First question... the splitting of the bass is done primarily to allow me to do different things to different parts of the bass - run my sub in mono, put a chorus on the mids, a stereo spreader or distortion on the top, for example - and not affect the whole thing. I don't want phasing on my sub or my mids running in mono. If you're creating your bass in separate layers like that then yes, it's basically the same thing. Although personally i'd rather have my bass be full spectrum (like, not missing the kick range) and just have it duck out via sidechain or not play at the same time as the kick. You don't notice any kind of hole in your bass?

Second question.. sounds like you've been given all the same advice i'd give. I do tend to mix a lot of crunchy, breaking glass type sounds into my snare (like claps, or even actual breaking glass) and that might really help it stick out.. as well, if there's a ton going on in my track I might sidechain a bunch of stuff to the snare to give it some room when it hits. Be careful though, many producers (myself included) tend to mix the snare too loud due to lacking clarity or having too much bass on their own systems so you can really create pain if you're not careful. I always a/b against a tune I know sounds good. And yeah roll the low end but having some 200 hz reppin in yo snare will give it a lot more heft.
Sorry if its the same as the advice you've gotten!

Thanks so much for the response! That Bass EQ cutting makes a lot more sense now! I will definitely try that next time I'm working on a track I suppose I never noticed a hole because I haven't been able to afford a sub yet, I know that really makes a difference for hearing how your bass really sounds. I've just been rockin it with a pair of Rokit 8s.

Also, I've been cutting off my snare at about 400 to 500, so I'll definitely try keeping some of that low in there. Thanks again!

P.S.

Your living in the bay now? Would love to book you for some shows out here!

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I'd really really really like to get a stereo field recorder. Wish it was in my budget... then I could record all the amazing things I hear on the road.
At home I use two AudioTechnica condenser mics in an XY stereo pair and it works pretty well. Sometimes the mid-side type pairing with an omni mic and a figure eight. I definitely record ideas into my cellphone, but I don't use the actual recordings, just the sketchy melodies I hum, hehe..

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Hardware - Macintosh QuadCore G5, Motu Ultralite 8-in8-out Firewire interface, Genelec 8030s with a Tannoy sub, Avalon vt-737 vacuum tube preamp/compressor/eq, Akai MPK-88 with fully weighted keys (best midi controller I've ever had), Rode NT-2 condenser mic, AudioTechnica 4050 and 3035 condenser mics, MicroKorg synth. I have a lot of instruments that are in storage back home in Vancouver, currently I'm down in San Francisco writing music so my kit is pretty minimal.

Software -
Logic 9, sometimes I use Ableton for edits and timestretching
Logic EXS-24 sampler
Logic plugins: (Compressor, Channel EQ, BitCrusher, MultiMeter, Spreader, Delay Designer, Space Designer)
Camel Space, Phat, Alchemy
AudioDamage DubStation
FAW Circle
PSP Nitro, VintageWarmer
Izotope Ozone
Orange Vocoder
Spectrasonics Omnisphere, Trilian
AudioAcoustics Lounge Lizard
SugarBytes Artillery, Effectrix, Unique

there are more but these are pretty much my go-tos.

these are all cross posted from the reddit topic now..



Oh, the mastering struggle. I guess the main tip on what's worked for me is the same tip I give to all beginning producers about anything - don't overwhelm yourselves with too many plugins. Install a few things and really learn the shit out of them, find what works for you. I'm not a professional mastering engineer, and a lot of my releases get sent to mastering houses eventually, but in the meantime, I've become a big fan of Izotope Ozone because it is an all-in-one suite, it's designed to work together, and the modules are even laid out in a logical signal path chain. So this kind of takes a bunch of work off of your mind cause you don't have to worry about the layout. In fact, I have to give an EXTRA shout to Izotope for releasing an excellent mastering guide that you can even apply the tips from to ANY program.. you can download the PDF from their website for free even.

Through reading this guide I learned about Snapshot EQing, where you can take a spectral EQ "photograph" of your favorite well-mastered track and compare it alongside your track. This would be my number one tip for easing the struggle - if you have a track that you know already sounds good, maybe by one of your favorite artists with similar instruments, go back and forth listening to that track versus yours until you get similar results. I've just moved into a new room that isn't properly treated and in fact doesn't even have a door, and I've gotten around the sound problems by doing a lot of A/Bing like this.

You have to be really careful with your limiting. Sure, you want it to be loud and banging like every other track, but you really don't want to over-squish and bleed all your dynamics away. I've gotten fantastic tracks in my inbox that were over-limited and it totally ruined everything. I make sure to skip through my tracks lots and make sure that the breakdown is lower than the drop, that the meters aren't constantly pinned at 0.

Also, I find that it sounds better when you've made sure that your mixdown has a lot of headroom. People say -6dB often, but some of my mixes are even quieter. According to some friends of mine the algorithms resolve better when they're adding up the math at lower levels. They could just be talking out of their ass, but from my experience they're right. (I'd love some super computer nerd to jump in here and actually explain or decry this).

And in the mixdown process, make sure you're actually creating stereo and the master will always sound better. It's impossible to as they say, polish a turd; it's also impossible to create a wide, deep, dynamic paradise from a mix with everything slammed right in the middle. I usually pan my hi-hats, do panning automation with my effects, use stereo spreaders on the high end of things, and lots of filters and other effects with stereo movement. Paying attention to the stereo field really improves the end product.

Multiband compression is also your friend. It can push up elements that would otherwise get drowned in the mix, even out spikes in certain ranges, and just generally make everything sound smoother. I find a lot of people (myself included) tend to mix our bass too loud, a friend of mine taught me to always push it down and leave it on the quieter side and you can always push it up later with multiband compression in the low end.

Last tip - if you do go for Ozone, I've found that the "loudness maximizer" sounds like garbage in every mode other than Intelligent II. For some reason that seems to work really well for bass heavy dance music. I will also admit to starting Ozone sometimes with the "Punchy Dynamics" preset and tweaking from there.

Ahhh, I'm guessing you are talking about syncopation. It's definitely worth studying music theory for this one, it has to do with placing beats/sound effects/hits on the non-obvious places (in between the even divisions of the grid). One of my favorite syncopation uses is to do "three over four".. programming my beats while still being in 4/4. This can give a really cool illusion of the music being at a different tempo.. example being my track Risky Rutabaga. Most people's tempo scanners in their programs can't even decipher the tempo, but it's actually 140 (the same speed as dubstep), just programmed in triplets.

So Noisia is essentially employing lots of syncopation, maybe putting bass wobbles in between beats, and also using quite a lot of sounds but not using that many of them at the same time. Another thing to think about is groove/swing, making it "in the pocket", so if you're making the bass wobble on eighth notes via an LFO, putting a wobble in and then applying a delay to it so it swings in slightly off the grid. Going just a little bit off the grid can give you a wicked swing.

I'm not the ubernerd, but here's how I understand it, mostly from reading one of Tarekith's guides a few times. The level your track hits on the master meter shows how much of your available digital space you're using. The more of that space you use, the more range you have between the loudest and quietest sounds in your mix. This is because it takes more bits of data to represent more minute differences in volume. (You can check that out by putting a bit reducer on a sound and setting it to 1 bit--a bit is a single on or off value, so no matter what sound you put into it, what comes out will be at the same volume.) So knowing that, I think if you mix somewhere really low (like -20db) you're not using all the digital space you have when it comes to reproducing the sounds. According to Tarekith's guide, each bit represents about 6db of dynamic range, so if your DAW is running in 16-bit mode and you mix at -12db, you are effectively producing a 14-bit file. Mixing at -6db then seems like a pretty good balance because you'll have headroom for mastering but you only lose 1 bit of information.

Basically, I have no idea about the algorithms, but you want to use as many of the available bits as possible when you're working, without clipping of course. The Tarekith guide explains this pretty clearly, it's here: http://tarekith.com/assets/DigitalLevels.html

I really love anyone who can work with complex progression, sculpt beautiful space, interweave melody and emotion into each piece, and of course create wicked bass! At the moment I'm really digging JmeJ, Nit Grit, Splatinum, NastyNasty, Stephan Jacobs, Gladkill, Fresh2Death, Simonoff and Actraiser. Originality? Both Eskmo and Vibesquad have such a distinctive and unique approach to music and are definitely huge influences. I don't tend to play live sets including many other people, but recently I've been working with MC Joe Mousepad who puts on a hype show with his Kaoss pad and that's creating a new dynamic. In the studio, Antiserum and I work some magic together for sure. NOLA - let's hope soon! Love that city!!

Just wanted to say thank you! This is 3 pages of WIN!

Thank you ill-esha and everybody who participated. We have reached the limit of questions we can expect ill-esha to reasonably answer in her spare time. This thread is now closed.