ASK US ANYTHING [NO SUBJECT IS STUPID / ALL QUESTIONS WELCOMED]

[gedda]

For just a listening experience, how good are tube amps? I want to listen to my vinyl collection with it which is a collection of mostly electronic music.

Secondly, are they even good enough to slap my 909s into?

[2latuile]

For just a listening experience, how good are tube amps? I want to listen to my vinyl collection with it which is a collection of mostly electronic music.

Secondly, are they even good enough to slap my 909s into?

If it's for hifi, I'm still waiting for technical evidences that tubes are any better than solid state - the whole point of "high fidelity" is to be as transparent as possible so really shouldn't hear much of a difference between a well designed and built SS amp and a similarly well designed and built tube amp (your wallet may prefer the SS amp though), specially given the rather restricted dynamic range and frequency response of vinyl and the restricted dynamic range of most electronic music production.

If you're looking for something to color and distort your instruments then you want something deliberately lofi, ie a simple guitar (or bass) tube amp (or even just preamp) - but some SS circuits are also prized for their own coloration and distortion.

My 2 cents...

[Lost to the Void]

Yeah I've never really seen the point of tube amps for hifi.
If you get a really really good quality class A super clean tube amp, it just sounds like a decent solid state amp.
Anything lesser will be coloured.
And tubes degrade over time.

I did, when I built the new mastering room, initially decide to power my mastering mains with valve monoblocks.
I got these custom made Kt88 push pull monoblocks made for me by Octagon Audio. I think they are in the photos on my website, and after a couple of months I replaced them with Quad solid state amps.
As even with high grade (they cost me over 2 grand) valve amps the colouration once the valves settled was too deceptive.

So if you want accurate then nah.
But as a pleasing home listening experience, then if that is your taste yes.

I now use my monoblocks as part of the signal chain to add... Very expensive.. Saturation.

[juodas]

How do you make tracks more interesting, I’ve always end up adding way to much stuff on my tracks, like 3 different basses, and quite a lot of percussion which makes my mix way to busy, however I don’t know how to make my tracks interesting for 7 min straight without adding stuff to it, as much as I’m listening to ro-minimal or minimal house in general there’s less stuff in the tracks but track itself sounds full.. minimal but it keeps tracks interesting for whole 7 mins. I’m starting to think that i need to really dive in reference tracks otherwise I will get stuck... any advices?

[Amøbe]

How do you make tracks more interesting, I’ve always end up adding way to much stuff on my tracks, like 3 different basses, and quite a lot of percussion which makes my mix way to busy, however I don’t know how to make my tracks interesting for 7 min straight without adding stuff to it, as much as I’m listening to ro-minimal or minimal house in general there’s less stuff in the tracks but track itself sounds full.. minimal but it keeps tracks interesting for whole 7 mins. I’m starting to think that i need to really dive in reference tracks otherwise I will get stuck... any advices?

I don't know if I am the right one to answer this, since I am often in the habit of adding dramatic pads after 2 minutes, to keep it interesting. However, one thing i do try to improve at is, creating a basic groove that I find interesting even if it runs for a bar. Then I try to go up and wiggle my butt, and if that works, then I try to see how much I can vary it without having to really add anything new, but just small changes in tension or spatiality. But it is easier said than done

[Lost to the Void]

How do you make tracks more interesting, I’ve always end up adding way to much stuff on my tracks, like 3 different basses, and quite a lot of percussion which makes my mix way to busy, however I don’t know how to make my tracks interesting for 7 min straight without adding stuff to it, as much as I’m listening to ro-minimal or minimal house in general there’s less stuff in the tracks but track itself sounds full.. minimal but it keeps tracks interesting for whole 7 mins. I’m starting to think that i need to really dive in reference tracks otherwise I will get stuck... any advices?

That`s a very open question with no clear answer. Some minimal techno is just a borefest of nothing happening for 6 mins, and some is gripping from start to finish. So it`s not the amount of elements but how you use what you have.

Quite often people add too many elements because they are reinforcing weaker elements. So sometimes the solution is just processing those initial sounds where they have more depth and movement within them (and more size) so that they don`t need reinforcement.

Sometimes lots of elements are fine, it`s just a case of making sure they work with the mix sympathetically, which does require very good mixing skills (which is why minimal techno is generally easier to mix down).

Sometimes, rather than having all those elements just adding up and adding up, you can construct your track in sections, and as you add one element, you remove another, so the mix doesn`t get too busy (which will also keep the track interesting).

[gedda]

I've been thinking about buying one of those Klark Tekniks , either the pultec or 1176. The issue is they are 1 channel. What's wrong with summing the stereo for side chain then printing the L followed by the R? Gearslutz says it'll mess with my stereo, but I don't trust them.

[tsaro]

In this case you can probably trust the guys from marketing..err..shill slutz..err gearboyz, as your stereo track will have L-R differences and the compressor will react to them, that's why you often see the "stereo link" option on compressors.

If you have the option to filter the input reference signal before it triggers the compressor you could gain back some control. Only I doubt that this thing will give you anything in that regard, maybe some hipass (not looked into it tbh). Though you could probably tap the signal internally and route it through any old eq.

[Barfunkel]

Ok, I got a truly stupid one!

I was watching some kick tutorial and noticed that the tutorialist said "dee ey double u" when he was talking about a DAW. Do native English speakers really say it like that normally? I would say it like the word dawn, without the n. Kinda like it was a word, not an abbreviation. In Finnish people just say "daw" or "dawi", and basically never say the individual letters of the abbreviation.

[orchard]

I never say it. The only people I know doing this use Ableton so it’s either referred to as ‘in Ableton’ or ‘on the computer’.
I might still say sequencer as well, from when it was all midi. /old.

[timc3]

I say both depending on who I am talking to. Dorr or D.A.W. Doesn't really matter.

[Ben Kohonays]

It mostly seems to be yanks that say it like that. ("dee ey double u")

[Barfunkel]

Another question:

I've watched some techno kick tutorials where they tune the kick down quite low, 40Hz or so. It does sound nice on headphones in isolation, but is this something people (as in pros) actually do when they make techno? It's quite low a frequency even if you consider the harmonics will give it more presence, especially when you saturate the kick.

Note: I'm old and used to 909 kicks.

[Lost to the Void]

I've been thinking about buying one of those Klark Tekniks , either the pultec or 1176. The issue is they are 1 channel. What's wrong with summing the stereo for side chain then printing the L followed by the R? Gearslutz says it'll mess with my stereo, but I don't trust them.

You would be better off splitting mid and side rather than left or right, but I wouldn`t do it, and I wouldn`t do it with Kark Tekniks pulltec, it`s fake.

[Lost to the Void]

Another question:

I've watched some techno kick tutorials where they tune the kick down quite low, 40Hz or so. It does sound nice on headphones in isolation, but is this something people (as in pros) actually do when they make techno? It's quite low a frequency even if you consider the harmonics will give it more presence, especially when you saturate the kick.

Note: I'm old and used to 909 kicks.

No, I master all day every day and never get anything with a kick fundamental at 40hz, and I am not sure why anyone would. Most nearfields don`t represent 40hz very well, so whatever tutorials you are watching where they are doing that, they probably don`t actually know what they are hearing anyway.

[Barfunkel]

Another question:

I've watched some techno kick tutorials where they tune the kick down quite low, 40Hz or so. It does sound nice on headphones in isolation, but is this something people (as in pros) actually do when they make techno? It's quite low a frequency even if you consider the harmonics will give it more presence, especially when you saturate the kick.

Note: I'm old and used to 909 kicks.

No, I master all day every day and never get anything with a kick fundamental at 40hz, and I am not sure why anyone would. Most nearfields don`t represent 40hz very well, so whatever tutorials you are watching where they are doing that, they probably don`t actually know what they are hearing anyway.

That's what I suspected, just saw it in a few tutorials and wondered about it.

[Lost to the Void]

Another question:

I've watched some techno kick tutorials where they tune the kick down quite low, 40Hz or so. It does sound nice on headphones in isolation, but is this something people (as in pros) actually do when they make techno? It's quite low a frequency even if you consider the harmonics will give it more presence, especially when you saturate the kick.

Note: I'm old and used to 909 kicks.

No, I master all day every day and never get anything with a kick fundamental at 40hz, and I am not sure why anyone would. Most nearfields don`t represent 40hz very well, so whatever tutorials you are watching where they are doing that, they probably don`t actually know what they are hearing anyway.

That's what I suspected, just saw it in a few tutorials and wondered about it.

Just thinking about this a little more, you could create a kick with a fundamental at 40hz and then use some kind of distortion to add high order harmonics (thought this won`t work with a pure sine kick drum of course), and then roll off the 40hz to be left only with the harmonics.
It`s a problematic thing to do, depending on the quality of the kick you are using, and ultimately not very useful, but you could do that.
I see no real reason why you would want to though.

[TheDarkInstall]

Any tips on making the huge wide sub bass element that is present in modern techno?

I've had some success with keeping the kick well away from it and turning it up, but can't seem to get it as huge and wide as stuff I hear in recent mixes.

[Barfunkel]

Another stupid question:

I've watched many sidechain tutorials. Many of them suggest that you don't use an actual kick drum sound for the sidechain input, but rather a short and snappy sound like a rimshot or a closed hihat, playing the kickdrum pattern. Is there a technical reason it's better? I haven't heard an explanation yet, just several tutorials that tell you to do so.

[orchard]

Another stupid question:

I've watched many sidechain tutorials. Many of them suggest that you don't use an actual kick drum sound for the sidechain input, but rather a short and snappy sound like a rimshot or a closed hihat, playing the kickdrum pattern. Is there a technical reason it's better? I haven't heard an explanation yet, just several tutorials that tell you to do so.

I believe one of the reasons for using a separate sound to your actual kick drum is that if you alter your kick (volume, eq, decay etc.) it will alter the side chain response and keeping them separate allows greater flexibility in that you can still pump pump even when your kick isn't playing.