Music Production / Artist Thread

Lets start a Music Production Q&A / Tips & Tricks Thread!

I am a producer/signed artist with over 10 years of music production experience.
I work in the music business and make a living from selling my music digitaly online and on physical CD's.
My body of work covers Electronica, Ambient and Rock music amongst other genres.

Figured it would be a cool thing to start a thread where people could share their tips for a great mix, good mastering or production tips or even how to promote your band online and where to sell your stuff.

If you're starting out or if you're just someone looking for some inspiration, I hope i could be of help and hope that others can contribute to the discussion by exchanging ideas and tips.

Let's refrain from self promotion and linkage if possible and keep it clean.

Production tip.
Keeping the low-end clean.

What really lifts a track and puts that "clean sound" on it is a clean and defined low end.

A lot of people talk about a "muddy", "boxy" or "boomy" sound.
Usually what that means is that the mix has a lot of instruments or samples that occupy the low end, especially 600Hz and below.

Here are some quick tips to clean up a muddy low end.

* Keep your bass sounds in MONO or define a Pan (no LFO, Phase).
* Dont let two loud bassy sounds play at once. If you have a kick going off at the same time as a bass is playing, duck the bass by lowering the volume of it while the kick is playing and bring the volume back up when the drum kick fades out.
*Hipass Filter EVERYTHING that isnt of any musical importance. A hihat should not have anything below 500hz for example. Clean your sounds.
*Define the bass. Peak filter around 400~800 if the sound gets overly boomy. Around 800~1kHz if its boxy. Run a Hishelf filter for anything above 10k. Pull it down to let other instruments breathe or simply lowpass filter any non-musical elements.
*GATE. If possible, gate any bass sounds that aren't directly audible to the ear while other instruments are playing. Be aware not to gate it too early as the song might sound tinny.

There are tonns of more tricks to cleaning a low-end. If you got more questions or have any tips please ask/share.

Have you ever contributed to VIPtronic?

Do you work basically with analogicaly or electronic equalizer and filters?

Been a pro audio engineer, worked with some bands everyone would know, live sound, recording studios, home & project studios, and post production for TV & Film and sold music for commercials & film over the past 20+ years. And I think those are all solid tips.

I'll add, couple tips that I think will help production skills.
Learn how to use a compression. I mean use your ear, don't just dial it to where you read about. That's a good starting point, but try changing the ratio while listening to your bass or kick. Listen to how it shapes the sound. I learned on hardware compressors and and I think it was easier turning knobs than trying to use a slider like some software compressors. If you only have access to software compressors, use something that works on live audio. I hate when you have to set it and then "render" it. I need to hear it live as I'm adjusting it to really dial it in. Personally, the RComp by Waves is my absolute favorite when it comes to VST comps.

General reverb tip. Use it on a send for the entire mix. Helps give it a cohesive finish. But use it very sparingly. I like to mix it to where it's just barely audible. You can experiment with pre-delay settings so you don't lose the punch of your mix. I usually start at 30ms and increase or decrease it until I hear the punch I and the reverb blend nicely.

I'll post more later if anyone wants.

As far as electronic filters/Eq's go. It really depends on the setting and type of music. In a studio I used Pultec EQ's that were rented for sessions, loved them but can't afford my own and you need a great signal path to wrap it in too like a pro console, not some Behringer mixer.

At home I work mostly in digital so I use VST's. I don't have a console at home. All my instruments are VSTi's except for the guitars and bass. I use midi keyboard controllers, not even synths. If your working mainly in digital, like electronic music, then keep it digital with plugins. If had unlimited resources I'd get a high end tube preamp and tube eq and tube compressor for recording vocals which would also need good mics to plug into it. But I would probably still use the Line6 amp sim plugins for guitar and bass. I recorded for years with amps and mics and the amps sims are so much more convenient and I love having all those different tones with out having to own a ton of amps and cabs and mics and the time spent trying mics & positioning them and having a good sounding room.

Enjoying this thread. Anyone else have anything to contribute?

Im an engineer. Production tip that I see ALL THE TIME with "producers" (or arrangers as they should really be called):

CHECK YOUR SAMPLE RATES (bit rates) and know how they work

ALWAYS use WAV or some other lossless codec. MP3s are the enemy!

Most sites that you post to will try to compress your file again, be aware of this and mix with that in mind. I would suggest putting a test file though first to see how it effects your audio.

Use graphic EQs when mixing and train yourself to know frequency tones. It will help in the long run.

Keep em coming! Big ups to !Lan// I'll 2nd the Hi pass :D

Do you autotune people's voices to make them sound better or cut and edit with technology, or do you record songs so that they're pure, like artists used to record on cassettes with real instruments and no drum machines and filters?

Maybe the question about autotune and the use of that could be a separate post altogether.  Could make a strong case for using it in certain situations (backup vocals or layers of harmony).  I use manual tuning like Antares plug in offers, melodyne has the same feature I believe.  I use it sparingly though.  Some groups I record do not have a singer good enough to be patient and get it right...or they write melodies beyond their ability.  If I am more confident that better takes are possible, I bring the singer back in and point out the flaws and try to give tips for the vocal exercises I was taught and the types of advice to get better results.  I have even tuned my synth to be a boring, straight sound and play the melody so the person can have the melody over the track and focus on their technique.  I encourage people to not be too proud to use the stuff I have at my disposal, but they should not let me get away with making it too easy.

My advice is to not use fake drums if you know someone who can play well.  I am a drummer and I use a metronome religiously nowadays.  I set it up so the rhythm section just tries to get a full take if the drummer is incapable of such consistency.  I work with people who have those deficiencies all the time.  I imagine most of us do.

In ableton, dithering usually messes with the sound in a way that I disapprove of.  Any tips about which dither to use and when?