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[Samuel_L_Damnson]

I sample everything from skrillex tracks

[nowaysj]

I've sampled his dna. I'm growing a new one now. He will be my brostep golem, he will make me rich when the brostep revival comes around.

[calamity]

What format and what settings should i use to export my projects?

[nowaysj]

Need a whole lot more info than that.

[RKM]

i'm more curious than in need of detailed info to put into practice

why are the tracks i make significantly quieter than more experienced producers/ released tunes

i do the gain staging thing and try and mix the master to 0 without having 1 element swamping the project, is it just being more skilled at volume levels and sidechains, or using eq/limiter type stuff on a master chain?

[DrGatineau]

just compression/limiting on the master chain i would bet. i've always been really wary of over-compression and over-limiting since those practices are widely criticized especially in these styles of music, but i think you'd be surprised at how much compression/limiting the mastering engineer adds to tracks. have you ever had a track mastered?

[nowaysj]

All that shit tough guy.
1. Volume Balancing - just get the right ratios in your tracks, like the right balance of drum impact/volume to bass volume to lead volume to background/reverb volume. This is actually pretty tricky, it is very subtle, as one element moves down just a bit, and another moves up just a bit you can get a wildly different sound. ALSO, this will change when there is master compression and limiting, those background sounds will become louder/more present.
2. Arrangement - getting sounds to sit in the right octaves, occur at the right time, no toe stepping.
3. Eq - cutting all the phat that doesn't need to be there, so muscular sounds can do the heavy lifting.
4. Compression - raising the rms or average loudness/weight of each of your individual sounds, further pumping up busses, then on to the master.
5. Transient Shaping - what peaks need to be there, what peaks don't? Peaks steal headroom.
6. Limiting - how far can you push into the ceiling and still retain your punch without perceptible/problematic distortion.

It's all in the mix, G. Watch for low and low mid energy accumulation in the mix. Most sounds can be thinned out, and thinned out considerably in this range. There is a lot of energy there, and it stacks up quickly. Strange thing here is higher pitch is louder. Strange, right, but the brighter your mix is, the louder it can be.

And you are listening to mastered tracks. Once you get to a point where you're happy with a song, happy with all the dynamics, send it to someone like Macc, and get it mastered, just to see what it sounds like.

Honestly, you should be mixing up to -6db, that is peaks at -6db. Then to test, set up a mastering chain yourself - eq, compression and limiting. Broad strokes on the eq - like wide curves, small moves, like +- 1 db with a wide q, then some master buss compression like ssl master G/glue compression, just get it so the needle is bouncing - slow attack (30) fast release (.1) high ratio (10), and just get that needle to bounce maybe up to 3, 4db, then hit it with a quality limiter, drive it up to, but no further than 5db into the red (this is extreme). Your track will be around the same perceived volume of a pro track. It will probably sound worse, but it'll at least be up there with some weight. When you pump it up like this, you'll probably want to go back and rebalance some elements of your mix, maybe just pull down your reverb send faders a bit, pull down some delays, some of the ambiance. Also may have to pull up or down your drum buss - that is really what is pumping into your master compressor/limiter.

It's all just experience and good monitoring. It'll come. A/B against pro tracks when you are writing, mixing, and doing your test self masters. Can't stress this enough, A/B. Listen to how hard their drums hit, really how big their sub is. How bright their mix is - bet it is brighter than yours, and thinner in the mids.

[hubb]

Yeahhhh.. exactly what noways said.

Take some guys track you love and take one of yours and put them on two independant tracks in your daw - and then try to match the volume without looking at what the channel read out says. It's a really weird sensation because it's usually the least noticable or less remarkable areas of the sounds that have somehow been tucked away in like 'professionally released'- material or whatever.

Bad practise like hipassing ( !) will help a shit ton with loudness but it will almost always (at least to me) rob a sound of it's spirit.
On the other hand, most commercial vsts will utilize most of the freq. spectrum in the presets to make the synth sound impressive when you flick through the presets, but usually those sounds would benefit from having for example less lowend in the context of a mix.
Some vsts will have limiters set in place to check off high volume type of errors which is handy, but you might not want the limiting etc..

[RKM]

sick responses guys, erm this is a bit silly but i have a great piano sample, but it's got some jazz cymbals throughout, had a go using filter and eq but its really right in there with the brightest of the piano tones, how bad would it be to just leave it in as a bit of grimey noise/texture with the drums i've done

or has anyone got any good eqing tips for this kinda conundrum

[nowaysj]

As far as I'm concerned, your stuck.

But it is a blessing. That's why I love sampling, all that extra shit that you can't do anything about. Accidental shit.

IT'S FLAVA!

[RKM]

yeah i think you're right, i'll give it a dip on eq but i have a cymbal pattern that's similar underneath so it's not obvious at all it'll just give it a nice dusty sound

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

I'd keep the cymbals for extra vibe

[RKM]

my dons, gonna try sampling from some of my records today, looking for a nu vibe, any tips on this, just cord out the mixer, soundcard, into audacity? can i do straight into ableton? looking for easiest way possible

[nowaysj]

Yeah, defo go right into ableton. Just select the input on your channel, and record. Then trim right there in ab le ton.

[RKM]

got it cheers

this is unbelievably easy, not a bad way to spend sunday afternoon

[nowaysj]

Yes. So you were using that sample with cymbals, and you got a taste for tha nasty?

[hubb]

cue: Li-berry

[RKM]

nah more preparing my minimix last week noticed tom thumb's blues has some quite live piano chords in the intro and might as well sample it off my own copy, see what different sounds i get from chopping mp3s

[hubb]

get yourself a paul stretch and stretch them funny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPQ92u2P4is

[nowaysj]

get yourself a paul stretch and stretch them funny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPQ92u2P4is