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Messages - trifonic

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1
Mixing/Mastering / Re: Headroom in Mixdown
« on: January 13, 2016, 09:05:46 pm »
So I have a question.
What are the advantages of keeping headroom in your Mixdown?
I understand that this would be useful if you're Eq-ing on the Master Channel.
But I'm not really Eq-ing on the Master Channel except cutting everything below 20Hz and everything after 18000 or 19400Hz.
So does the Headroom,in anyway,help in processing better or help in achieving a better sound?

Yes it can make a difference especially with certain plugins. Most plugins wont clip internally anymore (or at least not very easily) although that used to be a big problem in the past. Most plugins are now double precision (48bit or 64bit), so it takes a lot to clip them.

However, where level does make a difference is with plugins that are modeled after the response of vintage analog gear. The sweet spot for a lot of analog gear that plugins are modeling is an average level of -18 dBFS (O VU.) Generally having your individual tracks averaging -18 dBFS gives you plenty of headroom for mixing and you are hitting the vintage compressor emulation plugins at their sweet spot. I don't think you have to be super precise about it, but it does effect how certain plugins react.

2
Samples/Plugins/Software/Gear / Re: Uncleared Samples
« on: January 13, 2016, 07:45:01 pm »
More or less sampling anything from anywhere without explicit permission from the content owner -- no matter how transformed or modified or short… is illegal.

That being said, if nobody knows or can identify the sample - nobody cares. Artists use uncleared samples all the time and there is definitely some risk involved especially if their track is going to be part of anything that is highly visible, like a commercial/TV/Film/Game etc. Usually there aren't lawsuits unless it becomes a really big track or it's used in some highly visible way.

If you're releasing a small record and you sample some snippet off of youtube, realistically probably nobody will care -- but that doesn't mean that it's legal or that the risk is zero… it's just low risk.

Do you think that Burial clears the Ray Jay or Beyonce samples that he transforms to make the vocal snippets in his masterful tunes? Absolutely not (it would be prohibitively expensive!) -- but his music is not mainstream enough or doesn't generate enough money where anybody is suing him (yet.) I think the current laws are pretty absurd, but that doesn't mean you can ignore them without taking on any risk.

I've been on both sides of it -- a lot of people sampled the vocals from my track Lies and then released/sold songs using the sample uncleared and without proper credit.. I had to spend a lot of time and effort to get the tracks taken down from Beatport/iTunes etc. So as a copyright owner it can be a pain too.  Bottom line the laws need to be reformed and less restrictive for artists and also easier to deal with as copyright owners!

3
I think you learn the skill of translating emotion into your music, through developing your ear and critically listening to tons of music. You don't have to know music theory (but it certainly doesn't hurt,) but I believe you do need to develop an intuitive sense of harmony, melody and phrasing by critically listening, singing along, and dissecting music.

Try listening to music that makes you feel a certain emotion and then try to pin-point why it makes you feel that way? I think a big portion of the emotion in music is expressed through various forms of tension and resolution. Sometimes that is in the form of setting up an expectation for the listener and then either following through with it, or subverting their expectation. Try to listen for how tension and resolution is created in music that you like. The better you can articulate how music makes you feel and dissect the elements that create those feelings, the easier it will be to inject your own emotions into your music.

4
Samples/Plugins/Software/Gear / Re: Favorite FX Plugins?
« on: January 11, 2016, 03:26:44 am »
EQ: DMG Equilibrium
Filters: Simplon, Cytomic The Drop, Tone 2 Bifilter, FilterFreq
Compressor: Fab Filter C2, TDR Compressor, FabFilter Pro MB,
Limiter: Waves L1, FabFilter Pro L,
Saturation: Soundtoys Decapitator, Camelphat, Sausage Fattener, UAD Vertigo VSM3
Soft Clipper: Stillwell Event Horizon (it's buggy in Logic though!), Voxengo Elephant (in clip mode)
Heavy Distortion: Trash 2, Camelphat
Delays: Echoboy, Primal Tap, Timeblender, UAD RE-201 Space Echo, Line 6 Pod Farm Pro Delays, Line 6 Echofarm, Eventide Band Delays
Reverbs: Eventide Blackhole, UAD EMT 140 + 250, Valhalla VintgeVerb, Eventide UltraReverb, UAD Lexicon 224
Modulation: Camelphat, Valhalla Ubermod, UAD CE-1 Chorus
Spectral: Soundhack spiralstretch, Soundtoys Speed, Paulstretch app, Metasynth 5
Granular: The Mangle, Ceclilia 5, Kyma 7, Metasynth 5, Reaktor
Guitar FX: Axe FX II,
Timestretch: Logic Version 5 stretch setting for grainy Akai old-school style timestretch, Speed for super-smooth stretch, Serato Pitch N Time for ultimate high quality time stretching
Spectral Morph: Kyma 7, Zynaptiq Morph 2


5
Composition/Arrangement/Theory / Re: [Ql Creating (logical) melodies
« on: January 11, 2016, 12:18:35 am »
Generally you'll want to make a melody as simple as it can be to express the underlying musical phrase. Don't cram in too many notes if it doesn't need them and generally it's not great to have melodies that meander.  A good melody is usually easily singable and has enough space to breathe.  If you can't easily sing your melody -- it probably needs some work.

IMO save the complexity for the harmony or counter melodies, but each individual melodic component or motif benefits from being as simply and concisely expressed as possible.


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Inspiration/Creativity/Motivation / Re: Overcoming negative thoughts
« on: January 10, 2016, 11:16:39 pm »
Not hanging onto ideas you think are mediocre, learn to enjoy making mediocre ideas and scrapping them, but to do that YOU need to be honest with yourself and don't let lovey-dubby soundcloud comments get to your head. Ideally by not sharing EVERY idea you ever make

Totally agree about not sharing every idea you make and posting really rough WIP. It could be that I'm relatively an old man compared to a lot of young electronic music producers, but generally I've always felt it is a bad idea to share your music until it is either fully baked or pretty damn close. You want to put your best foot forward to the world, so posting up a half-way done tune that you're excited about in the moment, but haven't had time to reflect on and scrutinize is not always the best idea. Furthermore peoples positive AND negative comments could fuck with your head and your direction while you're still working through the idea.


7
Several of the NI synths have microtuning settings built in. FM8 allows you to adjust the keyscaling of pitch with microtonality in mind. Absynth has a robust tuning customization section with presets for all sorts of microtunings as well as customized microtunings.

8
Samples/Plugins/Software/Gear / Re: Your favourite Hardware Synths...?!
« on: January 10, 2016, 05:36:27 am »
My favorites that I own are SCI Pro One, Roland SH-09 and Roland Juno Alpha.

My favorites that I've used and wish that I owned:
1. OSCar - it's fucking awesome! best bandpass filter I've ever heard
2. Crumar Spirit - surprisingly gnarly, lots of character
3. Oberheim Xpander
4. Hartmann Neuron

9
Composition/Arrangement/Theory / Re: Repetition: How Much is Too Much?
« on: January 10, 2016, 03:57:01 am »
Depends on how much drugs your audience is on.....  ;)


10
Sound Design / Re: What's your opinion on Presets ?
« on: January 09, 2016, 08:02:35 am »
It really depends on your needs and goals, but generally I take a practical view to presets. There is nothing inherently wrong with using presets, the right sound in the right context is all that matters.

However, if your desire is to develop a unique voice as an artist, you will probably be well served to create a lot of your own custom presets and custom sound libraries (in addition to using built-in presets that you like.) If you are beginner don't fall into the trap of acquiring an endless amount of VSTi's - focus on learning a few synths at deep level so that you can at least competently modify presets that you like to suit your needs.


11
Inspiration/Creativity/Motivation / Re: Overcoming negative thoughts
« on: January 09, 2016, 06:45:11 am »
I feel you about that! I'm never happy with anything, but I've learned that that's just my personality and I'm ok with it. I think the goal is to get to know yourself well enough to know when to trust and listen to the negative voices in your head to refine and improve your work and when to ignore them. The negative thoughts are what help you craft something potentially great. In order to create music that is really meaningful and of excellent quality, you have to come at it with a very critical ear and open mind.

On the other hand, there are important moments when you want to ignore the negative thoughts such as when you're trying to actively develop a musical idea or a sound. You have to allow yourself to suck and work through ideas when you are in the content generation phase. The only way to break through to the good ideas, is to work through and revise mediocre ideas.

I think for a lot of artists (self included) it's hard to listen back to old work, because after you've spent hundreds of hours on something your brain focuses only the aspects that you are insecure about and not the emotional connection that you initially had with the music. Every time I put out an album, I need to be away from it for 3 years before I can appreciate it without feeling bad about myself haha!

12
1. Running/jogging
2. Being in nature
3. Film
4. Art
5. Coffee
6. Chocolate

13
You Might Like... / Re: What producer blows your mind
« on: January 08, 2016, 05:02:26 am »
Top 5 at the moment:

Arca
Haxan Cloak
Hecq
Kiasmos
Tropic Of Cancer

14
Samples/Plugins/Software/Gear / Re: Headphones for mixing - need help
« on: January 08, 2016, 04:05:40 am »
I think it's worth saving up and going for a really quality pair of open back headphones for mixing. Good headphones are an amazing tool, but you also need to consider a quality headphone amp to drive the headphones especially if they are planar magnetic... it makes a huge difference.

See if you can find and test out Sennheiser HD800's. They are my favorite headphones, the detail is unparalleled. They don't have a visceral bass like some others, but you can clearly hear the fundamental. Also check out the Audeze LCD-X. LCD-X is also really amazing; it's a little more narrow of a sound stage and the highs aren't as bright as the HD800, but the bass is much more visceral  and the detail is incredible as well. I ended up buying both of them over time  :) If the HD800 and LCD-X are way out of your budget, it's worth trying the Sennheiser HD650's as well.

In terms of headphone amps, Schiit makes really good affordable amps.

15
Samples/Plugins/Software/Gear / Re: Are M-Audio BX5 D2 any good?
« on: January 07, 2016, 10:36:55 pm »
They aren't bad for the price, but they aren't great (neither is much else in that price range.) The room problems (assuming your rooms isn't treated) will compound the monitors shortcomings. You might be better off in that price range looking at the best headphones you can afford.

With quality headphones you eliminate the potential room problems and without a doubt can make better tonal/EQ decisions. On the other hand, you miss out on the cross feed between LR in headphones, which can make accurate panning and certain level decisions more difficult.

Maybe it's worth getting a cheap pair of monitors like the BX5 and then saving up to get a decent headphones. Between a decent set of headphones and a ok set of monitors you should have most of your bases covered!


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