Komplete is awesome. All the Synths and physically modeled drums and instruments are super dope. Some the best stuff you can get right there.

Thats pretty dope, I dig it.

Your Detroit: Become Human (Rescore) at 1:22-1:43 is super dope.

Quck cheat sheet for Major and Minor Scales:

Major= Root Note,+2,+4,+5,+7,+9,+11,+12

Minor= Root Note,+2,+3,+5,+7,+8,+10,+12


Choose a root note for your Major/Minor scale and thats your "0" or
starting point. The numbers represent the amount of semitones or
keys on the keyboard you move UP in distance away from your "0"
aka your Root Note. So say I choose C as my Root Note and I want
to play a Major Scale it would be as follows. I start on C, my next
note in the scale will be +2 semitones up from C which is D. The note
after that will be +4 semitones up from C which is E. The note after
that will be +5 Semitones away from C which is F and so on. Its pretty
basic you just always start on your chosen root note and count how many
semitones up you need to travel for the next note in the scale.

I hope that makes sense and is somewhat usefull.

Id say the fundamentals of music theory are super key to being a real efficient producer, and being able to communicate your musical ideas intelligently to other people. A decent grasp on the fundamentals of Key, Minor/Major Scales, Diatonic Chord progression, and Rhythm will absolutely improve your workflow and musical ideas in my opinion.

Compression seems to be an aspect surrounding music production that many try, but few understand. Does anyone know the science on how to properly compress a track? How do you know when you're compressing too much to little? What exactly does it do? When should you use it? When is it necessary?

An answer to any of these questions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

This is a Lesson Review from a Mixing and Mastering Course I had.

Compression is one of the most difficult practices to comprehend without proper explanation. In every great mix, there is plenty of compression—on the individual elements, on the group tracks, and on the master fader. Multiple layers of good compression choices add up to a really strong, powerful, alive mix.

Compression is essentially dynamics control. The use of compression allows us to control the dynamics of the various elements of the mix. It is like having a team of elves with their fingers on a mixing console, hovering above the channels, and reaching to dip the faders down in a manner that you prescribe. You can have jumpy elves, mellow ones, or total alarmists. It's up to you, and you can have a variety of personalities on your elf team, which is typically the way to go.

The threshold tells the elf when to act. The attack time is the time the elf takes to start turning down the fader after the threshold is crossed. The ratio is how far the elf pulls the fader down. And the release time is the amount of time it takes for the elf to let go of the fader (no elf meddling) after the signal has crossed below threshold.

Some compressors have a knee control, which is the speed of the elf's finger as they pull down the fader. In addition, some compressors have an auto-gain make-up that knows exactly how far the elf is pulling down the fader, and adjusts the overall output of the channel to keep gain up as the dynamics are being adjusted by the elf.

Sometimes the engineer wants to gently contain the dynamics of a signal. Other times the engineer wants to reign in the dynamics so that they exist within a very small range. For example, if you are compressing a very dynamic singer, your goal is to make sure that the quiet parts of the performance are still heard, but that the load points are not piercing. In this instance you would probably use a medium threshold, a medium-fast attack, a medium ratio (4:1 to 6:1), and a medium-fast release. You might even want to employ a limiter after the compressor that does not react at all to the general performance, but kicks when a really loud part of the performance occurs.

On the other hand, if you were trying to level out the snare playing from an erratic drummer, you would probably want to end up with a snare track that had a very narrow dynamic range -- so that all of the snare hits felt consistent and even. In that case, you would want a low threshold, fast attack, medium release, and a high ratio like 10:1. This setting would react to every snare hit and level each one out to create a very even sound performance.

The permutations are endless. Once you grasp that each one of the parameters of the compressor can create more or less compression, but in different ways, you will begin to understand that the compressor is a highly configurable tool, capable of envelope shaping and sound design. It takes a bit of practice, but over time you will find that the compressor will perform according to the settings that you dial in. You will start to learn how to communicate with your team of elves. They will learn to respect, obey and love you. And you will love them back!

I travel around fair bit and therefore unfortunately only have a pair of headphones to mix on.

However, I've run into the issue that I can't properly hear the low end of the mix, and the bass or kick often comes out either too muddy or too loud, or too low when played at a club or live venue. I've also noticed in cars that sometimes the bass is at such a frequency that it resonates with the plastic in the car causing it to vibrate.

Just wondering the best way to get the mix to 'work' in the low-end. I've tried using reference tracks and comparing them in Ozone, but my mixes always sound more unrefined, and I've also tried pink noise mixing.

What I do is first make sure my kick and bass/sub are occupying their own frequency ranges so they don't clash hard or muddy each other out while also checking if any phase cancelation is going on. I like reworking my side chaining with the attack and releases making sure the kick is peaking through but like complimenting the sub. Most of the time its the bass/sub just being too loud before using something like multi-band compression, or a limiter/maximizer. I can really muddy up my low end and flatten all the transients of my kick using the Maximizer to hard. So I usually use 3 or 4 instances of Maximizer starting around like -1.5db on the threshold on the first instance then on the next 2 or 3 i'll lower the threshold till I'm barely tapping the peak so I'm making the overall mix louder without flattening out the transients.