Share your dirty secrets

[morbid]

As the title says, I want to know tricks or techniques used in your productions

Anything unique to the way you work or something youve picked up, might be really simple or complex, anything from workflow to techniques on any format / setup. Be nice if some of the more experienced producers on here could chip in

Ill start (mines probably basic as **** but Im still learning)

1st rule of fight club - Dont start on anything until the missus and kids are asleep

http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs27/f/2008/094/0/3/Ableton_Live_Keyboard_Shortcut_by_wildtek.png

Link above is a wallpaper with most common Ableton shortcuts on it - has sped up my workflow so much

Stereo widening with delay: On hats and bright percussion adding a few m/s of delay just seems to pan the sound really well without it sounding hard panned either way. Im on Ableton so just add a simple delay to the track, turn dry/wet to 100%, unsync the left and right channels and set one or the other to between 1 + 10 ms delay.

Background Ambience: Depends on what you produce but I like to add some background noise to my stuff. Usually some really Hi passed hiss or recorded ambience like street noise set well in the background and automated so it grows and swells across the track. I also punctuate tracks with occasional stabs of white noise / hiss

Lets have yours

[curly]

here is a quick one from me,

Dont live in a bubble, make sure you listen to plenty of music by other artists.

[Jay Pace]

I run all my drums parts and synths through my sherman filterbank, and it gives me buckets of noise, ambience and movement that I can filter and layer in the background, or just beef up the parts with.

I use stereoizer to create space, and create widened layers of synth sounds with slightly different processing than the main un-widened part. Makes for some big rich synth noises.

Lastly, I get stuff mastered. If you haven't got stuff mastered yet, do it! You'll be amazed how good your own productions sound once they've been professionally mastered.

[DannyBlack]

Hmmmm... I'm not really sure what I do- I think compared to everyone else I do it arse backwards.

I start with a kick pattern, move to my percs and stuff. Then I get distracted, then bored and start a new one... ADD at it's finest :-\

[aimlessaudio]

ditto

[Mattias_Fridell]

I'd say the best trick is to dip your hands into lots of different styles, that's what I've done the last 10 years. It keeps me motivated, and I find new ways of doing things and I can apply that experience on my regular Techno.

Producing some Dubby Techno or slow beats with electronica elements or very melodic music is very meditative for me and gives my mind peace, gives me energy to keep on slammin with those harder beats.

[Esox Lucius]

im a flasher, except i wear a sock on me cock.

[rhythmtech]

im a flasher, except i wear a sock on me cock.

while this isnt exactly a "production secret" i'll allow it to stay as it may be used for inspirational purposes...

[rhythmtech]

heres a little synth tip

for fatter synths - set up an aux fx channel with a microshifter on it (soundtoys chrystalizer or audio damage discord). set the micro shifter to -12 cents on left and +12 cents on right and then delay by about 5/6 ms.

send some of the synth to the aux channel and voila, instant fat synth.

also works beautifully on vocals and strings.

[Mattias_Fridell]

Thats great tip rhythmtech, Im doing this pretty often as well.
I used lots of audio damage stuff in general, the discord ones are really great to fat stuff up.
I can sit for hours with some synths and discord efx and just tweak and tweak and sequence while I record it all. Then I chop it up and use the parts I like best and toss it back in to a production, pitch around with it and chop it up even more.

[The Teknoist.]

I like to start early morning, around 9am after an hour run and quick work out. Vitamins taken and cup of tea ready...

Hopefully by then, im feeling perky and positive and wanna get cracking! As we all know thats not always the case with us but i find this routine helps a lot.

When im unable to write in track format, then i do some sound design (either for an ad or short film iv been asked to do) or mainly just for backing up myself with some gnarly ****ing growls and glitches for future projects (musical or not).

persevere past the 1st couple of hours and try chipping away at your original idea instead of scrapping it straight away (im a bugger for this though but when manage to stay ontop of it it usually produces results)

iv recently detached myself from all sides of polotics (good AND bad) as i just want to write a couple of albums (core-esque and techno) without constantly having to reply to agents, fellow artists with my opinion on how someones behaving etc... im sick of watching people fighting over scraps... so basically if you want to just get down into it and driven then kinda detach yourself from 'the business' so to speak.

yes, definatley and this should be a no brainer but listen to all genres, i find having to encourage people to do this silly as its what iv always done... why the hell wouldnt you?

make NOTES! the second you think em about ur tracks, whether stuck in the middle of writing because u could forget that in an instant.. like a constant improvement/addition journal for each track your on.

One thing that im now tending to agree on a lot mre also is if it doesnt fit/work properly in ur track with minimum effort/go to chains etc, then try a different noise etc.

These are all text book i know, just ones that are staple in my everyday conversations with my computer.

thought id add as im sat awake with a bad back (new studio chair NEEDED FAST) and chest pains which i dont like very much keeping me awake, evern after codeine, daizepam and zopiclone....

.. wurrd to duh big birrd

miike

[Jay Pace]

Went and saw ben klock on the weekend

A proper night out is inspiring. Really good to take back to the studio what you felt in the club. Remember how the bass hit, how the highs sizzled. Been really productive this week having had a ****ing good night out. Must do it more often.