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ANY TIPS ??
obviously reverb etc but are there any other little things that make a difference

I always split my frequencies and try to beef up the mid as much as I can!

Making sure frequency is filled up as well as a good stereo field. Panning on hats/percussion works wonders

legend4ry wrote:Making sure frequency is filled up as well as a good stereo field. Panning on hats/percussion works wonders

this and short delays

how about add more than just drums and bassline

super short sample delay can do wonders.

Put it in all caps.

bus compression + EQ

legend4ry wrote:Making sure frequency is filled up as well as a good stereo field. Panning on hats/percussion works wonders

THIS.

Stereo enhancers on elements they wont hurt, everyone always seems to forget about stereo enhancers because we caution against them so hard on masters and bass instruments and shit, but, on leads and top end percussion and what have you...

Dont underestimate what colored compression and subtle saturators,ect. can do either man. keep the vintage warmer off your master but that muffucka is gold in the busses.

Pads. Pads can fill out octave frequencies your other instruments dont get too without drawing focus away from whats important. Same with atmospheric sounds n all that raz.

Delays and verb, on sends. Great way to get seperate percussion elements really interacting with each other... just remember if your sending your kicks/snares into shit to roll the low frequencies off with an eq, reverbs tend to make mud out of these faster then they make anything pleasant.

IDK man get creative.

select sounds that work well together.. mix them well... then master limiting or compression will glue it. sidechaining the kick works well sometimes..

hey BB, my friends were trolling dubstep on youtube and one of your tracks came up... cool shit.. just thought you'd like to know

i was having this problem until i realised something. don't be scared to just whack a limiter/compressor or a track and tame the random peaks going on. i just made a very simple track, just single hits, a break, a couple of basslines and a couple of pad/atmospherical synths. it sounds fat considering how simple it is.

make a startup template in your daw. then add a aiff/320 mp3 of a dubstep tune (i've been using skream's freeizm part3). then mute it and save the template. whenever you are lacking an idea/wondering about panning/does it sound loud enough ect...just solo the mp3 and a/b it with the track you are currently working on. this definitely helps you get quick ideas/a better mixdown. save the template so whenever you start a new tune theres a track ready for you to listen to if you need mixdown thoughts or inspiration.

send your bass and drums to their own busses. add a hint of saturation and comp/limiter on both.

sample delay is a nice trick. i have a waves s1 so i use that instead as i think it sounds a bit better. does a similar job though.

layering mid range synth bass is a must if you are looking for that neurofunk dnb type sound. make an instance of your bassline, then mute the output...but send it to 3 aux/bus channels. then eq so one bus deals with low mids, the other mids, then the third deals with hi mids/tops. add as much processing as it takes to start sounding fat. then add a stereo enhancer to the hi mid/top bus, and maybe small amounts to the other busses too.

another trick is to go fx sample hunting. find about 20-25 small noise/bleep type fx samples. add panning, send tape delay, reverb ect. then high pass them (high pass the sends too). arrange them in your tune so they add little bits of ear candy for the listener. they don't have to be anything too intricate. just think of it like filling up the canvas with paint.

plugs i recommend:

camel phat
vintage warmer
lexicon reverb
waves s1 and doubler
voxengo varisaturator

Wikum wrote:
plugs i recommend:

lexicon reverb

The PCM or the LXP plugin? I think either of them are out of most peoples budget haha...

Research the 'wall of sound', a production concept pioneered by the great (yet absolute bonkers) Phil spector. The idea is to fill up the entire frequency spectrum to create... well a wall of sound. You can find some information on wiki here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_of_Sound

No, it dosn't directly apply to Dubstep, but on whole its a great technique to use. Also remember, it wont work on every track. Each song you make will have a different vibe, and alot of the time, less is more.

Hope any of this semi-drunken rambling helps.

-hk

legend4ry wrote:

Wikum wrote:
plugs i recommend:

lexicon reverb

The PCM or the LXP plugin? I think either of them are out of most peoples budget haha...

lol someone gave me a copy of the pcm's. not like i'm gonna say 'no thanks i don't want £1000 worth of free plugins, just because it pinches my conscience'. i snatched it straight off them lol.

and to be honest i didn't realise they were priced at £1000. they're definitely not worth that much, though they are better than space designer. just not £700 better.

i use a lot of sampled ambience for this. for example background tracks from half life 2, just wind or... well ambience sounds, it's hard to describe but if you have the game you'll find the folders. i have them really low in the mix and hipassed so they don't clash with the sub. i've gotten the idea when i read about burial having footsteps in a tune, first it's someone walking on the streets and then it's someone walking in a church. tbh i never found out which track they were talking about but the idea seemed great

btw, adding a complex delay (like the more fucked-up settings on logic's delay designer) to a mostly white-noise ambience sound can create a sound that's a bit like shattering glass in space (yes i know there's no sound in space but you get me).

Wikum wrote:camel phat
vintage warmer
lexicon reverb
waves s1 and doubler
voxengo varisaturator

I wanna add to this...

Blockfish
Tessla LE
FerricTDS
Greasetube

And strongly caution using them to extremely, subtlety is key with those 4, but thier beautiful.

A trick that I like for basses and pads is to copy the patch; pan each left and right (not necessarily hard L and R); and adjust the settings until it feels balanced and wide. There's a lot of ways you can go about it, but start by playing with the filter frequency, resonance, tune, and distortion settings. You can go well beyond that, but it's a good place to start. The frequency and distortion play into the "Wall of Sound" that was mentioned earlier. You can have your synth fill different places in the frequency spectrum instead of all mashing together in the same frequencies.

My favorite effect to achieve with it is to still have a phantom image (it sounds like it's coming from between the speakers) but with a lot of width and richness.

2 words..........................

LOW MID

Your first tune in signature needs stereo widening

Flux STTool hasn't been mentioned