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Messages - Marrow Machines

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736
Mixing/Mastering / Re: Mixing at consistent levels
« on: January 20, 2016, 04:47:18 am »
I'm not against referencing at a higher volume. But for me I do a majority of my mixing at a fixed volume. 85db isn't all that loud actually.  I keep it at -10 on my symphony.  Towards the later stages I might turn the knob a few db to hear if everything checks out, but I rarely listen at super low volumes because that can be very deceiving. I'm not sure people listen to music at low volumes very often, and if they do they aren't paying attention (background music).  If it sounds good low-medium to high it's usually a good mix.

That's just my method.  Whatever works for you to get a good mix, all power to you.
85db is like just before what an orchestral plays before any amplification.

I get what you're saying, but you might have a better environment than most people that allows you a luxury of the loud (or necessity of the loud).

I take it you work in a bigger studio environment right?

737
Life is music, but your life shouldn't be music.

It becomes an addiction at that point, and some times what you really need to be when being creative is silence.

If you're a teenager, your brain wants to chase the high more so than an adult because it feel so much better to you as a teenager due to an over active "rewards system".

I was like you man, but honestly you should listen to your parents. You really have to have an environment that allows you to do that entirely, and more often than not, these professionals have made sacrifices to be able to do what they do as a career.

I am majoring in mechanical engineering, and that brings me closer to building my own studio with the work that i will do when i graduate.

You can't give water to some one if your cup is empty.

738
You might have an auto compensate mode on, or your knee or ratio (some one help me on this) is set weird to where you are doing expansion rather than compression.

739
I do a large amount of shaping of my sound prior to actually touching my mixer channel eq. This is because i separate the ideas from creating and mixing mode. It helps to keep that in perspective so i remained focused on a certain mindset. Now, that shouldn't be concrete, because as soon as you start adding samples or start playing a synth noise, is when you start mixing. Your input signal is probably more important than any thing you can do with an eq.

So, these two philosophies are really just one thing. Except for when you start applying eq that's last in the chain (my mixer channel eq), then, that's when you are starting the "final mixing" stage or what have you.

Often times, i'll find myself thinking of new layers when i enter that final mixing stage and i'll add them in and see if it works out. But basically i've crossed over into final mix when ever i feel to have enough musical material to have it be a song. So then the final mix becomes just the "finalization" phase as you iron out structure, Musical ideas, and mixing. If you have a powerful enough pc, you should be able to keep things as midi up until you actually render out your track for mastering.

740
Mixing/Mastering / Re: Mixing at consistent levels
« on: January 20, 2016, 12:40:25 am »
I'm gonna go against what everybody else has been saying. I used to jump around all over the place and then I would be over tweaking until the cows came home. These days I leave it on medium (80-90db) and call it a day, until the end of a mix. It's not about losing clarity at low volumes or not enough bass at low volumes. It's about finding the factual loudness where human hearing is relatively the flattest across all frequencies. No volume is perfect, but I see a lot of this low and high volume debate, and if my own experiences are to judge, the advice here is a little misleading. When you listen to a number of mixes across the same set level, you then have a basis for your own mix, but if you keep jumping around all the time than you lose that reference. And that has the potential to have you chasing your own tail.

Just my two cents.

It seems you have a way, and that's cool.

I've had numerous people, including some to have gone on to actually become professional producers and dj's, tell me that for referencing a mix it's better to keep it at a low volume.

Now, i think the low volume thing works if you have a lot of work to do or you're doing surgical sort of stuff that doesn't require headphones. But definitely seeing how it sounds loud and tweaking it there is not a bad thing.

You're getting different and varied reference frames rather than just one perspective. It's like when you're trying to get data for what ever survey you might have a better idea of what it is you're trying to find with a larger sample size than if you were to keep it at a very low number.

But, i think the problem is not knowing where the initial reference frame should be placed. And i think that's generally reserved at a low volume (on my interface that's at the 9 o clock setting, and then with dim mode it's slightly higher and i can achieve lower volumes once at that stage).

741
Samples/Plugins/Software/Gear / Re: Speaker driver diameters
« on: January 17, 2016, 12:54:44 am »
Thanks! So would there be a noticeable difference between 5in and 6in for example? (considering most producers here will be working in bedrooms?)

Slightly, if your ears aren't trained to hear minor differences, then you wouldn't pick up on it. But depending on brand and curve they have it could make a difference.


I bought my 8's (yamaha hs8's) so that i wouldn't have to buy a sub, and i'd still have great play back system as i upgrade (plus a sub works better in a larger or dedicated room). The 8's give me a great range, and the clarity i needed to make decisions. like those yamaha's are like this: something will continue to bother you until you fix it.

742
Samples/Plugins/Software/Gear / Re: favorite synths?
« on: January 16, 2016, 03:38:40 am »
thor from reason. I use it probably 85 percent of the time due to it's versatility. The rest are pretty specific or i use them for their filters.

743
Noisia said in an interview once: even though you may not entirely hear it, it is still there.

It gives out the quality and little extra spice in your mix. But you have to have a good play back system in order to get it tucked in just right.


744
Some times things are going to drown out others.

To control this you don't add so many elements or musical concepts, going on at once. It'll just sound busy or muddy if you can' control it.

Typically, if you're trying to follow every thing in the track, you're doing something wrong and the idea gets washed out by "if every thing is important than nothing is important"; you gotta prioritize what's happening for a section(s) of the song.

This also is where competing starts, and that's kind of ok in some contexts but not sought after.

Also consider an emotional impact that you want the listeners to have.

after listening to your video example, i can't seem to figure out what exactly it is you're asking out side of "if you don't hear every thing at one point is that ok?" and i'll say that it's alright. Depending on the play back system and quality of speakers is when you'll actually open up new found textures and components in a song you may not have heard with out the aid of the system. This isn't rock and roll where some times you can't even hear the kick drum, but you can feel it.



745
Mixing/Mastering / Re: Sticking to one main volume/pan position per track
« on: January 15, 2016, 10:32:42 pm »
That happens to me a few times in the past, and now it's becoming more common as i do more volume automation and consider it.

There's nothing wrong with changing it's balance in the mix as the song evolves. I would even suggest rendering out a few clips of that sound and depending on how it fits in the mix, should have different settings.

The point is this, you have to make things fit and work. You gotta solve the problem as a sound engineer.
There's several ways to skin a cat, but this concept you're asking about is the beginning of the infinite nature of many concepts that lead to true self expression. It's way past the basics and fundamentals. Which is probably why it's not common.

Basically, make it sound good at the problem areas because it's part of the mix. It may require duplication, rendering, volume automation/settings, eq automation/settings, or not even have it in that spot.

I asked my music teacher about this sort of question, and he basically said "That's up to you man, it's taste." He couldn't give me any more "technical" advice because that's where your problem solving skills and taste as a producer/engineer start. That's where the real fun begins.

746
Mixing/Mastering / Re: Mixing at consistent levels
« on: January 15, 2016, 04:13:15 pm »
I normally mix at low levels, and some times if my ears just aren't having it that day, i pop on dim mode ( 20 dB reduction) on my interface mixer. But i also do the dim mode so that i can achieve lower levels than my usual 9 o clock position (to me that's quite loud). Occasionally i'll bump it to 11 o clock, then to twelve, then to three o clock if i really want to get silly and see how the bass response is.

If it sounds good at low volumes, it should translate to louder volumes, as others have said.

747
Mixing/Mastering / Re: Tips for Clean Mix like Professionals
« on: January 15, 2016, 12:02:36 am »
I think when people say all sounds need a "space" in the mix, it's usually referring to the frequency spectrum, not the stereo field. width is also important, but it's more important to not have too many elements overlapping in the same frequency range, especially the low-end.

You need actual physical space as well as a place to occupy, in order to have your sounds to take up space and not be crowded.

I do not agree with your bias, but i will say that both are incredibly important if you want to achieve a balance in your mix, other wise you'd literally be having to many things on top of each other but still occupy the same space.

think of it as a box  where people are standing on top of each other. Different frequency ranges, but nothing is being panned because you stacked em up like jenga blocks. This applies even if the dimension are capable to having people more spread out, which you do and that's called panning.

It's a combination of three things which are: frequency, panning (or physical space), and volume (how pronounced you are at filling up your physical and frequency space)

Not to mention width control, which roughly falls into panning and physical occupation of space.

748
I think you can tune things relatively close to what you want it to be and still have it sound good.

It's highly in efficient to tune your drums every single song if you're doing this live. unless you have resources that negate the inefficient behavior of the time consuming task.

But this is from a rock and roll philosophy. it could tighten up your drums a bit more, yes, but overall it might not make that much of an impact.

I think tuning the layers to make one drum hit is more important than locking in on a key. it's the imperfection that some times makes music interesting.

749
If you get speakers that can replicate the sub sound, with a treated room, and headphones with good bass response (or any other tool to help  you feel ie sub pac) you can get a good understanding of where the sub lies.

I spoke with Crizzly, who happens to be an old high school friend, a few months ago and i asked him about the same thing. He said that he ended up just mixing with out a sub most of the time because of how much of the replication he gets out of it. It's a little over bearing at times, but a good indicator of the feeling.

I also read up on a few articles about how having one sub bass in your room can actually make things worse if you're not careful about how the room is treated. this is due to some phase issues i believe. One way to eliminate this by having two sub woofers on either corner of your room (if square) to eliminate the issues that a a single woofer may cause.

Another tip i read waaaaaaay back when i first started, comes from a sub focus tutorial i think. He said, you can get a good indication of feeling by putting your hand over the woofer of the speaker and just feeling the sub. I use this technique a few times on my yamaha hs8's.

Now, i have my mixes go through the round table of my production circle to see if i missed any thing. typically they don't have any thing to say negative about my mixes, which is good and bad lol. But the point is, you don't really need a sub, and in fact getting one with out proper calibration could just make it more of a pain than what it's about.

750
Samples/Plugins/Software/Gear / Re: Favourite paid sample packs
« on: January 14, 2016, 03:30:59 pm »
DrumDrops <--have some good accoustic samples for different daws, vst. you can pay more for more variety but i use the one shots. They work well as layers
I also downloaded some pack for like a dollar during winter break.

those are the only two things i've bought, outside of a few sample packs from reason during a sale few years ago.

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