Kryptic Minds // Production Video & Masterclass

[paravrais]

Whilst those are all thoughts I had whilst watching this too (except the saturation on lots of channels, I do that too) you have to accept that their tracks do sound the business which just goes to show that all these 'rules' producers impose on themselves because of what other folks have told them on the internet really shouldn't be taken as gospel.

[flex vector]

again, another waste of time from computer music:

5 mins of talking about hitting things off trees.

getting a genuine 128kbps sound rather than a fake digital(wtf??) 128kbps.

saturation on every single thing.

then more saturation on the master.

some ambient crackle shitty noises

skip how the bass was made, done on the virus earlier so who cares about the interesting part.

assign lfo to cutoff on kontakt

always cut at 500hz?? on the master? theres nothing useful there apparently. i don't get it.

then lets put an eq on the master and mess with the whole track, rather than eqing the individual elements better.

suffice to say i didn't learn much from this video.

Yeah I thought the way they were talking about a cell phone like it's a nice piece of analog equipment was pretty weird, as well as the whole eqing the master to enhance individual elements thing.

Most of the time when I watch these videos it amazes me how simple they make it seem - like they're just using generic samples and slapping a bunch of limiters, compressors and saturation all over everything. But they make it sound so good!

Also, why does everyone seem to mix into Vintage Warmer?? Seriously, every masterclass I've ever seen has it on the master. Kryptic Minds said they put it on before they even start the arrangement! Is PSP sponsoring these videos or something?

Having said all of that, I love Kryptic Minds, and every producer in every one of these masterclass videos makes much better sounding tracks than me so what the fuck do I know?? What I've taken away from all these videos is that having a good set of ears and developing your ability to tell the difference between what sounds good and what doesn't is the most important "technique" there is.

Maybe I'll start bouncing all my masters onto my phone for some of that good 3G warmth...

[mks]

I though the vid was cool. Thanks Pedro for uploading it.

Lo fi recordings from a phone can be pretty cool.

Cuts around 500 hz are standard. You have to sweep it around to find the swampy parts of the low mids. But if you are doing it because someone told you to, then you are not really listening very well are you? You should only do it if it needs to be done.

Slight EQ of the stereo mix after the mixdown is finished, standard.

[flex vector]

Oh yeah, no doubt it's standard practice to put some final eq on the master. I just thought it was weird how he was doing things like adding a pretty big boost to add presence to the snare when he obviously has access to the project and could just do it in the mix.

[therapist]

again, another waste of time from computer music:

5 mins of talking about hitting things off trees.

getting a genuine 128kbps sound rather than a fake digital(wtf??) 128kbps.

saturation on every single thing.

then more saturation on the master.

some ambient crackle shitty noises

skip how the bass was made, done on the virus earlier so who cares about the interesting part.

assign lfo to cutoff on kontakt

always cut at 500hz?? on the master? theres nothing useful there apparently. i don't get it.

then lets put an eq on the master and mess with the whole track, rather than eqing the individual elements better.

suffice to say i didn't learn much from this video.

Yeah I thought the way they were talking about a cell phone like it's a nice piece of analog equipment was pretty weird, as well as the whole eqing the master to enhance individual elements thing.

Most of the time when I watch these videos it amazes me how simple they make it seem - like they're just using generic samples and slapping a bunch of limiters, compressors and saturation all over everything. But they make it sound so good!

Also, why does everyone seem to mix into Vintage Warmer?? Seriously, every masterclass I've ever seen has it on the master. Kryptic Minds said they put it on before they even start the arrangement! Is PSP sponsoring these videos or something?

Having said all of that, I love Kryptic Minds, and every producer in every one of these masterclass videos makes much better sounding tracks than me so what the fuck do I know?? What I've taken away from all these videos is that having a good set of ears and developing your ability to tell the difference between what sounds good and what doesn't is the most important "technique" there is.

Maybe I'll start bouncing all my masters onto my phone for some of that good 3G warmth...

This entire production bible is basically redundant after reading this post.

[nowaysj]

Think this vid was just about as good as others I've seen. Seems like there is a lot to learn there, especially if you don't know a lot. It is pretty clear that these guys are not technically oriented, as we've seen with many of the producers featured in the masterclasses.

What's that tell you though? That the artistic decisions involved in the creation of the track are of paramount importance, far exceeding the mundane task of embodying the song in a recorded medium, and that it is far easier to talk about that mundane task?

===

I don't know why they'd do a little premaster to their tracks, I mean are they sending that eq'ed, multilmited track for mastering? Why would you use a $250 eq plugin when your ME may subsequently use a $5,000 hardware mastering eq? That part made the least sense to me. Hoping they were just doing that as a little home master, but I don't know what is going on.

[dopocc]

will be watching tonight. thanks!

[ARNOK]

I don't really understand the point of getting upset over their efforts to spread knowledge (that many are interested in). There's already enough producers trying to replicate their sound -- why should they tell you their "secrets'"?

[Pedro Sánchez]

People need to understand that a guy who wanted to get into production 'yesterday' just bought that magazine 'today' and some of it needs to make sense to a beginner, CM can't assume that everyone is at an advanced level of music production and to be fair, what else are these master classes gonna show you?, if thats how Kryptic made the track, thats how they made the track, if you want a step by step process, starting from them turning on their PC and loading Ableton, all the way upto them switching the lights of in the studio and going home, then maybe you are not as advanced as you think you are and if you are not getting anything out of them, then stop watching them. Simples.

[Filthzilla]

suffice to say i didn't learn much from this video.

I kinda feel the same way...

[VirtualMark]

People need to understand that a guy who wanted to get into production 'yesterday' just bought that magazine 'today' and some of it needs to make sense to a beginner, CM can't assume that everyone is at an advanced level of music production and to be fair, what else are these master classes gonna show you?, if thats how Kryptic made the track, thats how they made the track, if you want a step by step process, starting from them turning on their PC and loading Ableton, all the way upto them switching the lights of in the studio and going home, then maybe you are not as advanced as you think you are and if you are not getting anything out of them, then stop watching them. Simples.

I don't agree with this. The past few dozen cm 'masterclasses' have been aimed at beginners. It'd be nice if they covered some new ground thats all i'm saying. That is if CM wants more experienced producers repeat business, rather than relying on a constant flow of noobs. I don't buy the magazine anymore for this reason.

I'd personally like to see more on the musical side/composition of the tune, more about getting a good groove with the beat and more about the sound design/effects chains and getting the thing to sound consistent. It takes more than whacking psp vintage warmer on the master to get several different basses to sound like they're one.

[gyu]

I thought this was really good actually, thanks for posting it up.
I thought they were taking the piss when they were talking about the real 'analogue' digital of their mobile phone.
Otherwise I thought they were nice and strait forward about how they made their sounds and didn't ramble on too much.
I liked seeing how they used very simple effects a processes to get their sound, found it quite inspiring considering the sound quality of their productions.
Just goes to show that we don't need any more plug-ins or hardware, just inspiration

[Pedro Sánchez]

I don't agree with this. The past few dozen cm 'masterclasses' have been aimed at beginners. It'd be nice if they covered some new ground thats all i'm saying. That is if CM wants more experienced producers repeat business, rather than relying on a constant flow of noobs. I don't buy the magazine anymore for this reason.

I'd personally like to see more on the musical side/composition of the tune, more about getting a good groove with the beat and more about the sound design/effects chains and getting the thing to sound consistent. It takes more than whacking psp vintage warmer on the master to get several different basses to sound like they're one.

CM Music is not aimed at advanced music makers, it's aimed at beginners to intermediates and people who wanna read reviews of the latest software on the market, If you claim to know

It takes more than whacking psp vintage warmer on the master to get several different basses to sound like they're one.

what are you complaining about? that you can't get a bass like theirs and a good groove and CM owe you a video tutorial on how to?

[mymatedave]

CM Music is not aimed at advanced music makers, it's aimed at beginners to intermediates and people who wanna read reviews of the latest software on the market, If you claim to know

It takes more than whacking psp vintage warmer on the master to get several different basses to sound like they're one.

what are you complaining about? that you can't get a bass like theirs and a good groove and CM owe you a video tutorial on how to?

Exactly. Respect to Kryptic Minds for taking the time to share some tips, and allow the users wanting a step by step guide to ripping off their sound.

If these videos are too basic for people, then maybe thats because its time they focused on developing their own production sound/techniques, instead of finding out the secrets of others.

Just my opinion, not aimed at anyone in particular

[VirtualMark]

oh dear. firstly, please point me to the information that told you computer music was aimed at beginners only - i haven't seen this advertised anywhere. i will at this point refer you to the dictionary definition of masterclass: a session of tuition by an expert, esp a musician, for exceptional students, usually given in public or on television.

secondly, as strange as it may sound, when i buy something i'd like to get some use from it. i've found the cm masterclasses cover a lot of the same stuff, which is the point i'm making. what i would like is some progression.

lastly, i do not want to rip the sound of others off, and it actually offends me when people accuse me of trying to do this by asking about new techniques. there is a phrase 'we stand on the shoulders of giants' that has stood the test of time for a good reason - believe it or not there is a lot to be learned from other peoples work.

i've seen a few useful masterclasses, such as the reso tutorial. he almost tells you how to make the tune, going into detail about his sound design and arrangement. sub focus did a lot of tutorials which i found useful, particularly on synth patches and layering dnb beats. the chase & status tutorial was useful, again showing layers used in a dnb beat.

this may surprise you, but i don't sound like any of the above. strange eh? a video on beats and synth patches didn't teach me how to rip off anyones sound. even stranger was that i decided to voice my opinion about a production video series on a production forum.

anyhow, in answer to your question, yes i do think CM owe me a video that i can find useful, it would then make the product that they are selling useful to me.

[djake]

Big up KM, always been into there tunes and always nice to see a slight insight into how other people work.

[zawmbee]

ok, I just finished watching the Kryptic Minds masterclass and this,


My question is, why do they have so many sets in the session view, when they're obviously working on the arrangement tool? They have no clips in any of the sets tabs, what are they using them for exactly? Or is that for when they go live?

Also, is there any difference between the drum rack and impulse drum machine?

[Pedro Sánchez]

I dont' even know why I am doing this but...

oh dear. firstly, please point me to the information that told you computer music was aimed at beginners only - i haven't seen this advertised anywhere.

I stated, it was aimed at beginners to intermediate, because someone at an advanced level wouldn't need a step by step explanation on subtractive synthesis as is the case in a past issue or need questions answered like "I have a macbook, what audio interface do I need to hook up to my new monitors" in the Q&A section, or to quote an article from this issue 'The Beginner's guide to melody'.

secondly, as strange as it may sound, when i buy something i'd like to get some use from it. i've found the cm masterclasses cover a lot of the same stuff, which is the point i'm making. what i would like is some progression.

As I stated previous not every reader of the magazine is at the same level (as you), so constant progression is gonna be useless to those who have recently got into production and just started buying the mag, are they expected to go back to issue #1 and catch up?

The rest I can't be arsed pointing out the rest but anyway, if you feel you are more advanced than what these videos are showing you, then I suggest you stop watching them and don't buy the mag because you obviously expect more out of them than what they are going to offer. *Try Sound on Sound Magazine instead maybe.

[ghosttown]

@VirualMark do you have any of your own music online? Intrigued to hear.

[Big Freq]

I enjoyed watching this masterclass. These guys seem cool as hell!

I didn't really learn much like other people said but I did find it interesting that they like the default Ableton sounds like the 808's, claps and what not. It actually had me looking through the Ableton library again. Personally I'm not a fan of the built-in Ableton "Analog" synth because I think it sounds very cheesy but it was interesting how they implemented it. I'm glad they weren't like "so here is NI Massive". Such a relief.

Respect to these guys for sitting down and showing a little bit of their setup.