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So recently I've been listening to the Justice - Cross album (probably one of my top 5 favorite albums) in a lot of depth trying to highlight their production secrets and I just can't pin my fingers on anything (besides the huge amounts of side chaining lol//New Jack//lol). But seriously, it seems the whole Ed Banger crowd is so into sampling everything and then distorting the shit out of it. So I was wondering, what percentage do you think of the entire album was created with samples and what percentage do you think was created with in-DAW programs?

I started to question this because of the difference I noticed between the basslines of
Let There Be Light:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... SJ4WintrrY
and
Death From Above 1979 - Blood On Our Hands (Justice Remix):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... HR6BLSWpMQ


I know that the DFA remix wasn't on Cross, but that bassline seems almost midi'd in comparison from the Let There Be Light bassline.

I've read in various places that Justice used things like GarageBand and Cubase for their production but I mean, they really keep their production secrets quiet.

Anyone have some professional insight?

On another note, how much of your mixes are sample based? Because I've grown tired of how fake MIDI sounds sometimes.

Good article here which might interest, goes into some of their production techniques;

Justice Tell The Story of D.A.N.C.E.

Tekk wrote:On another note, how much of your mixes are sample based? Because I've grown tired of how fake MIDI sounds sometimes.

Sometimes 100%.

Okay cool thanks man

IIRC (and i might not), there was a big rumor that a cheap alesis compressor-- the 3630-- was used all over the justice record and lot of the Ed Banger stuff at the time.

that particular box does one thing well-- mangling drum loops. otherwise, it kills lows and highs and kinda pushes everything up front and makes things sound mushy.

which, in a fantastic way, is how alot of that justice record sounds. so.............. who knows.

Sharmaji wrote:IIRC (and i might not), there was a big rumor that a cheap alesis compressor-- the 3630-- was used all over the justice record and lot of the Ed Banger stuff at the time.

that particular box does one thing well-- mangling drum loops. otherwise, it kills lows and highs and kinda pushes everything up front and makes things sound mushy.

which, in a fantastic way, is how alot of that justice record sounds. so.............. who knows.

And Alan Braxe, Daft Punk, DJ Falcon...all the French filtered disco house guys at the time used the 3630. It's also got a very distinctive sidechaining feel to it, really get the sucking in and out of the drums.

Fun fact about the 3630 - it was recommended to Daft Punk in passing by techno legend Dave Clarke, who bigged it up so much they went out and bought one.

(I've got one myself )

^ I mean, if you've got $30 around, it's not bad for what it is. it makes an awful compressor for standard compression, but as an effect-- pretty hip.

Damn you fools...now I'm on eBay because I just got paid and am thinking...sounds fun for the cash...

Mine was £15. I don't recommend paying more than $30 as Shar has commented.

wub wrote:Mine was £15. I don't recommend paying more than $30 as Shar has commented.

Yea. I just offered 40USD on one..should have offered less, shipping is 13.

Tekk wrote:
On another note, how much of your mixes are sample based? Because I've grown tired of how fake MIDI sounds sometimes.

How exactly does MIDI sound fake if it doesn't have a sound?

Houston Weather wrote:

Tekk wrote:
On another note, how much of your mixes are sample based? Because I've grown tired of how fake MIDI sounds sometimes.

How exactly does MIDI sound fake if it doesn't have a sound?

It sounds fake musically because most people don't "humanize" any notes, it's really noticeable sometimes when people use sampled instruments and play note sequences that are quantised to a grid pattern (e.g. constant 1/4 notes) and have the velocity at like 100% for each note.

@Everyone talking about the Alesis - would you recommend picking up a used one to run synth work through, I've been looking for an external compressor for a while now, and something cheap and dirty to run chords/pads through would be nice.

mthrfnk wrote:

Houston Weather wrote:

Tekk wrote:
On another note, how much of your mixes are sample based? Because I've grown tired of how fake MIDI sounds sometimes.

How exactly does MIDI sound fake if it doesn't have a sound?

It sounds fake musically because most people don't "humanize" any notes, it's really noticeable sometimes when people use sampled instruments and play note sequences that are quantised to a grid pattern (e.g. constant 1/4 notes) and have the velocity at like 100% for each note.

@Everyone talking about the Alesis - would you recommend picking up a used one to run synth work through, I've been looking for an external compressor for a while now, and something cheap and dirty to run chords/pads through would be nice.

Thats not because of midi though is it? if you then bounced this quantised 100% velocity midi to audio would it become more 'real'?

midi sounds fake if you make it sound fake whatever fake means

Mason wrote: midi sounds fake if you make it sound fake whatever fake means

That was my point...

Okay, I can see that.
But OP said he was tired of MIDI's fake sound and preferred to sample.
But you can't always tell if something you sample is recorded or programmed

mthrfnk wrote:

Mason wrote: midi sounds fake if you make it sound fake whatever fake means

That was my point...

i see, i was kind of responding to tekk aswell

Been trying to nail that french electro vibe that you get from the ed banger crew and a few others, what I find hard to emulate as of late is the overall power and groove to some of these tracks, take for example one that J.A.C.K just uploaded:

Soundcloud

It could be overcompression as everything is almost brickwalled but i'd like to hear some other guesses for how the energy is achieved, I have some attempts but they aren't melodically there, just sort of general structure attempts:


Soundcloud

From what I can tell, disco hit samples, slap basses, overly distorted saw basses and chords seem to get me partway there... any ideas?

slow it down, it will pull it away from that more "mainstream" electro sound and go towards that french sound. Listen to old disco songs man, i did for basically the same reason hah.

invisibled wrote:slow it down, it will pull it away from that more "mainstream" electro sound and go towards that french sound. Listen to old disco songs man, i did for basically the same reason hah.

Hah, any library or artist suggestionsÉ

Like Houston said Midi is not sound.

Use better samples / processing or synthesize your own stuff.
Good sampling libraries like bfd have several samples for different intensity levels, so not just velocity.
Logic let's you do this yourself really easy, we did it in class with a bass guitar.