The Producers Thread: Production Tips, Tricks, Techniques & Questions
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Bruce
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I never understood the purpose
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I've only experimented with that years back. Pretty sure the goals are to check for phase issues, eq balance. Most interfaces have a mono switch for that reason. Maybe the overall thought process is that if it sounds well balanced in mono then a stereo mix would benefit and be easier to dial in?
the swede
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Sounds like thats it…. Mixing mono and if it sounds great when “turning off” mono mode…. It’s all good. Maybe it could save a bunch of possible troubles that is harder to pinpoint otherwise.
Otoh, like in Logic, the correlation meter thingy does help, at least it tells you that there’s something very wrong or it stays green and all is fine.
One other thought would be, if it sounds great in mono after mixing in stereo it’s a good thing because… how much we all want people to listen to stuff in great headphones or speakers… a lot of stuff is listened to in mono BT/Wi-Fi speakers… you know.. soccer mom in a hurry has to throw a snack together between the kids school and their soccer practice, so she’s on Spotify and her kitchen speaker.
(No… that would not be my targeted audience
)Another side note is that I noticed that going full on with stereo reverbs and delays for things posted to Instagram and whatever, tend to sound really weird out of the screen devices… it’s like “hey… listen to this with headphones or don’t listen to it, thank you”.
Boudoir Guitar
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All of this. Also for professional mixing of things that will be released for general consumption in all sorts of manner it is important to make sure that you haven't created a mix that makes no sense or sounds like utter garbage when played back through a mono source - it wasn't THAT long that you could buy a new car that only had mono playback system (I recall a stereo radio w/ cassette deck being an upgrade over the base mono radio-only system in a pickup my dad bought circa '90 or '91? A lot of mono TVs well into the '00s, etc.).
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Yep. And on the flip side, some of my favorite late 60's sounds were mixed for example - drums and bass taking up a side, and then vocals/other instruments taking up the another side, etc. So depending on where and what the stereo image you're hearing -- instruments could go missing. Mono it sounds great though.
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Top of the Charts: The Songs the Sound Engineers Use to Tune Your Stereo
The head of Bose’s acoustical-engineering team in Michigan walks us through the tunes that help make your car stereo sing.
fretworn
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I have been doing the mono mix thing lately… I find that if I go in the ozone10 turn on the mono button then run over to Waves NX w/ hp correction and room emulation to put on NS10s, I get the shittiest possible sounds… It’s great because I’m checking for kick, snare, bass, key guitar parts, melody.
IME, If it’s there in mono, it’s gonna be great when you go to stereo an even better when you get off those damn NS10s.
The error that this technique (headphone mixing) brought was a miss of the sub 80 Hertz stuff first pass.
Caught it in an analyzer later after I heard it on big monitors.
Learning
IME, If it’s there in mono, it’s gonna be great when you go to stereo an even better when you get off those damn NS10s.
The error that this technique (headphone mixing) brought was a miss of the sub 80 Hertz stuff first pass.
Caught it in an analyzer later after I heard it on big monitors.
Learning
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I love this story so much.The passage below just pure gold, and I bet there are a million
other instances in the creation of music we love where everything "wrong" happened to
create the best of all possible outcomes.
It reminds me that the best music (for me) is an art form and there is
an environment it exists it, arises in, is nurtured and impacted by--an environment that is
anything but clinical like a lab. The sterility of sound makes it seems like we need to make
music with white coats on, in a surgical setting, with everything in isolation lest the real
world make an impact on the Platonian Ideals of misconceptions.
I hope you read it and can take something from it like I have.
Taken from "Perfecting Sound Forever," by Greg Milner. Shout out to @State of Epicicity for hipping me to this stellar book.
other instances in the creation of music we love where everything "wrong" happened to
create the best of all possible outcomes.
It reminds me that the best music (for me) is an art form and there is
an environment it exists it, arises in, is nurtured and impacted by--an environment that is
anything but clinical like a lab. The sterility of sound makes it seems like we need to make
music with white coats on, in a surgical setting, with everything in isolation lest the real
world make an impact on the Platonian Ideals of misconceptions.
I hope you read it and can take something from it like I have.
Taken from "Perfecting Sound Forever," by Greg Milner. Shout out to @State of Epicicity for hipping me to this stellar book.
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State of Epicicity
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I love this story so much.The passage below just pure gold, and I bet there are a million
other instances in the creation of music we love where everything "wrong" happened to
create the best of all possible outcomes.
It reminds me that the best music (for me) is an art form and there is
an environment it exists it, arises in, is nurtured and impacted by--an environment that is
anything but clinical like a lab. The sterility of sound makes it seems like we need to make
music with white coats on, in a surgical setting, with everything in isolation lest the real
world make an impact on the Platonian Ideals of misconceptions.
I hope you read it and can take something from it like I have.
View attachment 11270
Taken from "Perfecting Sound Forever," by Greg Milner. Shout out to @State of Epicicity for hipping me to this stellar book.
Dude, that just reminds me how many producers really focus on creating mainly a great environment for the band, to get the very best performance, and worry about everything else without them around. Mike Clink talked about this on Pensado's Place.
I think there's a zeitgeist with every recording session; the vibe everyone comes in with, from Davy Vain having his band pull over to the side of the road on the way to with Paul fucking Northfield for their debut, and pep talking them to understand this was a once in a lifetime chance, to the producer for Forbidden's unbelievably awesome Twisted Into Form making passive aggressive comments after takes to let the band know how much he thought their genius was crap, you can hear all of that in the final result.
It's amazing to me what Milner is recounting here, because I've always felt Nebraska was an audiophile album!
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That’s also why it’s recommended not to work too hard on demos, trying to recreate it is near impossible. I’ve done it a couple times and despite doing it on better equipment with more experience, same damn presets/plugins/tones and ya just can’t capture the same vibe, or maybe the lack of experience is what caused that demo to work so well and you can never unlearn shit once you’ve learned it.
Bruce
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wowI love this story so much.The passage below just pure gold, and I bet there are a million
other instances in the creation of music we love where everything "wrong" happened to
create the best of all possible outcomes.
It reminds me that the best music (for me) is an art form and there is
an environment it exists it, arises in, is nurtured and impacted by--an environment that is
anything but clinical like a lab. The sterility of sound makes it seems like we need to make
music with white coats on, in a surgical setting, with everything in isolation lest the real
world make an impact on the Platonian Ideals of misconceptions.
I hope you read it and can take something from it like I have.
View attachment 11270
Taken from "Perfecting Sound Forever," by Greg Milner. Shout out to @State of Epicicity for hipping me to this stellar book.
Bruce
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Vibe is definitely one of the most important things, for sure. I have to add its way easier to lo fi a hi fi recording than the other way around.
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Love hearing the backstories about recording sessions. Another good read is Daniel Lanois' Soul Mining: A Musical Life.I love this story so much.The passage below just pure gold, and I bet there are a million
other instances in the creation of music we love where everything "wrong" happened to
create the best of all possible outcomes.
It reminds me that the best music (for me) is an art form and there is
an environment it exists it, arises in, is nurtured and impacted by--an environment that is
anything but clinical like a lab. The sterility of sound makes it seems like we need to make
music with white coats on, in a surgical setting, with everything in isolation lest the real
world make an impact on the Platonian Ideals of misconceptions.
I hope you read it and can take something from it like I have.
View attachment 11270
Taken from "Perfecting Sound Forever," by Greg Milner. Shout out to @State of Epicicity for hipping me to this stellar book.
Love his work and his philosophy on the whole process of recording an album.
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It is! Have it!
Daniel is my favourite Producer of all time. He ain't trying to kill the room to save the music
like so many Producers and Engineers assume you must.
He also follows his own instinctsand hunches. He's willing to do everything wrong in order to maybe stumble upon something
novel and unique that the Rulebook Followers will never understand.
fretworn
Rock Star
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It is! Have it!
Daniel is my favourite Producer of all time. He ain't trying to kill the room to save the music
like so many Producers and Engineers assume you must.
and hunches. He's willing to do everything wrong in order to maybe stumble upon something
novel and unique that the Rulebook Followers will never understand.
My wife’s nickname for me is “rule breaker” lol
fretworn
Rock Star
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OK, cool reverb EQ trick I learned yesterday… Many of you might already know it. I’m just slow…
I was mixing a tune yesterday… And caught a great video on the Abbey Roads reverb EQ.
EQ on Reverb Aux:
High pass around 500-600 Hz; -18 db slope
Low pass around 10,000 Hz; -18 db slope
Mid cut of ~2k, Q.7, -3dB
Like this… Not my photo
Definitely cleaned things up quite a bit. In a good way.
I was mixing a tune yesterday… And caught a great video on the Abbey Roads reverb EQ.
EQ on Reverb Aux:
High pass around 500-600 Hz; -18 db slope
Low pass around 10,000 Hz; -18 db slope
Mid cut of ~2k, Q.7, -3dB
Like this… Not my photo
Definitely cleaned things up quite a bit. In a good way.
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The best thing about this book (and thank you again, as I think it is one of the most insightful reads of my adult life!
)is that there is no objective, universal Ideal that is the perfect sound. Doesn't exist. People have been chasing it. We are still
chasing it (though this book has me questioning why we think we need to!)
Now we live in an era where a lot of sound/sonics we hear is more and more artificial---i.e., there is no real world analogue
for it, as t only exists in the virtual domain.
A simple explanation of it is---live performance used to be considered the perfect ideal, and capturing that was what was
deemed necessary in order to have "perfect sound." That led to perfecting our capture devices (vinyl, microphones, acetate,
binary code, the whole gamut), so we could perfectly capture the live performance of a singer or symphony. A perfect
sonic mirror to what was communicated and performed in the moment.
Now we are well beyond that, and in the studio we are creating sounds that we cannot reproduce in live performance without
taking the studio to the stage. The whole thing has flipped, and "perfect sound" is what we can manufacture in a virtual space
with Pro Tools in the studio, using all kinds of Virtual Instruments, copying and pasting our way to perfection.
The photoshopping of music. Not that there is anything wrong with that. It's where we are at.
I do wonder where we will go next..... now that we are chasing the Instagram/Pro Tools perfection that is an artificial
enhancement of reality..... but not really real in and of itself?
Will we return to reality, and see that as sufficient unto itself, or, as lacking, and then continue to try and MAKE reality
conform to our virtual ideals?
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