Collection of Beginner Questions

[timtim366]

I'm relatively new to the electric music scene. ive spent the last year saving up and and spending my spare money and equipment and software. now im starting to get the hang of it.

anyway. i have a bunch of questions that im sure are pretty basic.

-What does a Compressor actually do to the sound?

-What are people referring to when they say "mastering"

-If i can think of a sound in my head, how can i turn that into a synth or pad

-How do dustup artists preform live? they look really busy, but i cant imagine what they are doing

-When i automate my lfo speed, it glides from one speed to another. can you turn that off somehow?

-Do you run your wobbles through an audio track before you put them together? Or do you just write in your automtation?

-Do you really analyze the frequency of each track? what do you do with that information?

-what are some of the "golden rules" that you wish you had been told when you were starting out?

-in massive, how hard i hit the key on my Midi controller modulates the velocity of the sound. can i turn that off?

im sure i will think of more. thanks for the help.

[KoenDercksen]

I'm relatively new to the electric music scene. ive spent the last year saving up and and spending my spare money and equipment and software. now im starting to get the hang of it.

anyway. i have a bunch of questions that im sure are pretty basic.

-What does a Compressor actually do to the sound?

-What are people referring to when they say "mastering"

-If i can think of a sound in my head, how can i turn that into a synth or pad

-How do dustup artists preform live? they look really busy, but i cant imagine what they are doing

-When i automate my lfo speed, it glides from one speed to another. can you turn that off somehow?

-Do you run your wobbles through an audio track before you put them together? Or do you just write in your automtation?

-Do you really analyze the frequency of each track? what do you do with that information?

-what are some of the "golden rules" that you wish you had been told when you were starting out?

-in massive, how hard i hit the key on my Midi controller modulates the velocity of the sound. can i turn that off?

im sure i will think of more. thanks for the help.

You could find everything on Google or the search function here... For next time

Anyway:

- A compressor takes a signal and makes sure it doesn't go over a specified threshold (volume level). There are a lot of ways to use a compressor, look it up in the moneyshot thread.
- Mastering is basically cranking up the tune to commercial levels and adding some final last touches to the mix that make it shine just a bit more.
- You practice a lot..
- DUBSTEP is the spelling, dubstep. And it depends, every artist may have a different way of performing live. You have the DJ kind, that just beatmatch tracks and mix 'em together like a traditional DJ would. Then you have the lot with MPC's and stuff that play their beats out live. There is also people like Skrillex that use Ableton to do their livesets. Loads of options really!
- You should automate with straight lines to avoid gliding (ie. either vertical or horizontal).
- Depends really
- Sometimes. In order to get a good mix, you have to sculpt your individual sounds in order to have them sit with each other without clashing frequencies. That's what you can use an analyzer for. Ears are very important as well though. I tend to just analyze my master to see what's lacking, and use my ears for the rest of the EQing.
- Workflow is everything, learn to route your stuff efficiently. There aren't any golden tips for the rest though.. Just practice a lot.
- Read the manual that came with the synth when you bought it. One tip: look at the amp envelope

[ChadDub]

So many new people here making the exact thread today fuck.

[timtim366]

Word. thank you so much man. Got any General tips? or a thread with a bunch of stuff for beginners?

[timtim366]

So many new people here making the exact thread today fuck.

sorry about that man. I really hate to be "that guy"

[KoenDercksen]

Word. thank you so much man. Got any General tips? or a thread with a bunch of stuff for beginners?

Check out the stickies to start with, and then maybe use the search function for other stuff you want to learn about!

[timtim366]

Ok, so this time i searched the whole forum for a topic like this, I didnt find what i was looking for.

I know ALOT of music theory. When it comes to electronic music, which things should apply? Which things should i throw out the window.

Tips?

[Efrafa11]

Wont help at all, pros just bang random notes on there keyboard.

[KoenDercksen]

Well obviously your basic knowledge of chords will apply, maybe some melody/resolving to the root stuff as well.
Just seems like you need to listen to a lot more electronic though, you will draw influences eventually and you can analyze the songs you like in order to see what you can apply and what you just shouldn't think about.
Try new things though!

[ChadDub]

No. Electronic music is just random notes. No, not even notes, just random sounds.

[blinx]

i dont mean to sound like a tnuc, but if you know so much theory than just listen to a few references tunes and spin it your way. The truth is though until you get your sound design game on point all the theory in the world wont translate to good/banging/hard/deep/worthwhile sounding dubstep track. It will however mean that once you learn a DAW, sound design and mix/mastering you will easily beable to compose your tracks and utilize ALL your theory. I mean EDM is jsut a genre of MUSIC so any MUSIC THEORY should be applicable to EDM/DUBSTEP/ELECTRONICA. That is if you really know theory.

[KaveDizzle]

..

[LilWUB]

It's all just a theory anyway. Just write a song.

[Ongelegen]

A compressor takes a signal and makes sure it doesn't go over a specified threshold (volume level).

As far as I know the signal always goes above the threshold (correct me if wrong), unless you set the ratio very high, which is limiting

Example: Input: -8dB, Threshold: -12dB, Ratio: 4:1

In this case the output signal will be -11dB, which is 1dB above threshold with 3dB of gain reduction.

[Turnipish_Thoughts]

So many new people here making the exact thread today fuck.

Non constructive reply is non constructive

I'm relatively new to the electric music scene. ive spent the last year saving up and and spending my spare money and equipment and software. now im starting to get the hang of it.

anyway. i have a bunch of questions that im sure are pretty basic.

-What does a Compressor actually do to the sound?

-What are people referring to when they say "mastering"

-If i can think of a sound in my head, how can i turn that into a synth or pad

-How do dustup artists preform live? they look really busy, but i cant imagine what they are doing

-When i automate my lfo speed, it glides from one speed to another. can you turn that off somehow?

-Do you run your wobbles through an audio track before you put them together? Or do you just write in your automtation?

-Do you really analyze the frequency of each track? what do you do with that information?

-what are some of the "golden rules" that you wish you had been told when you were starting out?

-in massive, how hard i hit the key on my Midi controller modulates the velocity of the sound. can i turn that off?

im sure i will think of more. thanks for the help.

A compressor, as already mentioned, is used to control the dynamic range of a sound. It's difficult to actually cleanly explain what compression does without you knowing a fair bit about audio engineering. But for future reference; A compressor receives an input signal (from the channel you place it on) and 'observes' the amplitude of that signal. If at any point it goes over a certain decibel threshold it attenuates (lowers) the volume by a given ratio. If set at a 2:1 ratio for example, for every 2 decibels the signal goes over, the compressor attenuates the volume by 1 decibel, so if it goes over the threshold by 10dB at the input, the output volume is actually only 5dB over the threshold, it has been 'compressed'.
Why it is called a compressor is because it's compressing the 'dynamic range', so the loudest and quietest parts of the sound are closer in relative volumes.
It is used for things like making a vocal track even in volume, if the singer really belts it out at the chorus, but is more subtle in the verse, it will be harder to mix, but applying compression allows the mixing engineer to worry less about volume automation and can attain a more consistent vocal volume within the mix. There are much more uses for compressors, like drum or bass processing for example. This is a more creative application which makes good use of a compressors effect of altering the relationship between the sounds fundamental frequency and its harmonics. This is to do with fletcher-munson curvature in psychoacoustics and the physical science behind the decrementing amplitude distribution of consecutive harmonics in a sound. Not something you need to be worrying about right now.
Compression is a very complicated subject, but do practice with using one, experiment and get comfortable with its effect on audio, remember to always use your ear and think about how the different outcomes of compression could be used in a creative context.

Mastering is arguably the most directly 'scientific' aspect of the production process. It is essentially the observation of the relative levels of each track (or often the whole mix) and an application of different processes in order to attain an even volume while maintaining relative amplitudes attained in the mixing stage, for the purpose of getting the tune as close to the clipping threshold as possible, without distorting the sound. It is also the application of things such as multiband compression, on the master buss (instead of on individual tracks), a final check and possible alteration of the panorama and a a final EQ application. All of these things will quite often be done to the track once it has been bounced to a WAV file and applied across the entire mix, as opposed to effect/processing application on individual tracks in the mixing and sound design stages of production.

The only way to get a sound from in your head out into the real world is by learning synthesis. I would advise reading this book. It is very widely known, a comprehensive and well written introduction to synthesis, and free. Not to mention the best free material you're going to find about synthesis. Get this book, read it slowly, take your time and apply the material by practicing what it's saying as you're reading it. This should take you a couple of months, after which look into the authors other books on synthesis, or by which time you may have found other material as tertiary, so read that too! Now it's very worth mentioning the important point of sticking to a very small amount of instruments, do not, i repeat, do no ever think that your music will improve by getting more stuff, the next 'cool' synth, the next 'must have' FX unit e.t.c. it will not ever improve your sound. It will confuse you, hold you back and stop you from ever getting properly familiar with one instrument which is what you need to be doing right now. A big step in learning synthesis (and audio engineering) is learning your way around a synth's interface, you must stick with one synth to do this. The same can be said for FX units. Get 1 of what you need for each unit, there are plenty of free options, learn their interfaces as a medium through which you can teach yourself the underlying physical science, as it applies to audio processing, of that specific process, be that synthesis, compression, EQ, Reverb, chorus, filtering, envelope/LFO application e.t.c. Then worry about expanding your software library. Trust me when I say that this is fundamentally the best way you can go about this, more of us have learned this the hard way than any of us would like to admit, don't be another!

The question about Dubstep DJ/performers has already been answered.

The LFO 'gliding' problem may be being caused by a number of different things, it might be to do with how you are changing the LFO speed, set it to 'tempo sync' and draw in the automation with 'immediate' automation changes, by this i mean no 'ramps' but 'steps' from one level to the next, this way the lfo speed will not interpolate between speeds but 'jump' from on to another. You should also look at setting the LFO to 'key trigger' or 'gate', what this essentially does is make the LFO re-start every time a new key is pressed, you can then play about with the phase of the LFO waveform to find the filter envelope modulation (not to be confused with an actual envelope in the synth, the term 'envelope' is used to describe the encompassing motion of something opening, staying open, and then closing) you are after.

It is a difficult thing to program in synced wobbles, you are applying a mathematical algorithm on top of a syncopating beat, the algorithm will simply 'do it's thing' a lot of the time and is very prone to knock out of sync as somewhere deep within the numbers something might be off slightly, its just a very fiddly subject really. There is a whole skill set in getting a decent wobbly groove going with your bass patches. Something you should check out is making wobbles at different synced tempos, bounce a few different speeds out and put them in a sampler, cut bits out you like and apply processing to give the sound more movement e.t.c. The idea behind this is that it is much easier to keep your wobbles from running away with themselves. Then again a lot of people do it by simple LFO/envelope automation. The point is, find your workflow and get used to it. This part of track building is arguably the most time consuming, fiddly and delicate of it all, it's not something anyone can just throw together. Every decent Baseline riff you have heard has been meticulously pieced together over many hours of minute tweaks and delicate placement. Keep that in mind, it's something you're going to have to get familiar with.

Frequency analysis is important in building a 'full mix' while ensuring that each element is still well defined and clear within the mix. If too many instruments are trying to occupy the same frequency range the mix will be sounding really muddy as the same frequencies of all the different instruments sharing the same area of the spectrum (all with their own important role in the timbre of their parent sound) add together, basically equating to white noise, a chaotic mixture of confused textures, mainly (but not exclusively) to do with frequency masking. The effect of this is 'mud'. avoid it. You do this by keeping in mind the 'frequency register' of a given instrument when selecting your sound palette in the beginning stages of production and making sure that each instrument will have its own 'space' within the mix. Of course you can bend the rules by doing some creative EQ, sidechain compression; and of course, creative application of arrangement in the song's structure, making sure would be 'clashing' instruments are never playing at the same time. your imagination should fill this concept in for you good enough.

Golden rules? Keep trying, don't compare yourself to other producers. Experiment with sound with no pretence to a certain genre, train your ears with critical de-constructive analysis of tunes you like to break them down into their constituent parts and think about exactly 'what is going on' within the tune, from a sound design perspective, a compositional perspective, a musical perspective and a creative perspective. Copy off artists you like, try and make the sounds they do, but remember to not compare your end result with their quality-wise, it will only frustrate you! Understand your place in the scheme of things, it will take you a long time for your ability to catch up with your tastes, take a constructive and empirical approach to learning and be fairly regimental about it. Take it fairly serious and teach yourself the many different aspects of production in a methodical manner.
Develop a workflow in your daw, organise your sample library and keep it organised!

In fact, watch this

For your last question, I don't use massive so I can't help you there, but hard-setting velocity to register as 127 i believe should be a trivial task. A little research into that would do you well.

Hope all this has helped. Any more questions? Just ask. Peace.

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

Music theory will help you, this is music after all.

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

Turnipish Thoughts does it again.

[Turnipish_Thoughts]

Turnipish Thoughts does it again.

[KoenDercksen]

A compressor takes a signal and makes sure it doesn't go over a specified threshold (volume level).

As far as I know the signal always goes above the threshold (correct me if wrong), unless you set the ratio very high, which is limiting

Example: Input: -8dB, Threshold: -12dB, Ratio: 4:1

In this case the output signal will be -11dB, which is 1dB above threshold with 3dB of gain reduction.

Yeah correct, should've put that more detailed. Thanks!

[Triphosphate]

Turnpish FTW...

The only thing I can contribute is my favorite analogy for a compressor (which by the way I read in the moneyshot thread):

Compressor is like a dude sitting on the sofa watching TV... He's watching his favorite show when a commercial comes on and it's too loud (threshold) So he reaches over for the remote as quickly as he can (attack) and jams the volume down button a few times (ratio = how many times he pushes volume down) and when the commercial is over and he wants to hear his favorite show again he raises the volume back (release).