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hey,

i get sent a lot of music and see a lot of people complaining about quietness of mixes etc.

i apologise if this is really basic for people but it might serve some use for novices.

firstly grab this plugin or similar.

http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=18 its free!

the enveloper in logic can achieve the same results roughly.

ok so envelopers and transients designers can really increase the loudness of your drums or overall mix by letting you adjust the attack of a sound to decrease the peaks. You can also boost sounds that are lacking punch.

most common problems when mixing drums are that spiking occurs and its usually snares (not always).

so in really simple terms the transient shaper or enveloper will let you add attack to a snare or any sound without you losing too much power and you can also do the same to add power to a sound that lacks dynamics.

dont draw for compression straight away as this will only amplify the peak!

so a plugin chain could look something like

EQ>Enveloper>Overdrive (optional)>Compression>Multimeter

im really shit at writing so i hope you can at least grab the essence and do some research.

J

jack sparrow1 wrote:hey,

i get sent a lot of music and see a lot of people complaining about quietness of mixes etc.

i apologise if this is really basic for people but it might serve some use for novices.

firstly grab this plugin or similar.

http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=18 its free!

the enveloper in logic can achieve the same results roughly.

ok so envelopers and transients designers can really increase the loudness of your drums or overall mix by letting you adjust the attack of a sound to decrease the peaks. You can also boost sounds that are lacking punch.

most common problems when mixing drums are that spiking occurs and its usually snares (not always).

so in really simple terms the transient shaper or enveloper will let you add attack to a snare or any sound without you losing too much power and you can also do the same to add power to a sound that lacks dynamics.

dont draw for compression straight away as this will only amplify the peak!

so a plugin chain could look something like

EQ>Enveloper>Overdrive (optional)>Compression>Multimeter

im really shit at writing so i hope you can at least grab the essence and do some research.

J

Biggups J Sparrow. I cant stop listening to your tunes mate, I'm a huge fan.
I use a lot of the same technique you have described here. I usually reach for a transient shaper before a compressor these days... But it depends on the sound at hand, and what your going for. Could be artistic or technical reasons.
I can also recommend the Shaack Audio transient shaper. http://www.schaack-audio.com/transientshaper.html Its a beast.
Also saw you listed it but Logics enveloper is a underestimated tool, even with sample clearup (taking reverb out of something without using a gate, it sometimes gets better results)

Cheers- Dep

Depone wrote: I can also recommend the Shaack Audio transient shaper. http://www.schaack-audio.com/transientshaper.html Its a beast.

THIS! A beast indeed!

Depone wrote:

jack sparrow1 wrote:hey,

i get sent a lot of music and see a lot of people complaining about quietness of mixes etc.

i apologise if this is really basic for people but it might serve some use for novices.

firstly grab this plugin or similar.

http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=18 its free!

the enveloper in logic can achieve the same results roughly.

ok so envelopers and transients designers can really increase the loudness of your drums or overall mix by letting you adjust the attack of a sound to decrease the peaks. You can also boost sounds that are lacking punch.

most common problems when mixing drums are that spiking occurs and its usually snares (not always).

so in really simple terms the transient shaper or enveloper will let you add attack to a snare or any sound without you losing too much power and you can also do the same to add power to a sound that lacks dynamics.

dont draw for compression straight away as this will only amplify the peak!

so a plugin chain could look something like

EQ>Enveloper>Overdrive (optional)>Compression>Multimeter

im really shit at writing so i hope you can at least grab the essence and do some research.

J

Biggups J Sparrow. I cant stop listening to your tunes mate, I'm a huge fan.
I use a lot of the same technique you have described here. I usually reach for a transient shaper before a compressor these days... But it depends on the sound at hand, and what your going for. Could be artistic or technical reasons.
I can also recommend the Shaack Audio transient shaper. http://www.schaack-audio.com/transientshaper.html Its a beast.
Also saw you listed it but Logics enveloper is a underestimated tool, even with sample clearup (taking reverb out of something without using a gate, it sometimes gets better results)

Cheers- Dep

big up

yeah the schaak one is decent! a common problem with logic or common perception is that it isn't as loud as other daws.

the gate and enveloper are deff under rated.

im mostly hardware for compression and eq but the URS plugins come pretty close imo

J

i'm hoping that logic ten will bring some more added stability though

SPL Transient Designer does the trick nicely too, handy tool to have.

jack sparrow1 wrote:

Depone wrote:

jack sparrow1 wrote:hey,

i get sent a lot of music and see a lot of people complaining about quietness of mixes etc.

i apologise if this is really basic for people but it might serve some use for novices.

firstly grab this plugin or similar.

http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=18 its free!

the enveloper in logic can achieve the same results roughly.

ok so envelopers and transients designers can really increase the loudness of your drums or overall mix by letting you adjust the attack of a sound to decrease the peaks. You can also boost sounds that are lacking punch.

most common problems when mixing drums are that spiking occurs and its usually snares (not always).

so in really simple terms the transient shaper or enveloper will let you add attack to a snare or any sound without you losing too much power and you can also do the same to add power to a sound that lacks dynamics.

dont draw for compression straight away as this will only amplify the peak!

so a plugin chain could look something like

EQ>Enveloper>Overdrive (optional)>Compression>Multimeter

im really shit at writing so i hope you can at least grab the essence and do some research.

J

Biggups J Sparrow. I cant stop listening to your tunes mate, I'm a huge fan.
I use a lot of the same technique you have described here. I usually reach for a transient shaper before a compressor these days... But it depends on the sound at hand, and what your going for. Could be artistic or technical reasons.
I can also recommend the Shaack Audio transient shaper. http://www.schaack-audio.com/transientshaper.html Its a beast.
Also saw you listed it but Logics enveloper is a underestimated tool, even with sample clearup (taking reverb out of something without using a gate, it sometimes gets better results)

Cheers- Dep

big up

yeah the schaak one is decent! a common problem with logic or common perception is that it isn't as loud as other daws.

the gate and enveloper are deff under rated.

im mostly hardware for compression and eq but the URS plugins come pretty close imo

J

i'm hoping that logic ten will bring some more added stability though

Mind me asking what hardware your running?

Wish the SPL wasn't assloads of cash.

Depone wrote:

jack sparrow1 wrote:

Depone wrote:

jack sparrow1 wrote:hey,

i get sent a lot of music and see a lot of people complaining about quietness of mixes etc.

i apologise if this is really basic for people but it might serve some use for novices.

firstly grab this plugin or similar.

http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=18 its free!

the enveloper in logic can achieve the same results roughly.

ok so envelopers and transients designers can really increase the loudness of your drums or overall mix by letting you adjust the attack of a sound to decrease the peaks. You can also boost sounds that are lacking punch.

most common problems when mixing drums are that spiking occurs and its usually snares (not always).

so in really simple terms the transient shaper or enveloper will let you add attack to a snare or any sound without you losing too much power and you can also do the same to add power to a sound that lacks dynamics.

dont draw for compression straight away as this will only amplify the peak!

so a plugin chain could look something like

EQ>Enveloper>Overdrive (optional)>Compression>Multimeter

im really shit at writing so i hope you can at least grab the essence and do some research.

J

Biggups J Sparrow. I cant stop listening to your tunes mate, I'm a huge fan.
I use a lot of the same technique you have described here. I usually reach for a transient shaper before a compressor these days... But it depends on the sound at hand, and what your going for. Could be artistic or technical reasons.
I can also recommend the Shaack Audio transient shaper. http://www.schaack-audio.com/transientshaper.html Its a beast.
Also saw you listed it but Logics enveloper is a underestimated tool, even with sample clearup (taking reverb out of something without using a gate, it sometimes gets better results)

Cheers- Dep

big up

yeah the schaak one is decent! a common problem with logic or common perception is that it isn't as loud as other daws.

the gate and enveloper are deff under rated.

im mostly hardware for compression and eq but the URS plugins come pretty close imo

J

i'm hoping that logic ten will bring some more added stability though

Mind me asking what hardware your running?

for compression tl audio A2, its got an additional tube stage but is valve. real nice eq too.

we mixed the 'Author' album on dcl 200 and fatrack.

you can pick up a brand new A2 for about 400 quid brand new (they were 1200 when they first came out)

jack sparrow1 wrote:

Depone wrote:

jack sparrow1 wrote:

Depone wrote:

jack sparrow1 wrote:hey,

i get sent a lot of music and see a lot of people complaining about quietness of mixes etc.

i apologise if this is really basic for people but it might serve some use for novices.

firstly grab this plugin or similar.

http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=18 its free!

the enveloper in logic can achieve the same results roughly.

ok so envelopers and transients designers can really increase the loudness of your drums or overall mix by letting you adjust the attack of a sound to decrease the peaks. You can also boost sounds that are lacking punch.

most common problems when mixing drums are that spiking occurs and its usually snares (not always).

so in really simple terms the transient shaper or enveloper will let you add attack to a snare or any sound without you losing too much power and you can also do the same to add power to a sound that lacks dynamics.

dont draw for compression straight away as this will only amplify the peak!

so a plugin chain could look something like

EQ>Enveloper>Overdrive (optional)>Compression>Multimeter

im really shit at writing so i hope you can at least grab the essence and do some research.

J

Biggups J Sparrow. I cant stop listening to your tunes mate, I'm a huge fan.
I use a lot of the same technique you have described here. I usually reach for a transient shaper before a compressor these days... But it depends on the sound at hand, and what your going for. Could be artistic or technical reasons.
I can also recommend the Shaack Audio transient shaper. http://www.schaack-audio.com/transientshaper.html Its a beast.
Also saw you listed it but Logics enveloper is a underestimated tool, even with sample clearup (taking reverb out of something without using a gate, it sometimes gets better results)

Cheers- Dep

big up

yeah the schaak one is decent! a common problem with logic or common perception is that it isn't as loud as other daws.

the gate and enveloper are deff under rated.

im mostly hardware for compression and eq but the URS plugins come pretty close imo

J

i'm hoping that logic ten will bring some more added stability though

Mind me asking what hardware your running?

for compression tl audio A2, its got an additional tube stage but is valve. real nice eq too.

we mixed the 'Author' album on dcl 200 and fatrack.

you can pick up a brand new A2 for about 400 quid brand new (they were 1200 when they first came out)

Yeah used the A2 on some vocal tracking once, also TL's Ivory comp (not as smooth)
Im getting my hands on Elysia xpressor when I can (£700) - http://www.elysia.com/hardware/xpressor ... roduction/

This has turned into a J Sparrow Q&A

big ups for the tut and great tunes j sparrow!

just for the sake of legality, transient monster has a generous demo that's free to try but not really free, kinda like reaper.

as for freeware alternatives, theres dominion by digitafishphones and bittersweet by flux!

Nice one J sparrow, have been meaning to give this a look. More posts like this would be great, the kind of post that raises awareness to something you might not find unless told.

Interesting indeed - I would never have thought to use either a transient shaper or overdrive on the master channel.

Any other sneaky tips Mr. Sparrow?

Bigups & merry christmas

jack sparrow1 wrote: Mind me asking what hardware your running?
we mixed the 'Author' album on dcl 200 and fatrack.

you can pick up a brand new A2 for about 400 quid brand new (they were 1200 when they first came out)

big ups mister sparrow, speaking of Author, i can't get enough of that album. revolutions and green and blue are absolute tunes.
and the bass in Teacher off of The City release is straight nutty.
can't wait to hear what's next

i'm afraid i'm going to have to disagree with ryan on this one.

firstly,
NEVER put overdrive, compression, or any other dynamic/distortion effects on the main output (i think he might have been misquoted there)...
Keep the output channel completely clear except for perhaps a frequency analyser (massively useful - i can't believe it isn't included in programs like reason... even more of a reason to step up to logic/cubase) and gain (this will enable you to bring the gain down a couple of db before bouncing out a pre-master - just so you can avoid any clipping that might occur). The pre-master should be as clean as possible for the purposes of mastering. The waveform will also give you a good impression of where the issues might be with your mix (look out for things like rogue peaks, squared-off peaks, too much of a dynamic difference between the drums and the 'music', etc).

secondly,
compression should not accentuate any peaks. the main point of compression is to bring the dynamics together so that peaks are reduced, while the quieter part will become louder (depending on where you set the threshold). Of course, there are different types of compression, and you should also look at experimenting with very fast attack/release times compared with slightly slower ones, to get the most out of a small amount of compression. It's easy to over-cook the compression so make sure you have solo'd the channel and listen carefully for the differences while watching the level meter.

as for transient shaper plug-ins, i've used the transient monster and flux bittersweet, and the latter seems to be a lot easier to control without over-doing it. The transient monster is fun for making extreme transient changes but the flux seems more detailed and professional.

if you are having trouble with peaking channels, you have exhausted all attempts at subtractive EQing, and you don't want to draw for compression or transient shapers (these will both 'colour' the sound - sometimes in an adverse way), you can always look at fading the audio in slightly (or if using a sampler, the actual sampler envelope itself). sometimes a fractionally longer attack time can not only make the peaks less problematic but can even make the samples sound clearer and warmer especially in very rigid quantised music. Another technique (esp with snares) is to play with off-setting and deliberately un-quantising layers so that the peaks of each layer don't all hit at once. This is especially handy with claps, and gives a more dilla-esque feel to the sound as well as giving you more volume to play with.

hope that's of some help

Nobody said anything about putting anything on the master.

ruckspin wrote:i'm afraid i'm going to have to disagree with ryan on this one.

firstly,
NEVER put overdrive, compression, or any other dynamic/distortion effects on the main output (i think he might have been misquoted there)...
Keep the output channel completely clear except for perhaps a frequency analyser (massively useful - i can't believe it isn't included in programs like reason... even more of a reason to step up to logic/cubase) and gain (this will enable you to bring the gain down a couple of db before bouncing out a pre-master - just so you can avoid any clipping that might occur). The pre-master should be as clean as possible for the purposes of mastering. The waveform will also give you a good impression of where the issues might be with your mix (look out for things like rogue peaks, squared-off peaks, too much of a dynamic difference between the drums and the 'music', etc).

secondly,
compression should not accentuate any peaks. the main point of compression is to bring the dynamics together so that peaks are reduced, while the quieter part will become louder (depending on where you set the threshold). Of course, there are different types of compression, and you should also look at experimenting with very fast attack/release times compared with slightly slower ones, to get the most out of a small amount of compression. It's easy to over-cook the compression so make sure you have solo'd the channel and listen carefully for the differences while watching the level meter.

as for transient shaper plug-ins, i've used the transient monster and flux bittersweet, and the latter seems to be a lot easier to control without over-doing it. The transient monster is fun for making extreme transient changes but the flux seems more detailed and professional.

if you are having trouble with peaking channels, you have exhausted all attempts at subtractive EQing, and you don't want to draw for compression or transient shapers (these will both 'colour' the sound - sometimes in an adverse way), you can always look at fading the audio in slightly (or if using a sampler, the actual sampler envelope itself). sometimes a fractionally longer attack time can not only make the peaks less problematic but can even make the samples sound clearer and warmer especially in very rigid quantised music. Another technique (esp with snares) is to play with off-setting and deliberately un-quantising layers so that the peaks of each layer don't all hit at once. This is especially handy with claps, and gives a more dilla-esque feel to the sound as well as giving you more volume to play with.

hope that's of some help

didn't say anything bout the master output

Depone wrote:

jack sparrow1 wrote:hey,

i get sent a lot of music and see a lot of people complaining about quietness of mixes etc.

i apologise if this is really basic for people but it might serve some use for novices.

firstly grab this plugin or similar.

http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=18 its free!

the enveloper in logic can achieve the same results roughly.

ok so envelopers and transients designers can really increase the loudness of your drums or overall mix by letting you adjust the attack of a sound to decrease the peaks. You can also boost sounds that are lacking punch.

most common problems when mixing drums are that spiking occurs and its usually snares (not always).

so in really simple terms the transient shaper or enveloper will let you add attack to a snare or any sound without you losing too much power and you can also do the same to add power to a sound that lacks dynamics.

dont draw for compression straight away as this will only amplify the peak!

so a plugin chain could look something like

EQ>Enveloper>Overdrive (optional)>Compression>Multimeter

im really shit at writing so i hope you can at least grab the essence and do some research.

J

Biggups J Sparrow. I cant stop listening to your tunes mate, I'm a huge fan.
I use a lot of the same technique you have described here. I usually reach for a transient shaper before a compressor these days... But it depends on the sound at hand, and what your going for. Could be artistic or technical reasons.
I can also recommend the Shaack Audio transient shaper. http://www.schaack-audio.com/transientshaper.html Its a beast.
Also saw you listed it but Logics enveloper is a underestimated tool, even with sample clearup (taking reverb out of something without using a gate, it sometimes gets better results)

Cheers- Dep

massive +1 for Shaack, its what reso uses Huge fan sparrow keep up the good tunes!!

A wealth of golden advice here DSF'ers, Listen up

+1 for shaack transient designer. Came across that plug in from reso using it in his materclass video. Anyway can anyone possibly explain why the transient designer typically comes before a compressor? I know this is typically the order but just wondering why that is.

Thank you.

jack sparrow1 wrote:

didn't say anything bout the master output

Right, misunderstood a little there

I was going to say, of all the plugs you could have used on the master channel, overdrive and transient shaping?

Wasn't going to diss until I'd tried though!