What sounds good

So we all know what sounds good. We beef up our cars with whatever can blast out extremely good quality music. Headphone’s quality have increased over the years to something so extrodinary to someone 60 years old that we young’ns couldnt even imagine. Our stereos now play digital recordings that have been mastered by years and years of experience with the best equipment known to man. We have been subjected to the best quality sound systems in theaters, we put them in our homes, we all know what quality audio is.

So my question is, as an artist, when do you put yourself out there and you know its not the best quality? Where is that line of good enough.

This has been on my mind lately, A LOT.

I dont have top quality gear, I dont have the best in the industry and I cant afford it right now, though I have some really nice stuff. I know Im still in a phase of discovery. Seeing what I can do. Finding where I want to be. Tweaking my overall style to find that middle ground that Im looking for.

Learning (of which I know never stops).

My stuff is not ready for public consumption by any means. Its a bunch of unfinished tracks where I jumped on a new learning experience, changed things, and ended up with something completely different than I had a week ago.

I know Im not close to that line yet, but its probably going to be my biggest struggle.

The Art of Mixing by David Gibson

Wow. What can I say about this other than amazing. If you can get past its design to meet the common denominator and its kindergarten feel, you will definitely pick up a thing or two on how to mix out your tracks. It goes over all the dynamics in what makes a good mix and what to use to adjust those dynamics.

More importantly, it gives you a structured idea of how to look at mixing. How to visualize it out and how to categorize the elements you are mixing. If you are looking for sound design and what effects you can use to make an interesting bass sample, this is the wrong book. If you are looking for a book to go over each effect and how it will compliment your mix, get this one.

You will have to sit through the rather boring elements in the beginning as he sets up the lesson and gets you up to speed of looking at everything the way he does, but once you get past that he really gives you some good stuff.

It does have that Saturday morning kids learning program feel to it, but none the less, its some simple basics that once applied will clear things up rather easily.

Got rid of the sample

Well after a week of time wasting with games on myspace, Im back in production mode. Took a listen to the last track that I was making and just wasnt overly happy with it. Everything was working together, but it just wasnt the sound that I wanted. IT was too techy, too Tech Itch ‘ish or Pendulumish. Nothing against that style of drum n bass I just prefer more depth to my music.

So I went back to the drawing board. Grabbed some new samples. Programmed a new beat with the snare on the off beat. Everything is hitting on the low end. I like my snares to have a bit of a low end to them, to give them a clack, clang sound. Ditched the amen. (that was a must learn but not a must use). Added a Rhodes sample in there. Toned things down a bit.

I love a hard sound, but not specifically a techy sound.

A note:
Im not overly fond of these Pendulum guys, they remind me of Panacea from back in the day of which I wasnt overly found of him. Just engineered, machine sounding music. Lacking everything I like about the music I like. I used to assume that was a German thing (Panacea was out of Germany) and just labeled it German drum n bass.

Have it your way

So I found this nifty little plug-in that is solving all my gritty bass needs. The demo comes with Fruity loops apparently but still Image-line line did a good job on this little thing. Basically its a waveshaper (distortion) plug-in that is far ahead of the one that came with Live. Which is probably why you have to pay $100 bucks for it. After remaking my bassline over and over and over, I finally landed on this little gem I had hidden away from when I was using Fruity.

Unlike most others, you shape the wave however you want it using points and envelopes. Most distortion plug-ins are usually tube type trash and so forth. Which of course has its purpose but wasnt giving me the coarse gritty sound I wanted. I put this thing in started shaping and wahh lahh grit. Love it.

100 is a little steep for a plug-in but I dont know if Im going to find a better one out there.

http://www.image-line.com/documents/waveshaper.html

Seriousness

So what started out as having some fun with a sample continues to grow into something more serious for me. Im adding more to the beat, still working on the bass (Its bass but not quite where I want it). Rearranging the structure because well you cant believe everything you see on the net. Actually I followed some lame ass structuring posted some where and ended with a track that was way too short.

The bass’s mid and high end just isnt quite there for me yet, its not coarse enough, not well dirty enough. I still have work to do there.

Updated the beat. Before it was all amen, now I programmed a 2-step beat out to work the amen in and out of. Interesting the work a simple delay will do to a snare to fatten it up.

I find myself constantly playing with the mix, changing up the verb to get the right positioning on each individual instrument and loop, changing the EQ of each one to get them to mix right. I tend to go either too bright or too muddy (LOL are there any other options?)

I do need to fatten up one instrument in there, it seems to annoy the hell out of me with a whispery whine to it.

Lets Get Dirty

So since I had this chopped up amen laying around I decided to play with it. Added some bass, stole some samples from redman’s “let’s get dirty” and some other highlights.

Ill post it up so it can be downloaded when Im done with it. (After my perfectionist ass screws around with it over and over and over trying to get it perfect)

Gotta Love Friends

So I got this new phone and its all shiny and geeky fun and shit, and I put “brown paper Bag” by Roni Size on it as a ringtone. Well now that was just not good enough for all them. Though Im still shy as hell about my music and dont let anyone listen just yet except for those who have to put up with hearing the same loop a gazillion times while I mess around with it, they insisted that I put something I made on it.

I can see their point, Im rocking it like I know what the fuck Im doing so someone should be able to hear something.

Good for them for getting me straight.

(I changed my ringtone not my attitude LOL)

AMEN Brother

No wonder people use this break excessively, you can do just about anything with it and it sound right.
Chop it up rearrange it with ease.
I always figured that would be a hard thing to accomplish.
It always sounded so intricate and detailed that I figured it would be some sort of challenge to use.
Ohh well, now that I got that down, back to making my own beats.

Choppin and Arranging

So yeah everything worked as planned. Live is so sweet in this aspect. Set your warp markers so you get a good chop, bounce it, then send to midi on the half. Now I have a drum beat that I can rearrange however I want on the half.

Need to find some decent samples though.

If someone has high quality sampled beats ( Funky drummer, apache, amen) that they have sampled themselves it would be much appreciative to send them my way.

(Actually I found it to be better on the 1/4. Did the same thing with an Amen. Lots of fun)

Funky Drummer II (Still on it)

O.K. so you warp it, bounce it to a new track. But I didnt quite get that I can chop to midi at whatever length of the bar I want.

Thats amazing, you can then rearrange the beat however you want.

So back to audacity to get a good 8 bars out of this and then warp it and change it up however.

Man Live makes this way too easy.