The best analogy for mixing I've found is a food chef.  They take a variety of ingredients and using their techniques and methods, create a tasteful dish which others can enjoy.   While the fundamental ingredients may be the same, it's their taste factor combined with their recipe which makes their dish special.

Going back to what seems to be your goal about providing a resource of basic techniques, there are so many tutorials available that tell you how to use a knife or what temperature things should be baked at that I'm not sure another one is needed.  It's far more interesting to find how how someone got to their end goal and realize that what works for them may not work for you but it can inspire you to forge your own path and discover a new method.  It bears mentioning again that unless you have that all-important "taste" factor then no amount of knowing basic technique will make you a master chef.

Great response! +1 I chose the cookbook analogy for this reason exactly. I have friends who can cook very well... but they all lack the precision and reproducibility that 1 or 2 other friends have whom have been to culinary school. They even use different vocabulary. I'm trying set aside the people that would "thicken it up with flour & a 'lil butter" and speak with those who would "prepare a roux." Reading cookbooks and following recipes is great... just like cover bands playing the music of other artists. Still, I don't think anyone would recommend that over attending a music conservatory (given equal opportunity).

Maybe typing "basic" was a bad idea... I meant only the distilled, basic form of an concept. Advanced technique is welcome too.

Also, I do think "taste" is mainly a consideration during composition. The judicious use of flavor profile enhancers (VSTs) and spices (FX) can make anyone seem like a good chef. When it's time to bake (mix/master), knowledge of leaveners & altitude conversions are necessary that have very little to do with taste.

This forum is already a resource for elementary technique. We have threads in many areas: Understanding Compressors, Multi-Band Compressors, Pink Noise Mixing, Equal Loudness Contours, Sub Bass, Stereo Separation, Clipping, Headroom... and each of them definitely deserves the attention they are receiving. Where these topics are "deep" in discussion, I am trying to make a resource that's "wide"... with a gracious nod to the "depth" in the other topics.

I wish I had better terms to use than "glossary" or "index"... lexicon maybe?

That arpeggiator is the best, man! At 1:42, there's another one that comes in and things get jarring... I'd say less is more here, and either remove it and add some other complex ambient texture to support the main arp, or rework the progression to be simpler, it's too dense.

It feels like you have a lot of room for rhythmic effects... stutters and flanges and similar things. It comes a bit later in my workflow, but I thought I'd mention it. Maybe wait to sidechain the pads until the music has developed a little bit further.

Is this only about email notifications? I think it makes sense to have a notification on the site as well.

This would definitely tidy up the board. Are you suggesting archived posts also be accessible in a separate Archive section?

One engineer might use a high shelf EQ, another might prefer to apply Aphex Aural Exciter by Waves to achieve a similar goal.
...
To add to your compilation, I highly recommend searching for Ian Shepherd's articles and videos.  He, himself, is a mastering engineer and offers free resources online.  Check him out.

Thank you for clarifying your previous statements! +2 Waves audio processors are fantastic! I use them in all of my work. I will personally check out Ian Shepherd's articles and videos. I do, however, wish to build an informative resource here at TPF.

You see, there's something about these "similar goals" that I'm trying to cull out of the smorgasbord of posts of this forum. I'm trying to toss out all the cookbooks and idiosyncratic recipes and describe basic technique in their most useful form.

Do you suppose you could distill the Multi-Band Compression topic into a concise paragraph or two? Also, describe High-Shelf Equalization if you would, please... as if you were writing a glossary in a textbook. Feel free to include apropos links (even to other topics), but ensure enough information is in your post for an intellectual person to grasp the concept described.

Whether or not they can do it isn't the issue here. The point is that there doesn't need to be anything done beyond an edit to the sticky to have a more effective discussion in those sections. Keyword here is "discussion." If the emphasis is on "camaraderie or community involvement" and not technology, then it wouldn't make sense to develop more code-based, less personal way of reviewing music, especially not one that has such a huge potential for abuse.

Any system that's based on doing x amount of computer monitored tasks can be abuse easily. And having it be that way doesn't encourage better feedback either.

Having to write feedback and then link back to it when asking for feedback yourself puts you in a position where you're better off not writing bullshit. It's way harder to put together a crappy review of a song than it is to randomly fill out those polls you suggested. And when it's your own post that's on the line, you're more likely to leave better feedback.

It is clear you did not understand what I intended to communicate. I apologize for not being sufficiently articulate. No, it is much easier to contrive a "crappy" review than to fill out well constructed polls. You haven't seen single word feedback? or even single smilies as feedback? You've mentioned the ease of this while dismissing some other reply. Speaking for myself, I don't restrict my life to doing only what's needed. I find an ideal, and strive for it. I'd quote where you said my suggestion could work, but I know you remember. Your suggestion already exists (you can review the posts of others, as I have done with your previous posts), but is naive in that people will not consistently format their posts in the way you have prescribed (requesting specific feedback, linking to previous quality no "bullshit" feedback). Deleting posts or excluding members for not following your rubric is juvenile.

You're being negative for the sake of being negative. If you're only contribution after your point getting disproven is  essentially "it just won't work because I say so" then why even post? I don't know what happened to the edm district or whatever, but it works on Reddit and could definitely work here. I'm not saying it WILL work but definitively saying it WON'T work is just annoying and unprovable.

You speak of discussion, but you have repeatedly dismissed EVERY other suggestion than your own... with fallacious logic and spite. Every other suggestion (except yours) can be abused, right? Your solution is simple and elegant and complete, right? Why even post?

Honestly I don't know why something like this has been taking so long to implement, or why everyone's treating it as something that has no solution. If we're a community we work together to help each other and uphold whatever standards and rules we set up. Click whores and spammers will never go away, but with just a very simple edit to the sticky on that board, and everyone doing their part to help out even just a tiny bit, it really would make a world of difference.

Rereading this topic, I don't know why I expected you to be receptive to any replies that didn't fully agree and reiterate your original post. Why did you create this topic if you'd already PMd an Admin? What did they say? I feel like you're trying to get the community to uphold whatever rules you set up. If nothing needs to be changed other than the sticky, how's that going? What actual progress has been made with this topic? If you want this to be just like reddit, why did you create an account at TPF? You seem to be keen on calling people out, why not post your harangue there... on the spammy posts of the whores you mentioned?

Quote from: Dichotomy on January 13, 2016, 07:27:00 am

SMF (the forum web software) has mods for polls http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=search;basic_search=poll It might take a little bit of coding, but it seems feasible that polls could be programmatically tracked to preclude people from creating a new topic in a board without exceeding a threshold (set number of completed polls in the board).

Also, couldn't polls be auto-created to simplify feedback? Like 1 - 10 for different categories... (an off the cuff list)
Instrument Selection
Arrangement
Overall Impact
Overall Production Quality

Another thought - the poll would be mandatory (for the reason mentioned above), and a written comment section would be available for feedback outside the scope of the poll.

Yeah, that could work, buy I just feel like keeping things simple is the way to go. The mods and admins or whatever are busy people and coding for a forum just takes too long. Especially if it hasn't been done already and you need to come up with a feature yourself. All we need is a simple edit to the sticky, maybe other stuff can be implemented later but I don't think there's a real need for it.

I was under the impression that Mat Zo doesn't write PHP modules for SMF and moderate the board himself, but has placed capable, trusted people in a position to do this. Rather than speaking to the ineptitude you apparently perceive, I'll say that I think they could do it, no problem. Also, speaking as a web application developer of 15 years, I'm not just dreaming that suggestion up. It doesn't have to be tomorrow... or even in 2 weeks. I understand there's a "throwback" feel to this Forum, but I find it hard to believe they would insist the technology be identical (versus the camaraderie or community involvement) to some antiquated web forum user experience of years past. I'll stop before I volunteer my personal abilities... of course. I don't personally know Mr. Zohar or any of the Administrators or Moderators. A "lemmie fix your site for you" PM would be rude and presumptuous.

Yes, the stickies probably need to be edited... I've seen one moderator dismiss a request for genre tagging with the reasoning that people should use a subject format that's not recommended by the sticky (it's something similar, but neglects genre).

maybe not allowed to start threads in that section until they hit 100 posts? or maybe become a "low mid"? something like that

I've already seen a ton of vapid, conversational "posts" that belong in a chat room. I seriously don't mean to insult all of TPF... this is observable... not a terrible thing. I don't believe it makes sense to offer incentives or enhancements to frequent posters (other than the increased opportunity to receive "Honor").