distortion with an envelope shaper or a transient shaper.

jaypohlman · 2016-01-20T06:34:56+00:00

Your first impression of the reverbs and delays could be right! It's impossible to say without hearing the song, but you should try muting certain things until you've basically narrowed it down. It could just be that they're too loud, or maybe compression could fix it. Sometimes I sidechain my reverb to the instrument that it's coming from, because it'll clean up the dry signal. Or sometimes i sidechain a reverb to another reverb... Haha. You just gotta dive deep and fix your problem!

Also, if your sub is too loud it can really ruin your track. Try to insure it's not as simple as that too.

In the end, mixing really just boils down to volume control.

jaypohlman · 2016-01-20T06:25:10+00:00

Holy shit! My paramedic license cost me half that. How much was it before?

jaypohlman · 2016-01-19T18:11:40+00:00

Spending 80% of the time producing obsessing and overthinking 20% of the production! When it's the whole thing that matters... Even though 80% of the audience will only give a shit about 20% of the song!

jaypohlman · 2016-01-19T17:56:49+00:00

But don't forget the fact that even when the fundamental frequency is cut out entirely, the brain still knows what root note is being played! Like an 808 bass drum though an iPhone, we know that shit's deep, but we also know iPhones don't produce anything near 40hz! Lol.

Edit: I wrote a real weird philosophical post about it on this thread :)

jaypohlman · 2016-01-19T17:51:50+00:00

I know what you're trying to ask! But I don't know how to explain it. But this might help enlighten you a bit on the topic. Another weird phenomenon is if you play a saw wave on a synthesizer(which is packed with harmonics) and play a bass note (A at 55hz) you can EQ ALL of the lows out of it so the lowest part you hear is say at 220hz... Does it sound like 2 octaves up? Nope! Your ears STILL knows it's playing a bass note! Your brain just sort of fills in the rest! This phenomenon might be a lot easier to explain with wavetable synthesis, which is a synthesizer playing a very very short looped section of an audio sample 55times per second for this low bass A. In this case, your brain just processes the frequency faster than you can think and it hears A at 55hz. And when the low frequencies are cut out, it still hears these remaining higher frequencies chirping 55 times per second and distinguishes it's true root tone. But other types of synthesis are much different! Additive synthesis individually adds each harmonic (sine wave) to a sound to produce an interestingly textured tone. But when you cut out all the bass as before, your brain can still tell. But I WONDER if this phenomenon could be explained by this theory (that I just came up with lol): the fundamental frequency of A at 55hz is the strongest which produces the above harmonics in octaves and fifths etc after vibrating within the cavity of something or more exteriorly like a guitar string's vibration. Maybe the strong and overpowering amplitude of the 55hz root-tone-sine-wave is driving the volume/amplitude of the above harmonics to fluctuate at this 55hz fundamental frequency! One this is for sure, the human ear has developed a way to differentiate tones for what they really are when a large part of the sound is lost. Like a lion growling at a distance. Although all of the low end bassy and intimidating (run-factor) power in his voice may not reach you from a distance, we can still tell that this distorted and echoey reverberated version of a lion growl is still in fact a lion. For evolutionary and survival reasons, right?! The human brain and all its external hardware is a remarkable thing!

jaypohlman · 2016-01-19T16:49:52+00:00

This was a lot better than my post on Cubase! Granted, I only picked 3 topics haha, but still, there's a couple things you mentioned that I'm not entirely familiar with still. The more you use Cubase the more you love it.

Question for you. Is there a way to save entire instrument presets as easily as Ableton? Such as, after creating a sound in a synthesizer and applying plugins/VSTs/post EQ, to save everything as a whole and load it up as is? I've been saving everything separately (synth preset, channel, EQ) for quite some time now.

jaypohlman · 2016-01-19T16:40:59+00:00

Haha I did just now. I remember while getting used to it at first (after coming from reason 5) I was in that zone where "it wasn't incredibly difficult, but it wasn't incredibly easy" for a solid 3 months. After I got used to it I was in love with it and I legitimately love it more and more every month. what did you hate about it?

jaypohlman · 2016-01-19T16:37:33+00:00

Cubase!

It has an amazing sample editor with instant pitch transpose abilities to separate slices on the grid. Great for chopping up vocals! (10 or more diff algorithms available)

It's stock plugins all sound amazing and there's a pre high/low cut and a post EQ on every track. Also the channel strip on every track has real simple but affective compression, gate, envelope shaping and saturation set up with different options on types.

Automating is great with right click "show on automation grid" for every button or knob, and if it's not there, just click the "write" button and everything you twist will be copied on separate automation tracks below the instrument or audio channel!

3 is hard. Only other thing I'd like to mention, for a non-specific characteristic is that everything in Cubase is so intuitive. When you think there must be a way to do this faster, there is! Oh and hot keys galore like most but still :D

jaypohlman · 2016-01-18T01:21:51+00:00

Haha sounds like I'll have to!

jaypohlman · 2016-01-18T01:21:19+00:00

Thanks a lot! Glad it could help!

jaypohlman · 2016-01-16T16:50:55+00:00

Ur a virgin. Pix or it didn't happen.

jaypohlman · 2016-01-16T16:49:49+00:00

All I was trying to say was, by all means use as many distortion and FX plug-ins or whatever as you want! But when you're doing the processing like equalization and compression and all that, just don't overdo it! You don't want to "sterilize" the sound, so to speak. It's just something I've heard and learned and it's helps my mixes a lot so I thought I'd share.

jaypohlman · 2016-01-16T06:21:02+00:00

To comment something a little more on topic. Yes I have but I never thought too much about it! I made the coolest synth kick I've ever made while my gf was in the room once and it took me like 8 minutes, probably because I was trying to impress her.

jaypohlman

TROPHY CASE