Been producing for x years, and i still dont know how to...

[Depone]

This thread is for those questions about music production/technonogy that is still unanswered/explored after all this time...

Ill start;
If i have a mono kickdrum on a stereo channel, does this matter at all? Wil there be odd issues with phase? Even with the balance centred?

I'm almost certain that theres no problem with this but its one of those questions i dont dare ask, but this thread is for exactly that!

Question away!

[3rdeye]

I think that's cool mate, it should still be mono, but it's one I've often wondered about myself too haha. So I always bung mono samples on mono channels.

[amphibian]

I can't see why it would make a difference - the signal is mono. Unless you're doing something on that channel to actually move the signal around, it should be fine.

[Gewze]

ive been producing neigh on 3 years and cant side chain effectively. (currently changing this)

[hutyluty]

ive been producing neigh on 3 years and cant side chain effectively. (currently changing this)

sames

[Jas0n]

ive been producing neigh on 3 years and cant side chain effectively. (currently changing this)

If you're using FL Studio, Peak Controller makes this incredibly easy!

[Teknicyde]

ive been producing neigh on 3 years and cant side chain effectively. (currently changing this)

If you're using FL Studio, Peak Controller makes this incredibly easy!

Theres a big difference between that + actual sidechain compression...

[wub]

ive been producing neigh on 3 years and cant side chain effectively. (currently changing this)

If you're using FL Studio, Peak Controller makes this incredibly easy!

Theres a big difference between that + actual sidechain compression...

^^ This, basically. It took me a long time to realise that I wasn't actually doing sidechain compression at all, I was just volume ducking my elements slightly

[mitchAUS]

Back in my FL days I remember side chaining with the peak controller... but i found it more a creative tool then a mix tool. Back then FL had no compressor you could side chain with and I couldn't find any free ones at the time, I'm guessing that has changed by now?

[Atac]

Back in my FL days I remember side chaining with the peak controller... but i found it more a creative tool then a mix tool. Back then FL had no compressor you could side chain with and I couldn't find any free ones at the time, I'm guessing that has changed by now?

Yeah I know the Fruity Limiter has a sidechain function, that's the one I use.

Anyone have a better method?

[the dub lemon]

If i have a mono kickdrum on a stereo channel, does this matter at all? Wil there be odd issues with phase? Even with the balance centred?

You should be absolutely fine unless your DAW is shit and as far as I know none of them are that shit. I use stereo tracks for my kicks because even though you want the main thump (under 100hz or so) mono there's absolutely nothing wrong with a bit a stereo information a bit higher up, maybe a bit of reverb say. The only time I use a mono track is when I want to for something that might be stereo to mono.


My question (this one might be a bit abstract and had to explain). I've had tracks mastered by some great mastering engineers and generally the obvious results are it's loud as fuck and some work has been done on the width of the mix (a bit or widening and/or m/s processing - this is good as it's made me focus more on spacial awareness with my mix), but in most cases I also notice they've some how managed to really tighten up the basic and lock it in with the kick, how? I'm going with the assumption that it's through compression (most like like multi-band) but even when I compress the 2 together then don't lock like that I can can't seem to achieve it with multi-band compression on the mix either. I'm sure if they can do this with a stereo mix I must be able to do it better in the actually mix but I can't sus it out?

I'm not sure if you guys know what I'm talking about, here's an example of one where this has been done, if you still don't know what I mean I might be able to post up a pre-master clip to compare it with.

Soundcloud

[Electric_Head]

Back in my FL days I remember side chaining with the peak controller... but i found it more a creative tool then a mix tool. Back then FL had no compressor you could side chain with and I couldn't find any free ones at the time, I'm guessing that has changed by now?

Yeah I know the Fruity Limiter has a sidechain function, that's the one I use.

Anyone have a better method?

I`ve used this http://www.db-audioware.com/sidechain-compressor.html
this freeware one was fairly ok http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1315.html
but I only use ReaComp now within Reaper

All I need to do is create a send an receive between kick and bass.
Open Reacomp and use the Aux input(the receive from the kick) to trigger the compressor.
Ratio and Knee size to create the duck.
Very simple.

[Atac]

Back in my FL days I remember side chaining with the peak controller... but i found it more a creative tool then a mix tool. Back then FL had no compressor you could side chain with and I couldn't find any free ones at the time, I'm guessing that has changed by now?

Yeah I know the Fruity Limiter has a sidechain function, that's the one I use.

Anyone have a better method?

I`ve used this http://www.db-audioware.com/sidechain-compressor.html
this freeware one was fairly ok http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1315.html
but I only use ReaComp now within Reaper

All I need to do is create a send an receive between kick and bass.
Open Reacomp and use the Aux input(the receive from the kick) to trigger the compressor.
Ratio and Knee size to create the duck.
Very simple.

Awesome thanks for the tip! Exactly why I love this place.

[the dub lemon]

ive been producing neigh on 3 years and cant side chain effectively. (currently changing this)

What DAW are you using? I find the compressor in Cubase really shit for side-chaining for some reason, I can't work it out I think I've tried every single setting possible and it's still not quite right, it works but just doesn't quite seem right. Ableton's compressor on the other hand is so easy to dial in a setting that just works, apparently Logic's is great too. I don't think Cubase's is bad, I use it quite alot but I think others seem to be better but I think I'm going to try out fabfilter pro-c and see how that compares.

I just wish UAD would pull their finger out and add vst3 sidechaining to their plugins.

[Perfecture]

This thread is for those questions about music production/technonogy that is still unanswered/explored after all this time...

Ill start;
If i have a mono kickdrum on a stereo channel, does this matter at all? Wil there be odd issues with phase? Even with the balance centred?

I'm almost certain that theres no problem with this but its one of those questions i dont dare ask, but this thread is for exactly that!

Question away!

I was thinking this just the other day, And to be on the safe side I just turned the channel in logic to mono even though I knew the sample was in mono. Although to go with what Dub Lemon said about having a kick as stereo, I have my second kick (which is layered on the subby kick) as stereo just so it has a little spread on the top end. Not sure if this is good practice or not though, reckon I should just have all my kicks in mono??

[MoonUnit]

ive been producing neigh on 3 years and cant side chain effectively. (currently changing this)

this is an immediate red flag for me as I have just started thinking 'I'm getting the hang of side chain compression!'
... haven't been at it more than a year really... I must be doing it wrong

[-[2]DAY_-]

If i have a mono kickdrum on a stereo channel, does this matter at all?

I have a bunch of kicks that are mono files. If i drag them straight in to an audio track, they'll only land on mono tracks.. but I hadn't even realized it for awhile bc i always put em in my sampler and record to stereo. It never makes a difference.
Its like having your sub on a mono track but at the very end of the chain everything's coming out the 2bus on the master. doesn't ruin your sub

My question: I still can't get automation to sound good or carry a lot of movement in my tracks. I know how to do it on most of my kit, but I don't know if its the phrasing that sucks or my values are just kinda off. At the moment i have in mind a 303-esque acidy lead in Reason. Also how do i enter multiple patterns into the Matrix pattern seq. and automate the pattern changes?? Ideally i want to copy pattern A to B, alter B, and automate the change

[jrisreal]

How does an eq do it's thing? I'm talking behind the scenes stuff. Obviously it applies a curve to
mess with the frequencies but it can't be that simple.

[wormcode]

ive been producing neigh on 3 years and cant side chain effectively. (currently changing this)

If you're using FL Studio, Peak Controller makes this incredibly easy!

Theres a big difference between that + actual sidechain compression...

^^ This, basically. It took me a long time to realise that I wasn't actually doing sidechain compression at all, I was just volume ducking my elements slightly

You can do sidechain compression with the peak controller, you can control compressors or anything with it or chain a bunch together. I would say it's a lot more powerful than just a compressor with a sidechain input. I really wish it was available to use in other DAWs, but that's one of the things that still makes FL a competitor.

[Teknicyde]

How does an eq do it's thing? I'm talking behind the scenes stuff. Obviously it applies a curve to
mess with the frequencies but it can't be that simple.

It is that simple though, and the sharpness of the curve is measured in decibels per octave...

So like, If you have some evenly leveled, true white noise, and set an EQ up to cut everything above 20 hz by 12 db per octave... 40 hz will now be 12db quieter then 20hz is, 80hz will be 24db quieter then 20, 160 will be 48db quieter, ect, ect.

The curve is consistent and pretty self explanatory once someone explains it like that, any series of changes/boosts/cuts can be represented by addition and subtract in db per octave...

Well, thats how parametric graphic eq's work, linear phase stuff is mind blowingly complicated.