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BEFORE WE BEGIN

sub·tle (stl)
adj. sub·tler, sub·tlest
1.
a. So slight as to be difficult to detect or describe;

subtly - in a subtle manner;


Hello forum,

I may not be the best producer or a good one at that. However one thing that I have learned is this:

DO NOT. Over complicate production. Dont always think "oh well this is a snare it needs to be compressed with a hard knee at this ratio with a limiter on the ding dong and some reverb on the doobly doo and lots of equing on the pooper scooper and a shit ton of distortion on the cock smacker"

NO.

It doesnt matter if your making dubstep, fuckstep, brostep, bengastep, robostep and whatever other step or genre of EDM my fat mother has shit out of her ass.

Make sounds. Subtly make them sound crisp and clean. Subtly make them the sound you want. Mix them slowly with other sounds. Get a workflow going. Make some dope drum loops, SUBTLY mold a bassline around it, create some keys for the background, and put a song together.

DONT jump in and start EQuing, compressing, distorting and whatever the SHIT else your planning on doing.

By over complicating things you are making production hard, when it should be fun and to be quite honest your most likely going to end up with a pile of unused channels, pointless CPU eating inserts and overall you wont be able to get anything done.

If you need compression or you feel it will help create the sound you want USE IT.
If you need distortion or you feel it will help create the sound you want USE IT.
If you need to EQ or you feel it will help create the sound you want USE IT.

Most of you know this, but some of us, like me for a long time wonder why we cant get a tune done or WHY we always end up confused and deleting projects.

SUBTLE TOUCHES ON EVERYTHING. EVEN IF YOU NEED LOTS OF FX, IF YOU DO IT SUBTLY YOU WILL UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU HAVE DONE AND GET THE SOUND YOU WANT.

That is all.

Implying one workflow or technique is right or correct for every producer.

Just because producer #1 does this a certain way and producer #2 does it another way, doesn't mean one is correct and one isn't.

Skrew wrote:Implying one workflow or technique is right or correct for every producer.

Just because producer #1 does this a certain way and producer #2 does it another way, doesn't mean one is correct and one isn't.

Precisely.

Create a workflow for yourself BUT dont always think I must do A B and C for every sound, thus complicating the workflow you have created for youself.

True. It's good to EQ and compress as you go along, but don't worry about fixing clashing frequencies until you're finished. I used to spend hours trying to get my bass and kicks to go together, pianos panned and getting the velocity of keys correct, etc. all as I put them in. I eventually found it much easier to do it at the end.

Another thing is, just because you made this dirty bass last night while you had writers block doesn't mean you have to put it in the song you're working on currently.

I can go on and on as well, but people vary. Some people mix with monitors, some with headphones. Some mix with console, some with the mixer within the DAW. Some use hardware to program drums, some just click it in the sequencer. Neither is incorrect, just preference.

i agree its worth being subtle most of the time to keep track of what your doing.. but if you know your plugins enough and your able to get the right sound spot on by using extreme settings with JUST 2 or 3 plugins.. then i would do that instead to save time and cpu (& for achieving certain sounds)
its the end result that matters.
if you over complicate things then you'll never end up finishing a track no doubt, keeping it simple is usually the way to go..
but i tend to get better sounds by doing super fine tweaks with extreme settings (since iv had a lot of practice doing this)
for example a massive amount of distortion doesn't always fuck up a sound, it can certainly do the reverse depending on the FX chain and the initial sound.
i think its better for the producer to experiment and try different/crazy things OCCASIONALLY.. i still always discover new sounds by doing this.
i couldn't constantly do everything subtly all of the time.

I had to learn this the hard way - when i started out i'd spend ages eqing drums and stuff before i'd even got the track started. Adding busses, compressors, automation etc. Before i knew it i was running low on cpu, i had pages of automation and was in a right mess.

Now i'm slowly building up a library of patches, presets and samples that i can go to quickly. Get the basic arrangement done, then mess around polishing stuff.

I don't always like to keep it simple tho - i do the exact opposite for sound design sessions. Crazy fx chains, tons of groups, layering etc, just try anything i can think of and see what happens.

I'm sorry but i'll have to disagree. To me all these subtle changes and complexity is what makes a great track.

antman wrote:we always end up confused and deleting projects.

I never delete projects. Even if its just a shitty loop or a pad or summat. I find going back over old projects and working on something I find a great way to just dive straight into making a track without sitting there like a dick thinking 'where do I start...?!'

You are subtly wrong

take his advice with a grain of salt
but I totally get what he's saying, my biggest production downfall is worrying about mixdowns more than the actual musical content, oddly I feel the need to mix the kick, sub and perhaps a main bass i like first before applying the icing, Next tune Im gonna worry about musical content than mixdowns, that shitll come later

who cares !! if it works for you then do that why are you telling people what to do?

masterchief wrote:who cares !! if it works for you then do that why are you telling people what to do?

Im not telling ANYONE what do.

Im sharing my experience that if you start simple and let your ideas develop, you will have a cleaner workflow instead of rushing into everything.

Im not saying its bad to have a tune with a bunch of channels and busses etc, what im saying is, take your time to get there.

Make your crazy over complicated sound and then bounce it and then just play the sample so it's not complicated. getme?
And I agree with Depone. If a song has all this stuff in it, all these bells and whistles that you don't hear in one listen and pick up on with each play, that really impresses me.

I totally agree. I sent a mix and master back to a guy and he was confused by it. I decided to do it again, affecting things as little as possible to keep the original sound there.

"Only do what you need" is exactly what I needed to hear. You can never have everything you want, but you can have everything you need. This is how I largely approach my economic decisions, so why have I not applied that principle to music and all other areas of life?

What I would conclude is that, as far as client satisfaction is concerned, Keep It Simple is good advice.

antman wrote:Dont always think "oh well this is a snare it needs to be compressed with a hard knee at this ratio with a limiter on the ding dong and some reverb on the doobly doo and lots of equing on the pooper scooper and a shit ton of distortion on the cock smacker"

actually.... that's an eerily accurate portrayal of how i sat down to make a track recently.... minus the distortion of course...

I think this is something everyone has to figure out for themself, i used to drench everything in reverb because it made everything fit together when i first started..after a whikle i realised i was only doing it to compensate for bad mixdowns..it all comes with time