How best to make a tight tune

[Perej]

Hey,

So I'm a pretty big soundcloud fan these days, and I'm following a ton of UK producers who make tech/house/garage/dubstep etc.

One thing they all have in common is that everything in their songs is so well put together. The drums sound like your listening to them in the same room or something, even though it's upped on soundcloud which apparently degrades the quality.

Most of them use logic, is there something to this?
I just really want to know, is it really all about compression / eq etc? Or is alot of it about DAW/ soundcard / sample choice?

Cheers for any answers.

[Mexztah]

Its because their famous, their songs just sound better
On a serious note, its a mix of musical ability, a good ear, good sample choice and good use of EQ/compression etc. your DAW and soundcard shouldnt be an issue although some people say that certain DAWs have a different sound

[mthrfnk]

Hey,

So I'm a pretty big soundcloud fan these days, and I'm following a ton of UK producers who make tech/house/garage/dubstep etc.

One thing they all have in common is that everything in their songs is so well put together. The drums sound like your listening to them in the same room or something, even though it's upped on soundcloud which apparently degrades the quality.

Most of them use logic, is there something to this?
I just really want to know, is it really all about compression / eq etc? Or is alot of it about DAW/ soundcard / sample choice?

Cheers for any answers.

Imo getting the right sample and amount of compression works wonders.

[Basic A]

Its because their famous, their songs just sound better
On a serious note, its a mix of musical ability, a good ear, good sample choice and good use of EQ/compression etc. your DAW and soundcard shouldnt be an issue although some people say that certain DAWs have a different sound

Some people say Johnny Carson is the prophet returned too, doesnt make them right.

Most DAWs use the same backend engines to do their rendering, usually LAME codecs. You can literally assign your DAWs to all use the same render dlls. Itll work fine. So no, your DAW has absolutely nothing to do with it. Nothing. Get that out of your head.
Itd be like saying Casio claculators deliver more accurate math then TexInstruments, when youve input the same equation into both. Its not the calculator. Its the equation.

Moving on.

Soundcards. IDK what has lead you to think they have anything to do with rendering your songs, but soundcards only play a factor in the sound that comes out of your audio out when your listening to stuff, this is not the same as the render process. When you render a track, thats done with your PCs processor. The soundcard is only the connection between your speakers and your computer, nothing more. It will effect what quality you hear things when played back at home, but not the quality of the file your playing.
Analogy - If I had a turntable with a bent needle, the record is still perfectly fine, its the turntables fault the record doesnt sound good, but if I put the record on a different turntable, it will sound right still.

Finally - compression, eq, mixdowns. Yes. This is everything to do with why those tracks sound so professional. Its what seperates you from those artists your listening to. Go practice. Stop blaming your tools and WORK. Some of us have put 5-10 years into this and still work at it daily. Youve got all the time in the world.

If a footballer was shit at kicking, he'd hit his backyard up, and practice kicking, not buy a new football.

[Mexztah]

Its because their famous, their songs just sound better
On a serious note, its a mix of musical ability, a good ear, good sample choice and good use of EQ/compression etc. your DAW and soundcard shouldnt be an issue although some people say that certain DAWs have a different sound

Some people say Johnny Carson is the prophet returned too, doesnt make them right.

Most DAWs use the same backend engines to do their rendering, usually LAME codecs. You can literally assign your DAWs to all use the same render dlls. Itll work fine. So no, your DAW has absolutely nothing to do with it. Nothing. Get that out of your head.
Itd be like saying Casio claculators deliver more accurate math then TexInstruments, when youve input the same equation into both. Its not the calculator. Its the equation.

Moving on.

Soundcards. IDK what has lead you to think they have anything to do with rendering your songs, but soundcards only play a factor in the sound that comes out of your audio out when your listening to stuff, this is not the same as the render process. When you render a track, thats done with your PCs processor. The soundcard is only the connection between your speakers and your computer, nothing more. It will effect what quality you hear things when played back at home, but not the quality of the file your playing.
Analogy - If I had a turntable with a bent needle, the record is still perfectly fine, its the turntables fault the record doesnt sound good, but if I put the record on a different turntable, it will sound right still.

Finally - compression, eq, mixdowns. Yes. This is everything to do with why those tracks sound so professional. Its what seperates you from those artists your listening to. Go practice. Stop blaming your tools and WORK. Some of us have put 5-10 years into this and still work at it daily. Youve got all the time in the world.

If a footballer was shit at kicking, he'd hit his backyard up, and practice kicking, not buy a new football.

Lol, i didnt say that i believed it, ive just heard people saying that different DAWs lead to different sounds. Personally i think its a load of bull

[Basic A]

Haha nah man I know you werent giving validity to it, I was just kinda trying to make sure the OP knew that it was nonsense too, not telling you anything

[3za]

OP I had a look at who you follow on soundcloud, and you have very good taste. Those people make the stuff the do, because of the dedication they have to their carft. If you have the same amount of dedication you should be just fine imo. Always remember that it takes a lot of time, and effort to get that good, just keep moving forward.

[thatbennyguy]

If a footballer was shit at kicking, he'd hit his backyard up, and practice kicking, not buy a new football.

Best quote about music production ever.

[robinbanks]

If a footballer was shit at kicking, he'd hit his backyard up, and practice kicking, not buy a new football.

Best quote about music production ever.

man, I second that!

[Filthzilla]

If a footballer was shit at kicking, he'd hit his backyard up, and practice kicking, not buy a new football.

Best quote about music production ever.

man, I second that!

Yeah man, this is brilliant!

[JTMMusicuk]

I prefer the calculator analogy, just to be different

[Phase Down]

Its because their famous, their songs just sound better
On a serious note, its a mix of musical ability, a good ear, good sample choice and good use of EQ/compression etc. your DAW and soundcard shouldnt be an issue although some people say that certain DAWs have a different sound

Some people say Johnny Carson is the prophet returned too, doesnt make them right.

Most DAWs use the same backend engines to do their rendering, usually LAME codecs. You can literally assign your DAWs to all use the same render dlls. Itll work fine. So no, your DAW has absolutely nothing to do with it. Nothing. Get that out of your head.
Itd be like saying Casio claculators deliver more accurate math then TexInstruments, when youve input the same equation into both. Its not the calculator. Its the equation.

Moving on.

Soundcards. IDK what has lead you to think they have anything to do with rendering your songs, but soundcards only play a factor in the sound that comes out of your audio out when your listening to stuff, this is not the same as the render process. When you render a track, thats done with your PCs processor. The soundcard is only the connection between your speakers and your computer, nothing more. It will effect what quality you hear things when played back at home, but not the quality of the file your playing.
Analogy - If I had a turntable with a bent needle, the record is still perfectly fine, its the turntables fault the record doesnt sound good, but if I put the record on a different turntable, it will sound right still.

Finally - compression, eq, mixdowns. Yes. This is everything to do with why those tracks sound so professional. Its what seperates you from those artists your listening to. Go practice. Stop blaming your tools and WORK. Some of us have put 5-10 years into this and still work at it daily. Youve got all the time in the world.

If a footballer was shit at kicking, he'd hit his backyard up, and practice kicking, not buy a new football.

This times a million, it should be stickied to a thread for people who ask about different daw's and think soundcards make their mixdown better.

[skimpi]

Hey,

So I'm a pretty big soundcloud fan these days, and I'm following a ton of UK producers who make tech/house/garage/dubstep etc.

One thing they all have in common is that everything in their songs is so well put together. The drums sound like your listening to them in the same room or something, even though it's upped on soundcloud which apparently degrades the quality.

Most of them use logic, is there something to this?
I just really want to know, is it really all about compression / eq etc? Or is alot of it about DAW/ soundcard / sample choice?

Cheers for any answers.

mate that tune on your soundcloud is pretty sick, I dont know why you think some of these dudes tunes sound better than yours, just keep doing what your doing and your production will get better.

[Eat Bass]

while most sound engines are practically the same in all daws...the algorithms in which you effect the sounds with are very much different. so yeah if you put straight audio through any daw its all going to sound the same. but, after you complete a song with LOADS of plugins and such, each daw WILL sound different. but i mean thats pretty obvious. i just like to throw that out there when people bring up the famous daws dont sound different argument.

[Perej]

Hey,

So I'm a pretty big soundcloud fan these days, and I'm following a ton of UK producers who make tech/house/garage/dubstep etc.

One thing they all have in common is that everything in their songs is so well put together. The drums sound like your listening to them in the same room or something, even though it's upped on soundcloud which apparently degrades the quality.

Most of them use logic, is there something to this?
I just really want to know, is it really all about compression / eq etc? Or is alot of it about DAW/ soundcard / sample choice?

Cheers for any answers.

mate that tune on your soundcloud is pretty sick, I dont know why you think some of these dudes tunes sound better than yours, just keep doing what your doing and your production will get better.

Thanks mate. I don't know, I guess I just want to emulate them so bad. I am litteraly obsessed with tunes by Joy O, Boddika etc, I can't help but want to emulate them I guess, but then I have to remind myself alot of these guys use hardware or have just been doing it for years. I also keep jumping between Ableton, Cubase and FL because I can't seem to feel comfortable with any of them, though apparently the best stuff I've made has been in Cubase.. im just a bit confused I suppose.

[wayfarer__]

don't entirely agree. peoples heads work differently and differents daws work better for different kinds of people. I used reason for ages and always felt like everything coming out of it sounded "reason-ey". the technical aspects felt massively limited (no spectrum analyser, no "good" compressor". as soon as I got to grips with cubase and logic my shit got a lot tighter.

also, if you're using certain daws you can't do certain things. i.e. reason and using audio. Resampling was a bitch in the earlier reason versions (can't comment on the new ones) and my production values changed massive because of it and it just worked better for me.

same with vsts - some people prefer the way certain vsts work, others are just too damn complicated to be practical in getting a sound out quick before the idea goes stagnant.

essentially there are a handful of pointers that I can give to getting a tight riddim.

.Do what works for you - roll your tune out whilst the idea is fresh and work on tightening it up later. (the best tunes are the ones that almost write themselves)
.High quality sample sources are a must
.Test your tunes on various speaker setups... what sounds fat to you, might not to others.
.Cut everything below 150 hz that isn't kick or sub (generally speaking)
.Get a transient shaper.
.Look after your ears - come back to a tune the next day with fresh ears after a long sesh.

[Perej]

don't entirely agree. peoples heads work differently and differents daws work better for different kinds of people. I used reason for ages and always felt like everything coming out of it sounded "reason-ey". the technical aspects felt massively limited (no spectrum analyser, no "good" compressor". as soon as I got to grips with cubase and logic my shit got a lot tighter.

also, if you're using certain daws you can't do certain things. i.e. reason and using audio. Resampling was a bitch in the earlier reason versions (can't comment on the new ones) and my production values changed massive because of it and it just worked better for me.

same with vsts - some people prefer the way certain vsts work, others are just too damn complicated to be practical in getting a sound out quick before the idea goes stagnant.

essentially there are a handful of pointers that I can give to getting a tight riddim.

.Do what works for you - roll your tune out whilst the idea is fresh and work on tightening it up later. (the best tunes are the ones that almost write themselves)
.High quality sample sources are a must
.Test your tunes on various speaker setups... what sounds fat to you, might not to others.
.Cut everything below 150 hz that isn't kick or sub (generally speaking)
.Get a transient shaper.
.Look after your ears - come back to a tune the next day with fresh ears after a long sesh.

Cheers for that.

I still don't understand cutting though. Swear it's not that complicated even though everyone on here makes it seem like it is.
By cutting you mean putting an EQ on something and pulling down one of the markers where something's clashing right? So if a snare has a bit of bass on it that's accidentaly muddying together with the kick, pull the EQ down so that the bass sound leaves right?

[Electric_Head]

Perej - correct, but it applies to all elements.
Every element has it`s place and should be eqed as such.

[Eat Bass]

try panning everything hard right. the righty tighty, lefty loosey law applies to production as well. if you want a tight tune you gotta pan to the right.

[wayfarer__]

forgot to mention - using reverb with a stingy mindset is a must. swamping tunes in reverb may sound cool at the time but doesn't translate well to big systems.
what i found helped a lot is using buss channels (though you probably won't understand if you weren't entirely sure what high passing above 150hz was.
basicly....

using a send, group or aux channel, whatever it might be called in your daw for your reverbs helps you from swamping. (make sure you get a nice one like the lexicon pack).

also drum buss channels glue your drums, make everything sound a lot nice. send all your drum channels, to a single buss and stick something like the waves ssl channel strip compressor on it and compress everything to fuck. then raise the channel volume till it sounds nice and sticks everything together. you'll find you drums just sit better with each other and sound more organic.

also with your snare ting - this is totally dependent on your sample but ill just make some suggestions. you don't want your snare near the kick in the frequency spectrum. ideally, in dubstep you want to leave a fair amount of space between them so cutting freqs below 150 is a must. if your snare isn't cutting through, try taking a chunk out with an eq around 500hz. often a lot of wasted energy in that region. also get a transient shaper and drive that mofucker.