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Insahn wrote:Andy Wallace actually uses a lot more quick fader riding than compression if you are looking to duck like he does. People say they are very surprised by how little compression he uses.

quite interesting, ive heard stuff about riding the faders as a first method of dynamic control before!

I've had great success making cymbals like this using a good sample, some EQing + a transient shaper and some reverb.

^that.

The original sample is everything.

Try some white noise mixed with your cymbal crash and run both through the best reverb you have.

Sorry to dissapoint, but tons of reverb is not the answer at all.
people need to get this idea that reverb is needed on everything out of their head.

If you actually listen to a skrillex track properly you will notice there is pretty much fuck all reverb going on, apart from short reverb on the snare and probably super short reverb on the mid range stuff and hi hats.

tons of reverb just muddys up a mix, makes things sound weak and makes your song sound like its being played in a church . for deep dubstep fair enough reverb is key to create ambiance and space, but for the 'tearout' shit reverb will not give the song that in your face feel like your boy skrillex. I think some people need to actually analyse these tracks more carefully before coming on here spouting that tons of reverb and compression is the way.

^this

I will give an example so it doesn't just seem like I am slating, as I want to help people understand what I mean.

If you listen to the remix of cinema for example, you will notice that there is no gaps between the wubs and wobs lol. all the elements follow tightly after each other and all up front in the mix. If you were to put lots or reverb on the mid range or any of the other elements then it would muddy up the mix heavily as there is no room for the rerverbs to fade out from one sound to the next. In deeper dubstep fair amounts of reverb work really well as there is so much space for the reverb to exist and to fade out amognst the transistions of sounds. Subtle and small amounts of reverb are fine to use in tunes similar to cinema but this requires fine tuning and tweaking so that it doesn't muddy up the mix.

One more thing, When it comes to compression only use it if it benfits the sound, don't just whack compression on anything cause you think you have to, it won't always be beneficial or even needed to compress certain elements.

I just wanted to point out I suggested "the best reverb you have" and not "tons of reverb". I know your talking about an earlier post where someone say's compression and "tons of reverb" but I've gotten some good results using a very subtle amount of verb on the cymbals. Other than that, I'd completely agree with the rest of your post.

perfecture +12

Just because you have the tools doesnt mean you need to use them, realised this with the last band i recorded.

Hmm... but cymbals can be hats or crashes. I do like tons of reverb on my crashes Needs control (post-EQ) though. But yeah for hats it's minimal reverb, but some.