Quote from: Kenny Troy on February 25, 2016, 01:17:30 am

http://www.vstskins.com/skins/lennar-digital/sylenth1

thanks
have you got pics of your skins?

Welcome. I actually haven't downloaded any skins for Sylenth.. I googled "Sylenth1 skins" haha

Probably going to download one now though

Would it help to go to a production school? Absolutely. Is it necessary? No.

In my opinion there is so much information available on YouTube and other websites to learn from that it really isn't necessary to go to a music production school. When I think about everything I have learned about music theory, sound design, sound engineering, composition, etc etc... it really baffles me. This stuff is no doubt very very complex, but if you want to truly study and learn all you can there is the information out there for you without music school.

Personally what I envy about people who have gone to music production school is that they get to constantly discuss music. What do I mean by that? Well simply put, they are surround by music and peers who share a similar love for music and have a thirst for musical knowledge. You cannot teach yourself everything online or by yourself for that matter. How do you learn all this other stuff that you may otherwise miss? By speaking and interacting with other producers about techniques, plugins, whatever it may be.

I watched an interview with Martin Garrix once and he spoke about how at his music production school he would constantly be discussing with his friends the newest plugins, how to use them, all these production techniques - rather than talking about you know.. sports or whatever general population stuff. I suppose that's what I envy the most, as none of my friends at college produce music so they have no clue about any of this.

*Note* I try to take advantage of everything my college offers that I believe will benefit me in terms of setting up a successful music career, even though I am an Economics major.

Courses I'm taking that may help:

Professional Writing and Technical Communication - yes, you must communicate with major record companies

Creating a Professional Web Presence - exactly as the course title states. your web presence is very very important.

Digital Marketing - this.

Electronic Music Production - I have not met the requirements to take this course as it is an upper division music course, however I wrote to the department chair person to by-pass the prerequisites, seeing as well yeah I produce electronic music.

Filled it out, good luck

Just to note, I haven't read any physical materiel (books, magazines, etc) on music production, only digital.

Perhaps you could add a 'N/A' option for some of the questions to give more accurate results?

Thanks! I'll give that a shot, Ilan Bluestone says he builds his tracks like that with the kick near 0 dB

That's the best part about music production. You can do what you want, what you like, or how you like to do it. Everyone has their own style and methods so don't think anything is necessarily "wrong"

Linear phase EQ is what?

Keep in mind, I use ableton's stock EQ8. I just try not to do a 24db slope, if I can.

Analog EQ

With any analog equalizer, the bands being boosted or cut are subject to phase-shifts due to the latency created by the change in amplitude within that band in relation to unaffected bands.


Linear EQ

The way that the equalizer algorithms are configured are completely different for linear-phase equalizers.

Linear-phase is exactly how it’s described: linear. For the varying wavelengths of varying frequencies, linear-phase equalizers adjust phase accurately to the degree of zero phase-shift. This can only be achieved digitally with such accuracy. This non-existent phase shift, leaves the actual amplitude of the waveform almost unchanged in many instances where a minimum-phase equalizer may cause drastic amplitude changes

This information can be found here -

http://theproaudiofiles.com/linear-phase-vs-minimum-phase-eq/

Just keep in mind that a sharp cut creates a phase shift around the cutting frequency, so even though you can't hear much below 20Hz, the phase shift created by the EQ will definitely affect the overall balance in the low frequency range, so you need to be careful.  Using a linear phase EQ might help, but you need to watch out for transient smearing.  To summarize, I try to avoid sharp cuts or boosts on the master, and always get rid of unwanted frequencies on individual channels or busses.

Article by Ethan Winer regarding EQ and phase shifts and what your sound really experiences. Interesting read nonetheless

http://ethanwiner.com/EQPhase.html

I don't think there is a "right or wrong" answer here, but personally I find myself using a 35-40dB HPF on some of the individual tracks, and then say a 30-35dB HPF on the master... but here's something to consider when doing this:

If you are going to use a HPF attenuating everything <35dB on each individual synth, remember that doing so will slightly boost frequencies around the band and could give an undesirable bass boost.

As for what professionals find to be the most effective method I really couldn't begin to speculate on, everyone has their personal preferences

First thing that comes to mind is Blasterjaxx songs and their introductions (love them)

Check out some of these tutorials

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiReIc4Rc34

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WYrMORLBUg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-dE9i33RFI