Short Production Tips & Tricks

[Hades]

Now as a tip for newcomers (like myself) i would say that you need to practice more and read less. I mean, of course it is important to get your doubts solved, as i just did, but you only see the results when putting effort practicing.

Problem is when you start to read everything and your mind wants to put it all in practice at the same time…. So go slowly and learn what you're doing in deep.

this is ALWAYS the case.
I know I sound as if I'm shooting in my own foot or something by saying this, with all my endless rambling here,
but it's FAR more important to put in the hours making music than stay on a forum reading up on stuff.
There's tons of practical stuff on this site, but it's far better if you try and do the reading on moments when you can't be making music (on the bus/train to work for example).
It's only after putting in hours and hours, weeks and weeks, months and months, years and years... that things slowly start to become more and more second nature.
And even then you still need to be putting in more hours, time and time again.

[tsaro]

I never bounce down, I always apply the effects to midi channels. It means I can adjust anything at any point as the mix gets refined.

Well, this is good to know. I was thinking that quality would be better processing audio instead of midi.
For sure it is good being able to make any adjustments until the deadline.

thank you

There's no quality difference, so do it whichever way suits the way you like to work. There are benefits to bouncing down to audio so don't discount the idea completely. You can't reverse a sound generated by midi for example or cut it up in the same way to rearrange it/add processing per section etc etc.

If you're an fx junkie like me, it's more practical most of the time to bounce it down. Because I run out of cycles ...well..... a lot let's just say

It's always a good idea to keep your original sequence though, if indeed you'd want to change something you did earlier. Only I rarely go back to it, and instead try to 'fix' the issues in audio. Which can lead to funny/unexpected results, which can either be good or bad..... It's all up to your preference, though, just try different things and stick with what suits you.

[christianmdp]

I don't really understand the question. You can bus things as midi or after bouncing, it's up to you. Don't worry about this too much. As a rule of thumb, if you want to manipulate the sound as an audio file then bounce it, if not, don't. If you want your bounced sound to include the sound of your bus then resample the master channel (or use the resample channel in Ableton).

If you're talking about mixing here, it is absolutely fine to have a mixture of audio and midi channels. And yes, personally I would send to buses after bouncing when mixing. But if you're just sound designing you might want to resample the buses as well.

I always had this doubt about processing midi or audio file with third party effects, but now I'm getting to know that there is no difference at all, only about it being locked on the VSTi or still editable and the use of CPU.

I'm not sure if i understood when you said that if I want my bounced sound to include the sound of the bus i should resample the master channel. When you say master channel, is it the track channel? I mean, lets suppose I put a midi lead on a bus with some reverb and i want to bounce this midi into audio. If i bounce this midi track will the audio file have the reverb on it?

sorry if my english doesn't help..

[Planar]

The master channel is the single main channel that all your audio comes out of. In other words, if you mute that channel then all your audio stops.

This may depend on your DAW, but in Ableton, if you resample your channel it won't include the bus. You need to resample the master channel with only the channel and the bus playing to get the bus fx into your sample. Ableton also has a specific resampling virtual channel for this purpose.

I'd say for now not to resample your buses. If you want to add an effect and bounce it, just add it to the channel. When you're more comfortable with the basics then you can do it if you feel you need to.

[christianmdp]

The master channel is the single main channel that all your audio comes out of. In other words, if you mute that channel then all your audio stops.

This may depend on your DAW, but in Ableton, if you resample your channel it won't include the bus. You need to resample the master channel with only the channel and the bus playing to get the bus fx into your sample. Ableton also has a specific resampling virtual channel for this purpose.

I'd say for now not to resample your buses. If you want to add an effect and bounce it, just add it to the channel. When you're more comfortable with the basics then you can do it if you feel you need to.

Thank you.
I will try now to see how this works on Logic. I already was adding effects as inserts on each channel, but started to read about buses, so i think it is time to learn how to use it.

[tsaro]

Not sure if this is in here somewhere already (it might well be), but if f.ex. your snares aren't cutting through you can just shift it forward a few ms so it hits just before the kick instead of right on it, y9ou'll need a lot less eq and other trickery to get it in the mix properly. Just remembered this one while working on a track, thought I'd share.

[Mimui]

-learn how to detune properly.
-learn the rules to break them.

[Lost to the Void]

The master channel is the single main channel that all your audio comes out of. In other words, if you mute that channel then all your audio stops.

This may depend on your DAW, but in Ableton, if you resample your channel it won't include the bus. You need to resample the master channel with only the channel and the bus playing to get the bus fx into your sample. Ableton also has a specific resampling virtual channel for this purpose.

I'd say for now not to resample your buses. If you want to add an effect and bounce it, just add it to the channel. When you're more comfortable with the basics then you can do it if you feel you need to.

You can also just use channel routing to route the returns you want and channels you want to an audio channel and record to there.
The audio routing in ableton is extremely felxible

[Lost to the Void]

Not sure if this is in here somewhere already (it might well be), but if f.ex. your snares aren't cutting through you can just shift it forward a few ms so it hits just before the kick instead of right on it, y9ou'll need a lot less eq and other trickery to get it in the mix properly. Just remembered this one while working on a track, thought I'd share.

That`s a good one, works for percussion in general

[L8Night]

new to the forum - #1 tip for me, believe in yourself and strive to make your own sound

on the production side , take stuff and chop it , distort it , reverse , delay, reverb etc until you cant no more lol ... then delete it and cry yourself to sleep

[Hades]

believe in yourself

...

cry yourself to sleep

[Sasemoi]

Not sure if this is in here somewhere already (it might well be), but if f.ex. your snares aren't cutting through you can just shift it forward a few ms so it hits just before the kick instead of right on it, y9ou'll need a lot less eq and other trickery to get it in the mix properly. Just remembered this one while working on a track, thought I'd share.

That`s a good one, works for percussion in general

This one is so gud, helped me many times

When working with a full sound (big frequency range) make 3 sends and split your sound into bands with an EQ, then process separately with whatever you were gonna use (distortion , delay , vocoder , phaser, compressors, ...) on the full sound but thinking how different settings will affect the original sound and mix them back in together as you like , or record certain parts and add them as layer your original sound for more bigness or other shenanigans

[Will Frances]

If new to production, don't worry about the technical intricacies surrounding production too much. if you can get goood musical ideas down and an arrangement that works, then a good mix and a solid bit of technical knowhow will enhance the work. This doesn't work the other way around. I have learnt this the hard way

[Hades]

If new to production, don't worry about the technical intricacies surrounding production too much. if you can get goood musical ideas down and an arrangement that works, then a good mix and a solid bit of technical knowhow will enhance the work. This doesn't work the other way around. I have learnt this the hard way

absolutely 500% true.
just listen to all these over-produced big room techno tracks.
musically they are as boring as fuck,
but hey... they are "well produced"...

[Sasemoi]

If new to production, don't worry about the technical intricacies surrounding production too much. if you can get goood musical ideas down and an arrangement that works, then a good mix and a solid bit of technical knowhow will enhance the work. This doesn't work the other way around. I have learnt this the hard way

absolutely 500% true.
just listen to all these over-produced big room techno tracks.
musically they are as boring as fuck,
but hey... they are "well produced"...

Hahaa i knew this was a term in techno can we call it Awakenings-Syndrome?

I have struggled with this a lot too, technicalities standing in the way of creative thinking, most producers that are also audio engineers will struggle with this.

A good tip is to force you off any mixing tools unless you're going to use them to make the sound unique instead of making it fit in the mix. Minimise your DAW while playing and listen what the track is telling you instead of what you are trying to make the track say

[Hades]

Hahaa i knew this was a term in techno can we call it Awakenings-Syndrome?

I have struggled with this a lot too, technicalities standing in the way of creative thinking, most producers that are also audio engineers will struggle with this.

A good tip is to force you off any mixing tools unless you're going to use them to make the sound unique instead of making it fit in the mix. Minimise your DAW while playing and listen what the track is telling you instead of what you are trying to make the track say

I always say "follow the track".
Honestly, so many times I start with half an idea, but I end up somewhere completely else.
And if people ask me what I make, I usually say techno or ambient, but I just follow the music really.
Though obviously when I'm making something ambient it doesn't turn into techno or vice versa.

[arkos]

Need more sizzle to your hat's and/or rides ? Put a Vocoder on them use Noise as a carrier, this can yield some interesting results too.

[Merah]

Need more sizzle to your hat's and/or rides ? Put a Vocoder on them use Noise as a carrier, this can yield some interesting results too.

Very interesting, I've just started experimenting with lives vocoder. Its cool

[Hades]

Need more sizzle to your hat's and/or rides ? Put a Vocoder on them use Noise as a carrier, this can yield some interesting results too.

nice tip,
but John/Crioch gave that exact same tip a while ago in this topic, if I'm not mistaken...

[arkos]

Need more sizzle to your hat's and/or rides ? Put a Vocoder on them use Noise as a carrier, this can yield some interesting results too.

nice tip,
but John/Crioch gave that exact same tip a while ago in this topic, if I'm not mistaken...

I actually thought of reading through the thread to check for that since it been quite awhile since I read it but I what can I say, I'm lazy

Another tip; Sound not cutting through the mix? Automate a distortion/overdrive effect at the start of a sound and then off right after the short transient part, works especially well on percussive elements.

Live's Overdrive is nice for this with it's built in Eq and dry/wet slider so you can easily tailor it to the sound you want to emphasize, kick, snare, hat etc.